Effect of Open skies on US carriers

[igneousy2]

I have been reading a lot of doom and gloom about the upcoming open skies agreement. It seems to me that it is going to be a great thing for carriers that are well positioned to take advantage of it. CAL, UAL, and US Air seem to top the list to me. It seems the EU airlines have more to fear then the US carriers do. With the exception of RyanAir, most of the other EU Carriers have CASMs at .15+. Lufthansa's is 19 cents.

 

[radarlove]

Yeah, but those CASMs are flying around Europe with the most expensive fuel in the world and ATC charges every sector. How much of the CASM from these carriers is Europe-specific?

 

[Hpilot]

From what I've seen the majority of foreign carriers treat their pilots far better than we're treated. SAS, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, KLM, Cathay Pacific, are just a few examples. All the airlines that were once great places to work have gone downhill. United, Delta, US Airways, Northwest, Alaska, and etc. all suck now. Just imagine the poor SAS pilot that's used to a nice hotel and a brand new crew car to use. Sorry, in order to compete against US Airways we're going to have to put you in a Motel 6. Transportation did you say? Oh, don't worry there's a Denny's right next door.

 

[Full of LUV]

Its about the yields

I have been reading a lot of doom and gloom about the upcoming open skies agreement. It seems to me that it is going to be a great thing for carriers that are well positioned to take advantage of it. CAL, UAL, and US Air seem to top the list to me. It seems the EU airlines have more to fear then the US carriers do. With the exception of RyanAir, most of the other EU Carriers have CASMs at .15+. Lufthansa's is 19 cents.

Don't have hard numbers to show, but the US market is a virtual goldmine compared to the Europe "domestic" market. Think skybus all over the place except with about 10 different names, that is europe. I have friends that expect to fly from Catania to Paris for a weekend and pay less than $50 each way, because they mostly can. They admit that they often spend more on cab money during a weekend trip than they do on airfare. You think us yields are low now, just wait until any two bit foreign carrier has unfettered access to the the us market.

 

[CHQ Pilot]

I think the the US-EU market may go through a bigger change than people can foresee. Ryanair has skirted under the radar about exploiting the Open-Skies agreement with what appears to be an alter-ego carrier. They feel they can almost give seats away and use in-flight gambling/revenue to make a profit all while flying from North American cities to Europe. I think the Open-Skies agreement was a major blunder on the part of the US. Honestly, I have no idea what the impact will be, but my gut tells me it is not good for carriers predominate in the North Atlantic. I have a feeling there will be a myriad of airlines that will be starting up to take advantage. Only time will tell.

 

[bluefishbeagle]

The effect?

Bye, bye American flag carriers. Like de-regulation it's effect will be like a slow cancer but fatal none the less.

 

[Little Bubba]

From what I've seen the majority of foreign carriers treat their pilots far better than we're treated. SAS, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, KLM, Cathay Pacific, are just a few examples.

... and how are the Cathay pilots treated?

 

[Vne]

Bye, bye American flag carriers. Like de-regulation it's effect will be like a slow cancer but fatal none the less.

BINGO!
thats the true effect down and dirty.
If I had another 20 years to go in this industry I'd be thinking of how this profession has changed since 1978. That should clear things up for ya. It wont be pretty.

 

[ironspud]

Couple of years ago my family of 4 flew from London (Stanstead) to Venice for $180 then 2 weeks later flew from Paris to London (Luton) for $114. All on Easy Jet. Cattle car I admit (especially with a bunch of drunk Brits)-but it got the job done. Rail was about 7 times that amount. Only thing as cheap was the week long Rental Car for $150.

Retiring in 6 weeks - and thus joining the "consumer" class - and looking forward to open skies, and the competition and low prices it will bring.