Southbound said:
OF course the flights are full, of course we still made some money. I can read the financial results. I know the flights are full and the Q400 has a wonderfull CASM......BUT, we have lost customers because of the reliance on the Q400.
What the hell does market share have to do with making money!? If we've lost some pax to SWA because of the Q400, we must've gained at least that many from other sources because the flights are going out full. RASM > CASM = company making money = me not giving a sh!t that we have 50% market share rather than 60% because we fly a prop.
Southbound said:
For the record the Dash DOES NOT COMPETE WITH JETS on a flight by flight basis in Montana. If you want to fly from Butte to any number of smaller cities in the Northwest you would not connect in PHX or MSP so no, you do not have any direct competition.
Well if you're going to limit the comparison to small cities in the northwest connecting to Montana, you're right, there's no real competition. Not many companies are scrambling for the lucrative LMT-BTM business. What's your point? We still have plenty of people connecting from SoCal & points east when they could've connected to Skywest and been flying on jet equipment to: Kalispell, Missoula, Helena, Great Falls, Bozeman, Billings. We're competing effectively.
Southbound said:
You may have been offended by my "Q"400 bashing and missed the point. In some markets the airplane is a money making machine but when faced with direct competition from a jet and especially a real jet like a 737 the Q400 is better left at the maintence hanger plugged into it's DC power because it has cost the Air Group market share.
If Alaska is flying a 144 seat 737 in a market and only getting 75 passengers, AAG is losing money. Put a Q400 on the market and 15 people storm off in disgust that there's a turboprop on the route. Okay, we've lost market share - but with 60 passengers on a Q400, AAG is making money. We'll cry the whole way to the bank.
Southbound said:
I have sat by more passengers then I care to recount who have sworn off Horizon. They say they love our product, love the free booze the nice snacks and they will never fly the "400" again. These are passengers who call the airplane by name and avoid it at any cost. I once sat by a guy flying from Seattle to Billings on a Q400 substitution for a Fokker who was so mad and so scared about flying on the megawhacker he couldn't function. You don't get some passengers back. It costs us market share. Southwest builds markets that were not there previously. They create new demand because of their low prices, frequent flights and reliable service. Horizon has never created demand with the Q400. That's what kills me. Horizon has a better product than most majors but they refuse to develop it and with the 400 in SOME markets, they actually hurt our chance of growing and creating demand. Why do you think our seniority list has the same number of pilots it did 8 or 10 years ago.
I'm a newbie at this company, I wasn't around for the glory days of the F28 so I have no reason to be bitter over its passing, closing BOI, etc. Call me a koolaid drinker, whatever. But it is rather seldom that I hear complaints over getting on a turboprop when passengers are boarding or deplaning. Usually when I do, it's on LAX-SUN or LAX-MFR. Good luck finding a direct jet flight, folks. Heck, I've listened to complaints about small seats while non-revving on the CR7.
So far as the company not growing, I can guarantee they'd be growing even slower if still saddled with gas-guzzling F28s. At these fuel prices you'd need them packed to make money, and I seriously doubt that the allure of jet power is going to entice that many more people to fly us.
