What if Majors fly only intl. routes

[shon7]

With the dynamic state of the industry and the rise of the LCC's - one of the options the majors could choose is to fly only the international routes.

LCC's cannot compete on these routes because firstly they will probably not get permission to fly these (due to the bilaterals); second, it would not fit in with their operating structure (quick turnaround, fleet etc).

Do you believe this is a strategy the major airlines might pursue in the near future? Or is the domestic market within the U.S. still too large to give up?

 

[typhoonpilot]

The answer to that question is lack of feed. The big three of today are the airlines that were successful in combining international and domestic networks after deregulation. Pan Am and TWA the two international airlines failed primarily because they didn't have decent domestic feed for their international routes. They tried to buy domestic carriers but the location of hubs and networks didn't quite work out. In the end they sold off their best assets to the big three.

Typhoonpilot

 

[mar]

What about codesharing?

Typhoon--I definitely agree with you on the point of feed but isn't the latest trend in airline marketing in the form of codesharing and "Alliances".

If United and Northwest take the Pacific and Asia; Continental and American can have Canada, Mexico and South America; that leaves Europe, Africa and Russia for Delta and USAirways (?).

The U.S. would have Alaska, Frontier and Southwest in the West; JetBlue, AirTran and Southwest in the East and all of the regionals to fill in the gaps.

The regionals feed the Domestic Majors which feed the International Majors.

It's a piece of cake! And looks just like "re-regulation" so it'll never happen.

Oh well. The chaos of the free market prevails again!

 

[VADriver]

The way the EU is trying to get more of the US Air Carrier international routes, before we know it, cheap labor will be flying the wide bodies and US pilots will handle all the LCC domestic...

**CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**...where is that ALPA PAC when I need it!....

 

[LJDRVR]

An all international airline? Sounds like Pan American to me.

Pan Am was the "Chosen Instrument" of US international aviation law/policy. Their ability to force the US government to do their bidding slowly erroded over the decades, culminating with deregulation. Like typhoon pilot states, feed became an issue. Pan Am purchased National from Texas International, (Lorenzo) but the merger went poorly and the Lockerbie accident was the end. Without a source of feed, it just wouldn't work.

Here's a better question: with aiplane prices the way they are combined with a dearth of labor talent, (OPS and management) why haven't we seen any new LCC's go after a high frequency/high load market such as New York and L.A.?

Or better yet, why have the airline entrepreneuers ignored the Latino market? A spanish-speaking LCC with carefully chose markets would kick-butt.

 

[Snakum]

why haven't we seen any new LCC's go after a high frequency/high load market such as New York and L.A.?

I always wondered why Tower couldn't stay afloat doing that. They flew old/cheap classics and as far as I remember they usually filled the seats, too.

Anyone know?

Minh

 

[Sniper@YourFeet]

why haven't we seen any new LCC's go after a high frequency/high load market such as New York and L.A.?

JetBlue goes JFK to LGB all the time.

Or better yet, why have the airline entrepreneuers ignored the Latino market? A spanish-speaking LCC with carefully chose markets would kick-butt.

AA owns MIA and there's already a bunch of carriers who serve Texas, NYC, and SoCal. Also, the Latino market is not overly wealthy, so that market couldn't support a high priced Latino carrier. The price sensitive Latino customer is already being served well by WN in most markets.