Alaska demographics for merger?

[Smarta$$]

As far as DCA goes, I hadn't been there for years, just went there on a family vacation and got the impression that it had morphed into a primarily RJ airport.

Lots of RJ's. Airlines do this in DCA, LGA and JFK. Maybe more. They do it at important slot controlled airports to keep other airlines from using those slots.

 

[Smarta$$]

LOL! Guilty as charged.

I was debating from a weak position, but let's be honest about Barger's objections - he's only arguing for divestiture so that Jetblue can snag a few more DCA slots.




True, our opinions mean nothing. I found Parker's defense of maintaining all slots to be a reasonable argument - they currently serve secondary cities from DCA. If they divest and Jetblue acquires slots, they will merely be used to fly to markets (ie NYC, BOS) that are already well served out of DCA.

I understand your perspective on this, but put the shoe on the other foot. Let's say that another airline complains about how Jetblue has too many slots in the NYC area and should have to give some of them up. What will your response be?


Edit: I just read that the only route overlap between AMR and LCC out of DCA are to BNA and RDU. I haven't verified it but if that's the case, this is shaping up to be much ado about nothing. I could see them being forced to divest slots from those two routes and have someone else fly the exact same routes. But we all know that's not what Barger wants.

Airlines are not allowed to completely corner the market in NYC. That is why DL had to put some slots up for auction in LGA, and US Airways had to put up some slots at DCA a few years ago when they swapped slots with each other. They were both required to divest slots because they had too large a slice of the pie at each airport.

If JB trades for slots or aquires an airline in the future that allows us to corner an important market, we will be required to divest slots. We do not have that situation at this time.

 

[Andy]

Airlines are not allowed to completely corner the market in NYC. That is why DL had to put some slots up for auction in LGA, and US Airways had to put up some slots at DCA a few years ago when they swapped slots with each other. They were both required to divest slots because they had too large a slice of the pie at each airport.

If JB trades for slots or aquires an airline in the future that allows us to corner an important market, we will be required to divest slots. We do not have that situation at this time.

Slight correction. DL swapped DCA slots to acquire LGA slots from USAirways. They were not required to divest the slots. In order to do the slot swap, they had to divest a few slots for the feds to sign off on it. The only airlines allowed to bid on the slots were those with less than 40 slots.

 

[Smarta$$]

Slight correction. DL swapped DCA slots to acquire LGA slots from USAirways. They were not required to divest the slots. In order to do the slot swap, they had to divest a few slots for the feds to sign off on it. The only airlines allowed to bid on the slots were those with less than 40 slots.

That is what I was referring to. Sorry if that wasn't clear.