Independence Air vs Airtran, the gloves are off

[Ty Webb]

I'll give you a hint . . . . someone who knows how to make money in this environment, and whose initials are "J.L.".

 

[T45Flyer]

Question: Someone told me that Indy Airs CASM was something like .25 cents and when the A319's come it will only drop to .22. Does anyone have the real numbers, are these accurate at all, cause if they are.....Wow.

 

[Mugs]

I'll agree with Ty on this one. Jetblue crunched the numbers on this as well and concluded that a 50 seat RJ is the wrong airplane for a low fare type of operation. To charge low fares, you need more seats.

 

[General Lee]

It is interesting that Indy starts the A319 service to FLA rather than West Coast. That is probably because the planes would be in the air 5 hours each way, and maybe have a maximum of two roundtrips each (4 legs) a day---and against United's 120 or so Airbusses---Indy would lose on a frequency basis. It is great that they have A319s, the problem is that they don't have enough. Could a possible Chap 7 from USAir help that problem? Probably. The two weakest links they have right now are too many RJs(too high a CASM), and the LCCs and legacies lowering fares at IAD, keeping the fares and revenue low for the IAD market---their only hub (right now).


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[miles otoole]

Yeah that's right Indy will never make it because we have RJ's. Just because something hasn't been done before doesn't mean it can't be done. Maybe we're using what he have untill Airbuses replace all of our fleet.

Maybe you guys should have tossed JO's salad whilst you had the chance. All he told you was "Help me help you."

 

[Full of LUV]

Jennifer Lopez?

I'll give you a hint . . . . someone who knows how to make money in this environment, and whose initials are "J.L.".

J LO knows how to make money in this enviornment? Does it involve taking off her clothes?

 

[Full of LUV]

Actually other than the fact that AirTran serves Orlando and Tampa .... there is no direct relevance that I can see to Independence vs AirTran such as the thread title suggests. Independence Air is starting service to a bunch of cities that AirTran doesn't even serve. How is this press release indicating or suggesting Independence Air vs. AirTran as suggested in the title of this thread?

What gloves are coming off??

Independence is starting service to:

Knoxville - No AirTran service
Greensboro - No AirTran service (discontinued)
Huntsville - No AirTran service
Greenville/Spartenburg - No AirTran service
Columbia - No AirTran service
Charleston SC - No AirTran service

IMO..... this really is no different than any of the number of other city that AirTran serves that has other airlines serving a bunch of non AirTran cities. I could see the relevance if Independence Air was starting service from Orlando to a bunch of our markets, but none of these cities mentioned are markets in our system, nor do I see them becoming anytime in the near future.

Oh... and I agree.... go Indy. I hope those folks do well. Something I have seen with AirTran competing with SWA in both BWI and PHL... there is room for healthy competition, and plenty of dissimilar routes to profit on without killing each other.

And it works.

Maybe this was Indy's plan all along, but it seems like there would be more lucrative markets than the vacation crowd in MCO, especially if your hub is DC where the yields have to be higher.

Apparently airtran (or at least FL717) doesn't feel threatened by another new LCC in their hood.

But what do I know, if I was Indy management, I would spend $2 Billion buying back my own stock as an investment, oh wait, that was already tried and failed.

 

[Carl_Everett]

To charge low fares, you need more seats.

If that was true all LCC's would fly 747's.

The trick for Independence is to find a profitable mission for the CRJ. Maybe point-to-point is one of them.

 

[treetopflyer]

i think if you will check the website, youll see that the rj's are taking a more point to point structure with the addition of chs-mco gsp-mco and tys-mco also the rj is doing the tpa stuff out of those cities as well.

upper management says all the time at training events etc that there is no place at this airline for a fifty seater. (B.B.) so take that however you want but i really dont think they are so stupid as to think they can compete cost wise with the likes of JB and LUV with the RJ. but they needed to convince wall street and the BOD that they could. do we really need 17 flts/day to jfk/ewr/atl. probably not, they are only half full.

the bottom line is expect changes at independence air with routes and aircraft. over the next years this place will not look at all like it does now.

and yes, we may not make it. but like we said before we'd rather die on our feet than live to suck off jo.

 

[StaySeated]

I don't care about casm, snr, s&m, biswf looking for fat....or any other f'n acronym. Can't we just wish the indy guys good luck and hope all goes well? Take deep breaths and say it with me, "positive energy", "good cause", "wheres my beer"