PHXFLYR
USAir by default
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2003
- Posts
- 2,177
I really lost alot of respect for Parker and his management team. I see a lot of
what I call "legacy airline management thinking" eminating from the 9th floor offices of the "Tempe Tombstone". No better example of this than our foray into the transcontinental market last summer. Jet Blue starts transcontinental service from Long Beach and Oakland, satellite airports that have been on the AWA route map for years if not decades. These routes were profitable for them literally from the start. What do we do in response? Non stop trans-cons out of LAX and SFO to BOS and JFK, routes that have been dominated by United and American for more years than I care to count. Needless to say, the competitive response resulted in our eventual drawdown to 2 token flights per day from LAX and SFO to JFK only. Air Transport World , a management rag no less,quoted McCleellan as saying , when questioned about the draw-down that "we didn't anticipate the competive response from American and United " Well...DUH!!!.. they've been dominating these routes for years. You think they were gonna let you just waltz right in without a fight? Needless to say, the best we ever did on those routes were break even out of LAX and big losses out of SFO.Can't help but wonder how we would have done had we started service out of Long Beach and Oakland before Jet Blue did. But I guess we will never know,now will we. As far as the merger, I can't for the life of me figure out why they wouldn't want to do a code share with USAir first to see if there is any synergy there, rather than an outright merger. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? I think the air cariers that will survive going forward will be the one's with managers who "think outside the box", guys like Kelly at SWA (fuel hedges) and Needlemen at Jet Blue (LGB,ONT,OAK transcons). For airline managers like ours who still cling to the old business model , just a little friendly advice ...."Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it". And that's all I have to say about that!!
PHXFLYR
what I call "legacy airline management thinking" eminating from the 9th floor offices of the "Tempe Tombstone". No better example of this than our foray into the transcontinental market last summer. Jet Blue starts transcontinental service from Long Beach and Oakland, satellite airports that have been on the AWA route map for years if not decades. These routes were profitable for them literally from the start. What do we do in response? Non stop trans-cons out of LAX and SFO to BOS and JFK, routes that have been dominated by United and American for more years than I care to count. Needless to say, the competitive response resulted in our eventual drawdown to 2 token flights per day from LAX and SFO to JFK only. Air Transport World , a management rag no less,quoted McCleellan as saying , when questioned about the draw-down that "we didn't anticipate the competive response from American and United " Well...DUH!!!.. they've been dominating these routes for years. You think they were gonna let you just waltz right in without a fight? Needless to say, the best we ever did on those routes were break even out of LAX and big losses out of SFO.Can't help but wonder how we would have done had we started service out of Long Beach and Oakland before Jet Blue did. But I guess we will never know,now will we. As far as the merger, I can't for the life of me figure out why they wouldn't want to do a code share with USAir first to see if there is any synergy there, rather than an outright merger. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? I think the air cariers that will survive going forward will be the one's with managers who "think outside the box", guys like Kelly at SWA (fuel hedges) and Needlemen at Jet Blue (LGB,ONT,OAK transcons). For airline managers like ours who still cling to the old business model , just a little friendly advice ...."Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it". And that's all I have to say about that!!
PHXFLYR
Last edited:
