Merged Airline Will Cut Transcons, Shift CRJ-900s
Aviation Daily
05/23/2005, page 03
Steven Lott
The merged America West and US Airways plan to trim seat capacity about 10%, with a significant portion coming from US Airways' transcontinental network and the remainder from frequency cuts in both airlines' systems, The DAILY has learned.
Executives on Friday shed some light on the fleet and network plan for the merged carrier, which it hopes will generate as much as $400 million a year after the integration is complete. The combined airline's fleet will drop by about 60 aircraft from about 417 planes to a mainline operation of 361 planes (see detailed fleet and network table, Pages 7-8). Most of the fleet cuts will come from US Airways, as the airline expects to return 25 more planes to the lessor by yearend 2006, on top of the 46 planes it already announced would be cut.
Excluding the 25 planes leaving the US Airways fleet, executives told analysts Friday of their plan to cut the remaining 35 planes from the US Airways and America West. Of the 35 planes, 10 will come from America West and 25 from US Airways. About two-thirds of the 35 planes will be Boeing 737s and one-third will be Airbus narrowbodies.
The merged airline will eventually drop the 10 767-200s flying internationally for US Airways, as it plans to operate only Airbus A330s across the Atlantic, to be replaced in 2011 with A350s. Also figured into the tally are 13 more A320 family deliveries previously ordered by America West. America West deferred its other Airbus orders by about two years.
One of the biggest schedule changes will come in the transcontinental network. Scott Kirby, America West executive VP-marketing and sales, plans to cut US Airways' transcon routes to half the number operated last summer. Through the due diligence process, Kirby reported that US Airways' east-west routes have been a "significant loss-making entity in recent history." America West will do its part by dropping the remaining non-hub transcon routes, such as New York-Los Angeles.
The strategy is to focus on mostly local coast-to-coast traffic instead of fighting for low-fare connecting, transcon traffic. "We want to size the airline right for today's environment," said CEO Doug Parker. He sees no more significant cuts in US Airways' Charlotte, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia hubs.
The rest of the capacity cuts will be spread throughout the system from reduced frequencies and markets. The merged airline also will make some changes in its regional feeder network. There are now 38 CRJ-900s flying for America West, mainly on the West Coast, but 18 of the planes will move to the East Coast to replace some US Airways 737 flying. The 57 US Airways Dash 8 turboprops will keep flying for the merged airline, as Kirby said they are currently profitable and offer a lot of flexibility.
US Airways previously negotiated a deal to sell its MidAtlantic unit to Republic Airways, and Kirby expects that deal to go through, but nothing is final. As part of Air Wisconsin's $125 million equity commitment to US Airways, the regional carrier will replace Mesa Air flying for US Airways. Mesa, however, is expected to fly for the merged carrier under its standing contract with America West. -SL