NW to fight Frontier!!

[General Lee]

Northwest Announces Four New Daily Flights to Los Angeles From Denver And Minneapolis
Thursday December 18, 5:58 pm ET
New Nonstop Service to Start April 4


MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Northwest Airlines (Nasdaq: NWAC - News) announced today two new daily nonstop flights between Denver and Los Angeles International Airport, and two additional flights between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Los Angeles International Airport. Service on the routes will begin April 4, 2004.
"The additional nonstop service between our Minneapolis/St. Paul hub and our Los Angeles gateway, as well as between Los Angeles and Denver will provide added convenience for Minneapolis/St. Paul, Los Angeles and Denver customers," said Tim Griffin, executive vice president, marketing and distribution.

The service is available for sale immediately.

Travelers in these cities using Northwest's new and additional nonstop service also will enjoy the most self-service check-in options. Northwest's self-service check-in program is the most developed in the airline industry, offering customers the option of checking-in, obtaining a boarding pass, and performing many other functions over the Internet at www.nwa.com or through one of the airline's 779 self-service check-in kiosks in 188 airports. Customers can use nwa.com to obtain their boarding pass or visit an airport self-service check-in kiosk (101 at Minneapolis/St. Paul, 8 at Los Angeles, and 7 at Denver).

The daily flights are open for sale through www.nwa.com, Northwest Airlines Reservations at 1-800-225-2525 or through travel agencies.

New Denver-Los Angeles Service

Flight number: Departs: Arrives: Aircraft:

NW 959 10:30 a.m. 11:50 a.m. A320
NW 961 4 p.m. 5:20 p.m. A320

New Los Angeles-Denver Service

Flight number: Departs: Arrives: Aircraft:

NW 960 11:45 a.m. 3 p.m. A320
NW 962 6 p.m. 9:15 p.m. A320

Additional Minneapolis/St. Paul - Los Angeles Service

Flight number: Departs: Arrives: Aircraft:

NW 311 7:10 a.m. 9 a.m. A320
NW 317 3 p.m. 4:50 p.m. A320

Additional Los Angeles-Minneapolis/St. Paul Service

Flight number: Departs: Arrives: Aircraft:

NW 306 9:50 a.m. 3:11 p.m. A320\
NW 310 5:45 p.m. 11:06 p.m. A320


Northwest Airlines is the world's fourth largest airline with hubs at Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Tokyo and Amsterdam, and approximately 1,500 daily departures. With its travel partners, Northwest serves nearly 750 cities in almost 120 countries on six continents. In 2002, consumers from throughout the world recognized Northwest's efforts to make travel easier. A 2002 J.D. Power and Associates study ranked airports at Detroit and Minneapolis/St. Paul, home to Northwest's two largest hubs, tied for second place among large domestic airports in overall customer satisfaction. Readers of TTG Asia and TTG China named Northwest "Best North American airline."



Obviously brought out to fight Frontier's expansion from LAX to MSP. This will get interesting, and we will see how long Frontier or NW can do this.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Andy]

That took NWAC a long time to respond. (Not)

With NWAC making money on its' Pacific routes, I'd venture to guess that NWAC will be willing to lose money on this route longer than FRNT.

How long before AMR responds to the LAX-STL routes?

 

[General Lee]

Andy,

NOT LONG:

American Adds St. Louis Flights to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as STL Hub Turns in Strong Performance
Thursday December 18, 1:36 pm ET
AmericanConnection Adds Flights to Oklahoma City; American Says it Is 'Encouraged' By Early Results
Airline Enhances Checked Bag Procedure at C Concourse and Says All Jet Operations for American, American Eagle and AmericanConnection Will Be Consolidated Into C Concourse By February 2004


ST. LOUIS, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Encouraged by the first full month's performance of its restructured St. Louis hub, American Airlines announced today that it has added a fourth daily jet flight between St. Louis and Los Angeles and will begin operating between St. Louis and Washington, D.C., with Super 80 jets on Jan. 31, 2004.
In addition, American announced that AmericanConnection will begin service between St. Louis and Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport on Jan. 31 with three round-trip flights per day. The new flights will be operated by Trans States Airlines with the 50-seat ERJ-145 regional jet.

American also announced that it is about to introduce a key service enhancement for those checking bags for many of its St. Louis flights, and that all American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection jet flights will be consolidated into the C Concourse at Lambert International Airport by February.

"When we restructured the St. Louis hub on Nov. 1, we did so to improve its financial performance and to focus its services principally on local travelers and the markets that are most important to them," said Dan Garton, American's executive vice president - Marketing. "We also made it clear that we want to operate the hub for the long term and see it succeed, adding services and enhancing operations as the hub improves.

"The new flights and enhanced activities we are announcing today are concrete examples of where we would like to take the St. Louis hub in the months and years ahead," Garton said.

American added the fourth St. Louis-Los Angeles nonstop flight on Dec. 15, using Super 80s jets with 16 First Class seats and 115 seats with expanded legroom in Coach.

On Jan. 31, American will begin two nonstop flights a day between St. Louis and Washington Reagan National Airport, also with Super 80s featuring the More Room Throughout Coach configuration. Both flights will operate at times in greatest demand by local St. Louis travelers. American and AmericanConnection together will serve the St. Louis-Washington route with a total of six flights a day.

Starting next week, it will be easier to check bags for most American Airlines flights at St. Louis. A new system introduced at the curbside check- in area, and at AA Self-Service Check-In® machines, will allow customers to check-in, drop off their checked bags with American, and proceed directly to the security checkpoints. It will no longer be necessary for customers to carry their checked bags to Transportation Security Administration screening themselves.

Meanwhile, American, American Eagle and AmericanConnection are proceeding nicely with plans to consolidate all of their jet operations in the C Concourse by February. American now operates from 11 gates in the north side of C Concourse while American Eagle and AmericanConnection operate regional jet flights from 10 gates in the D Concourse. By February, all of those regional jets flights will be moving to 10 gates in the south side of C Concourse, making everything easier and more convenient for customers.

Together, American, American Eagle and AmericanConnection serve St. Louis with 210 flights a day to 68 destinations.

Following are the schedules for the St. Louis-Los Angeles and St. Louis- Washington, D.C., and St. Louis-Oklahoma City routes (all times are local and new flights are in bold):

From St. Louis To Los Angeles
Departs Arrives Aircraft Type
7:25 a.m. 9:33 a.m. Super 80 (Daily except Sunday)
8:35 a.m. 10:36 a.m. 757
12:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 757
5:00 p.m. 6:57 p.m. 757

From Los Angeles To St. Louis
Departs Arrives Aircraft Type
6:50 a.m. 12:21 p.m. 757
11:36 a.m. 5:10 p.m. 757
3:00 p.m. 8:29 p.m. 757
6:55 p.m. 12:24 a.m. Super 80 (Daily except Saturday)

From St. Louis To Washington Regan
Departs Arrives Aircraft Type
7:00 a.m. 9:48 a.m. RJ (Daily except Saturday)
8:05 a.m. 11:00 a.m. RJ
9:45 a.m. 12:42 p.m. RJ
1:40 p.m. 4:31 p.m. Super 80 (Daily except Saturday)
1:40 p.m. 4:41 p.m. RJ (Saturday only)
3:48 p.m. 6:53 p.m. RJ (Daily except Saturday)
6:20 p.m. 9:25 p.m. RJ (Saturday only)
7:25 p.m. 10:14 p.m. Super 80 (Daily except Saturday)

From Washington Regan To St. Louis
Departs Arrives Aircraft Type
7:00 a.m. 8:26 a.m. Super 80 (Daily except Sunday)
7:25 a.m. 8:55 a.m. RJ (Sunday only)
10:18 a.m. 11:38 a.m. RJ (Daily except Saturday)
11:35 a.m. 1:05 p.m. RJ
1:20 p.m. 2:45 p.m. RJ
5:15 p.m. 6:40 p.m. Super 80 (Daily except Saturday)
5:15 p.m. 6:40 p.m. RJ (Saturday only)
7:23 p.m. 8:49 p.m. RJ (Daily except Saturday)

From St. Louis To Oklahoma City
Departs Arrives Aircraft Type
9:30 a.m. 11:10 a.m. RJ (Daily)
2:30 p.m. 4:10 p.m. RJ (Daily)
6:15 p.m. 7:55 p.m. RJ (Daily)

From Oklahoma City To St. Louis
Departs Arrives Aircraft Type
7:39 a.m. 9:04 a.m. RJ (Daily)
12:05 p.m. 1:30 p.m. RJ (Daily)
4:40 p.m. 6:05 p.m. RJ (Daily)





You also remember that AA is also targeting America West for starting nonstop LAX/SFO to BOS/JFK with 2 new daily 757s from JFK to PHX (AM West's hub). I remember ARPY (AA's new CEO) said that they weren't going to take it anymore---they were not going to allow the LCCs to just snap up new marketshare. Nope. And, AA has reduced their costs to fight the LCCs. The LCCs DO NOT LIKE IT that the lagacy carriers are adding back capacity----especially since most of them have reduced their costs from pre-9-11 levels. I expect more retaliation to follow all of the new LCC routes.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[SpeedBird]

Give it a rest GL your true colors are showing again

 

[General Lee]

Speedbird,

You guys don't like it that you might get some more competition, huh? And, this is happening when the economy is getting better. Sorry man. AA is really on the attack---and you guys are now targeted in BOS. You really thought that you guys were the only ones to expand (the LCCs), and the Majors would just shrivel up and die. Wrong. I am really impressed with the new AA and their CEO.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[brew3departure]

Moving gates...

This seems like good news for AA -- but it does beg the question. I'm no genius on the ins and outs of the AA/AE/TSA/CHQ/Corpex/whoever's operation in STL, but if memory serves - everything on the connection side used to operate out of the "B" gates - then, several new jetways were built and put on the "D" gates - where they are now. So, after all that - we're going to up and move everything to the "C" gates? Does this strike anyone as a little crazy? Who picks up the tab for all that? In the interest of consolidation, I can see why, but ah, well.

Happy holidays, everyone!
-brew3

 

[Heavy Set]

And don't forget the impending Virgin USA... Richard Branson's on patrol and he wants a slice of the pie too............... I thought he was talking to Governor Schwartzennegar about potential tax breaks for locating near LAX?

Is there enough space at LAX for all of these new LCC flights? Will everyone have to park out at the Western pad or are there enough gates?

Should be interesting...

 

[BoilerUP]

Its a good sign the majors are adding capacity back. I just have one request....

American, PLEASE bring back AA135 STL-LAX. It was a 767 that always ran fairly full, but on Fridays had just enough room for all the FAs and pilots commuting home along with 10 or 15 nonrevs. It was a beautiful thing

 

[AAflyer]

BoilerUp,

It may happen sooner than you think. Besides the S80s we are yanking back out of the desert, word has it that the 767-200s are coming back well. To operate in key markets where the LCCs are using narrow body aircraft.


AAflyer

Miss using the call sign "heavy"