Bidding on LAG and DCA Slot packets

[XR650R]

Check this link out http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/ReAllocation/
Click on the links to see the anonymous bidders and their amounts bid to secure the slot packets. Someone has some deep pockets! The bidding is now closed and the results should be announced shortly.
My bet is SWA just wrote a check for $64 million for one packet in LGA and one packet in DCA.

 

[Flying the Line]

WestJet wins slot auction at New York’s LaGuardia

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Scott Deveau, National Post
Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011

WestJet Airlines Ltd. will finally make its way back to LaGuardia airport after winning an auction for a group of coveted landing slots at the busy New York airport, sources say.

The landing slots came available at LaGuardia and Reagan National airport in Washington, D.C., as part of regulatory requirement for a slot swap at the airports between Delta Air Lines and U.S. Airways. Two packages of eight slot pairs at LaGuardia and another package of the same amount at Reagan were made available.

WestJet won one of the LaGuardia packages, sources say.

The Dutch auction for the landing slots attracted numerous bidders, with the highest bids reaching $32-million for each of the LaGuardia packages and $40-million at Reagan, or $104-million in total. The auction was limited to new entrants and limited incumbents, and had attracted attention from carriers like Southwest Airlines Co., JetBlue Airways Corp., Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Allegiant Travel Co., and Sun Country Airlines, as well as WestJet.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it would not confirm any other winners until their agreements were finalized. It expects that process to be completed by Dec. 1.

WestJet has made breaking into the New York market a priority since it failed to make a go of it in its early years. The Calgary-based carrier said it aims to lean on its U.S. partners now, American Airlines and Delta, to make a success of regular service to New York from places like Toronto. WestJet currently only offers seasonal service to nearby Newark, NJ, from Calgary.

Tags: Transportation, Auction, Delta Air Lines, FAA, Federal Aviation Authority, LaGuardia, New York, Reagan National Airport, U.S. Airways, WestJet

 

[HighSpeedClimb]

Somebody didn't want SWA to get them....
Home > Business > Airline Industry > Airline Biz Blog
Financial Post: WestJet wins LaGuardia bundle






The Financial Post of Canada is quoting sources as saying WestJet Airlines has won the bidding for LaGuardia slots.
As we wrote in the previous item, it appeared the same bidder was the high bidder for both New York LaGuardia bundles and the Washington National bundle, each with 16 takeoff and landing slots sufficient for eight round trips a day.
The government's intent was to have two different airlines purchase the two LaGuardia bids, but provided an option as spelled out in the Federal Register notice of Oct. 13:

"An eligible carrier may, under our proposal, purchase only one slot bundle at each airport (while indicating preference ranking for each slot bundle as part of its offer). However, should one carrier make the highest bid on both bundles at LaGuardia, we proposed that the seller would have the option of accepting both high bids, thus overriding the one bundle per carrier proposal."​

If we assume Southwest Airlines is the high bidder who provided the identical $32,000,050.01 bids for both LaGuardia bundles, we would guess that the selling airline would prefer not to have Southwest buy both bundles.
That would open the door for the second-place bidder, the one that bid $17,600,001.00 in both cases. If the Southwest was the high bidder and Financial Post is correct, that probably would be WestJet.
The seller of the LaGuardia slots, whether it's Delta or US Airways, would be leaving $14,400,049.01 on the table to avoid having Southwest get all the slots.
On the other hand, is WestJet the high bidder at both New York and LaGuardia? The Financial Post reported Nov. 9 that the Calgary-based airline wanted slots at both slot-restricted airports.

 

[Flying the Line]

JetBlue wins other LGA plus DCA slots, according to reports.

 

[GlobeIII]

What report? Source?
Edit: Just found a source
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/20...n-flight-slots-fetch-100-million-in-bids.html

 

[On Your Six]

What a slam on Southwest. Don't they have more cash than anyone? They lost to JB and Westjet? Time to add bag fees so they can afford to bid with the new big boys (JB and WJ). When will there be another chance to buy more? Maybe during the next round of mergers, but they won't be cheap obviously. Congrats JB and Westjet, two of the airlines DL originally wanted to sell them to anyway.


Godspeed!


OYS

 

[Flying the Line]

General, Southwest bid what they were willing to pay, maybe your post is really about how much the others overpaid.

 

[chqflyer]

Doesn't SWA have some sort of code share deal with Westjet? Or do I have my head in my rectum? (Quite likely)

 

[GuppyWN]

Bummer.

Gup

 

[shootr]

If we're just gonna buy B6 anyway, what's the diff?

 

[$$$4nothin]

Well hurry up with it already will ya

 

[XR650R]

I'd bet SWA bid what they thought the slots were worth (to them). Maybe they're satisfied with the number of slots picked up through the Airtran acquisition.

 

[XR650R]

Well hurry up with it already will ya

Still digesting the last meal. No swimming or acquiring for at least another year...please!?

 

[On Your Six]

If we're just gonna buy B6 anyway, what's the diff?

That's an expensive way to get more slots, but a valid way. The key here is SWA won't get anything for free anymore, regardless of how many pizzas they buy for Govt agencies. And, it is a slam on SWA, they just learned you HAVE to PAY to PLAY at the really restrictive airports.


Godspeed!


OYS

 

[slaquer5]

Doesn't SWA have some sort of code share deal with Westjet? Or do I have my head in my rectum? (Quite likely)

No DAL took that code share from us. GL/ OY6. Say code share is good for DAL because it is flying that the DAL pilots do not want to do anyway.

 

[GlobeIII]

Say code share is good for DAL because it is flying that the DAL pilots do not want to do anyway.

DAL pilots don't want to fly to Toronto? Why not is it the Lubbock of Canada?

 

[General Lee]

No DAL took that code share from us. GL/ OY6. Say code share is good for DAL because it is flying that the DAL pilots do not want to do anyway.

I think there may be some sort of codeshare with Westjet, but no flights from any real base except LAX, and that is only to Calgary. The flights from LGA will probably go to Toronto, and I think we used to fly there via Comair, before they totally fell apart. Onward connections in Toronto on Westjet could not be longhaul INTL, since they don't do that. They may have some connects to smaller Canadian cities that Delta isn't interested in flying to from New York LGA.

How is your codeshare with Volaris going? I guess you guys don't want to go to Guadalajara from MDW or OAK? It's not a big enough city for you I guess.

And as OYS stated, what a complete slamarama on Southwest for your lowball offer for the most covetted slots in America, at LGA and DCA. Your guy incharge of that bid might not get a bonus this year.......


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[General Lee]

DAL pilots don't want to fly to Toronto? Why not is it the Lubbock of Canada?

I think either DL or our DCI operators fly to YYZ from ATL, CVG, DTW, and MSP. We used to fly MD88s there, but Route Planning probably found a better place to put them to make more money, something you guys didn't really do last quarter because your hedges were off, a lot. I don't think the Southwest guys are qualified to go there even if they wanted to. You had better ask the ex-Airtran guys to show you the way.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Bill Nelson]

I think there may be some sort of codeshare with Westjet, but no flights from any real base except LAX, and that is only to Calgary. The flights from LGA will probably go to Toronto, and I think we used to fly there via Comair, before they totally fell apart. Onward connections in Toronto on Westjet could not be longhaul INTL, since they don't do that. They may have some connects to smaller Canadian cities that Delta isn't interested in flying to from New York LGA.

How is your codeshare with Volaris going? I guess you guys don't want to go to Guadalajara from MDW or OAK? It's not a big enough city for you I guess.

And as OYS stated, what a complete slamarama on Southwest for your lowball offer for the most covetted slots in America, at LGA and DCA. Your guy incharge of that bid might not get a bonus this year.......


Bye Bye---General Lee

I guess you assume that their isn't already a plan in place for additional slots cheaper now that our competition just overpaid? AA and Republic will be divesting slots in the next 90's unless something miraculous happens for both carriers. Most likely at a better price than what JetBlue just paid. Gary Kelly has not made many blunders in his time at the helm. I'd bet their is a bigger plan in play here.

 

[slaquer5]

And as OYS stated,

Bye Bye---General Lee

Now that's funny ....