Colgan Air Is Pulling Out of La Guardia

[kf4amu]

Another question. Why are there 4 or 5 regional airlines flying for one airline? Piedmont, AWAC, Colgan, PSA are some of these examples flying for US Airways.

So they can whipsaw each pilot group against each other to get the lowest possible cost, which has translated into the least experienced pilots getting the quickest upgrades since they are at the bottom of an already abysmal pay scale.

 

[flap operator]

Huh... Colgan pulling out of LGA and nobody knows where those saabs are going. Hmmmm... I know an airline parking saabs. Maybe DL would like Colgans cost structure and product better than Mesabas.

 

[CutEmUp]

Frankly, since SWA started going to LGA about 6 months ago, I've been amazed at how many smaller planes go in and out of there. seems that if you have one of the largest cities in the world, you'd want to use your slots with big planes that seat more peeps. maybe some of the legacies are deciding that having a 19 seater go into LGA on one of their slots isn't the best use of that asset . then again, maybe it is something completely unrelated.

On the USAir side, the smaller aircraft are used to protect the slots in LGA. It just so happens that Piedmont and Colgan can protect the slots at a much lower cost than an RJ.

I believe that LGA has become nothing but a huge cost to Airways (other than the Shuttle). Management is just doing everything they can to protect the slots so that they can sell/trade/barter these slots later (i.e. Delta).

 

[firstthird]

that makes sense.

 

[Minimaniac]

Don't forget that NYC has a high number of originating passengers. Many of these people are travelling within the Northeast, which means very short flights to anywhere. Many of these markets (Ithaca, Utica, Harrisburg, Martha's Vinyards) cannot sustain a mainline aircraft, or even a larger RJ, but there is daily demand for the service. The props make sense out of LGA given the markets served and the type of passengers (regional business travellers).

 

[firstthird]

only if you are charging outrageous fares. My point is that every 1900 is one less 737 or A320 that can go in and out of LGA. those 19 pax would have to pay A LOT more money per seat to make it worthwhile. then again, maybe businessmen are doing that.

I guess I figured it was part of a hub-and-spoke type of methodology, get them to LGA and then send them where they are going (if it isn't NYC). guess we won't know anytime soon since the legacies go apoplectic anytime a slot auction is proposed or changing the fee structure to something more rational.

then again, since we only fly 737s, anything that would be cheaper for us is 'rational' in my lexicon.