Originally Posted by
inline five
US Air abandoned BWI because they wanted to merge with United. That being said, would SWA have started a hub there had they not? No one really knows.
For a long time SWA beat the snot out of US Air. To be frank US Air couldn't compete and instead relied exclusively on their route network.
As of now, we're still getting the snot kicked out of us.
March traffic
AAL Group -0.6%
SWA +6.7%
JetBlue +9.2%!
Those are big numbers.
Those "big numbers" are meaningless unless you figure in capacity.
AA has kept capacity under control (actually decreased) resulting in an increased load factor to offset your doom and gloom. Not sure about Jet Blue and Southwest.
There are many examples of US fighting to protect turf. They did indeed walk away from BWI and intra Florida but no one ran them off.
Those that have been around a while may remember:
United starting a North South IAD hub.
Midway PHL hub.
American RDU hub.
Continental Lite GSO hub.
Northwest DCA hub.
None succeeded.
Along with SW current PHL operation being only a fraction of what they had planned and boasted about.
I'll stick to flying and leave running the airline to those that know how.
Too many crew room CEO's!
CG