Originally Posted by
jtrain609
So, let's take this apart.
The thing that's stopping a base from opening in SFO is the lack of frequency to and from the station. With only 15 flights a day, it doesn't make any sense to operate a domicile from that small of a station.
But let's say the company decided to open a domicile. At 15 flights a day, with 2 flights per day going to LGB, that's 13% of the schedule. They could make the 5% requirement comply. Even better, it'd likely be a co-domicile with SJC and OAK, boosting that number even more. I have no doubt the company could figure out how to shoehorn one line of day trips into a single line of flying out of 20 lines.
It's easy to make the rest of the trip mix work using the trans cons, but there's no need to do that, because the flying is covered just fine from the East coast at present.
If DCA, which I'm pretty sure has more flights per day than LGB, isn't a domicile yet, SFO isn't going to become one. It isn't because of the contract, it's because it makes no sense to open SFO as a domicile.
Correct. Not that it will ever happen but DCA is pretty much the only place where a new base could happen. Will it I really doubt it the chances do go up if they only use 220s there but still it’s slim. It is the area with the largest population of crew members where there isn’t a base. Unless something major happens I think you are looking at all the same bases for a long time. The planes might change like 220s based in FLL or something like that but that’s pretty much it.