Originally Posted by
Jack Bauer
Its frustrating to watch this. After Aloha/ATA pulled out of Hawaii there was a huge opportunity left behind. Prior to the Alaska flights just added out of San Diego, Hawaii flying represented 15% of Alaska's total flying yet has been been netting them 35% of their total profits.
I have heard wonderful things about Hauenstein. Watched as we added new international destination only to soon retract them. Not sure why he would overlook this oppertunity. Hawaii flying was a no brainer yet we have been and still are happy to let Alaska (and soon SWA) run away with it (we have actually reduced our HI flying). Could be I don't see the big picture (ie Delta is pulling back/reducing any overlap with Alaska for a future merger). If this is not the case it seems asinine to let an obvious profitable market go to other competitors. Does delta want to make more money? They could have, had they bumped up Hawaii flying starting a couple years ago. Scratching head.
Ya'll get your tin foil hats on and listen to me rap.
First, I'm not ready to just sit back and let the AS deal continue as is but what if there was a plan? Let us say it's true that the west coast saturated, we'd lose money entering the market and AS has strong brand loyalty. So set up an alliance, allow passengers to fly on AS to a hub and then international with Delta, get them hooked on a Delta product and FF program.
Meanwhile, allow AS to take over HI flying and get out of that market. Then merge with HI, have no overlap and no issues to assist with government approval and then end AS deal and insert your own equipment back in the market but now you have something you didn't before - market share and loyalty.
And if you can pull it off, have AMR buy AS at a premium.
That's tin foil hat stuff right there.