Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest aviation Ccmmunity on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, promote aviation
  • Share the passion for aviation
  • Invite everyone to Flightinfo.com and let's have fun

AirTran delays delivery of aircraft

Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends
  • Share the passion of aviation
  • Friendliest aviation community on the web
Register   Log in
M

meanstreak

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 29, 2001
Posts
242
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060927/1351658.html?.v=1


bizjournals.com
AirTran delays delivery of aircraft
Wednesday September 27, 9:07 am ET
Low-fare carrier AirTran Airways Inc. announced plans to delay the delivery of eight Boeing 737 aircraft that were scheduled to be delivered in 2007 and 2008.
The Orlando-based airline, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI - News), says it is pushing back the delivery of five the 19 aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2007 and three of the 18 aircraft planned for 2008. They will now be delivered sometime between 2009 and 2011.
The airline did not make any changes to the delivery of the 20 aircraft it is scheduled to receive this year.
The carrier flies about 700 flights per day to 50 destinations and employs more than 7,500 people.
Published September 27, 2006 by the Orlando Business Journal</I>
 
The reason is probably gate space. Nowhere to put the new planes. Gates in ATL are very hard to get. Currently adding more gates on D-con, but even that isn't enough. Mgt. is probably looking to have the aircraft deliveries coincide with the new gates the airport has plans to build.
 
I like the new delivery schedule for one reason: it buys us time. If you looked at the old delivery schedule, our deliveries were spiked in 07 - 08, and tapered off quickly in 09 - 10. That left growth being +20% in 07 - 08, and dropping sharply in 09 - 10. Assuming the company wants to keep growing, the sharp drop off would have required some fleet planning for the 09 -10 years to keep the growth going.

Now, however, with the deliveries spread out a little farther, thru 2010 -11, and a more even schedule, any fleet planing decisions can be pushed back a bit. The company has said they don't want to order any more 737's, but would rather wait for the 737 replacement that Boeing is just now starting to design. That would put the time frames about right.
 
Have there been any rumors about potential new domiciles for AirTran? I'm flying on AirTran from BWI to DAY tomorrow and noticed they have quite a few daily departures from BWI.
 
Wasn't there a JB thread like this six months ago. Come on everyone. Bash the hell out of 'em. The party's over...bankruptcy...furloughs. Let 'er rip.
 
DonVerita said:
The reason is probably gate space. Nowhere to put the new planes. Gates in ATL are very hard to get. Currently adding more gates on D-con, but even that isn't enough. Mgt. is probably looking to have the aircraft deliveries coincide with the new gates the airport has plans to build.
Click to expand...


I agree...working in OPS I can tell you we are stretched very thin....management is currently working with the airport on converting some C gates so we can accomodate all of these 737's.....maybe moving or getting rid of one to make more space.....only 5 gates on C can accomodate them right now and the gates on D aren't much more help.....being "common use" gates as the airport calls them now we're still sharing with Air Canada, Frontier, Midwest, Continental and even Northwest of late.

Planning the departures for every week I commonly run into problems especially in the morning and also during our 9:00pm push every night.....trying to make sure same time departures aren't next to one another or parking a 717 in a 737 gate during busy times....what now 33(?) 73's in the fleet? Nothwest and Continental's leases on their gates don't expire till 2010 so we're just out of space in ATL
 
Citrus531 said:
I agree...working in OPS I can tell you we are stretched very thin....management is currently working with the airport on converting some C gates so we can accomodate all of these 737's.....maybe moving or getting rid of one to make more space.....only 5 gates on C can accomodate them right now and the gates on D aren't much more help.....being "common use" gates as the airport calls them now we're still sharing with Air Canada, Frontier, Midwest, Continental and even Northwest of late.

Planning the departures for every week I commonly run into problems especially in the morning and also during our 9:00pm push every night.....trying to make sure same time departures aren't next to one another or parking a 717 in a 737 gate during busy times....what now 33(?) 73's in the fleet? Nothwest and Continental's leases on their gates don't expire till 2010 so we're just out of space in ATL
Click to expand...

So what is the word on a new base?? We need to grow away from Atlanta.
 
A couple of managers have been throwing around BWI to me.....we'll be at around 240 daily departures out of ATL in the next 2 months....and the goal for 2007 is to approach or eclipse 300+.....

In '07 we'll see at least 5 new cities and at least one more base if they want 300 flights for Atlanta....that'd put us at 30+ overnighting airplanes and last time I checked we lease or share about 32 gates.
 
Has Cust Service thought about a van to run between concourses for tight connectors ? How bout we bring that up at the next management meeting.. Jack and Rick ought to work that out ..
 
Citrus531...

A rumor is going around that Mgt. was in TPA looking at buying or leasing the former US Airways big hangar. This would also be used for Heavy MX checks. Could that coincide with a TPA pilot base since obviously more aircraft would have to be routed through TPA for MX. We all know either MCO or TPA needs to be a base.
 
mnboyev said:
Has Cust Service thought about a van to run between concourses for tight connectors ? How bout we bring that up at the next management meeting.. Jack and Rick ought to work that out ..
Click to expand...

Yeah I believe it's been mentioned because we told them we attempt to do that with crews sometimes....we'll call and have the safety van waiting at the bottom of the jetway so we can cut down some time there....

All of the station holds we put in for pax with tight connections have been getting looked at very closely of late.....the pax will get there normally in the alloted time but the bags still seem to take forever...I know Greg on the ramp is looking at ways to fix it...."Double OO", effective Oct 2nd will no longer be able to accomodate 2 717's because of a new area being put together for bag runners down there....a new area to sort connecting bags b/c the transfer point is really too small for us now....i believe up to 50 bag drivers will be in double 00 during the busy pushes trying to cut down on connecting bag delays
 
DonVerita said:
Citrus531...

A rumor is going around that Mgt. was in TPA looking at buying or leasing the former US Airways big hangar. This would also be used for Heavy MX checks. Could that coincide with a TPA pilot base since obviously more aircraft would have to be routed through TPA for MX. We all know either MCO or TPA needs to be a base.
Click to expand...

Yeah based on the fights I've seen for the jumpseats to MCO I've always thought it'd a base in one form or another.be it mx or crew or whatever...:) ....I'm constanly on the phone with the aircraft routers and they are looking at ways to experiment almost with some different routing of a few lines of flying to see what might work for the future
 

Share this page

Latest posts

Latest resources

Latest media

Carbon Cub FX-3 Shenandoah Valley
Carbon Cub at Kittyhawk
FX-3 in the backcountry
IFR Panel in a Carbon Cub FX-3
Cub-Provo-UT-c.jpg
Back
Top Bottom