Originally Posted by
AAL24
Nearly half of Delta's revenue is from international ops. Nearly half of United's revenue is from International ops. AAL's percentage is 27%. Half of our major competitors. We are the largest airline in the world with a relatively small international footprint. Our profit margins are a fraction of United and Delta. Do you think those facts might be related?
I think it's irrelevant. When other carriers have large profitable domestic operations (ie SWA) and have a higher margin than us, that would tend to dispel your theory.
We have a high cost structure and a cheap product. Delta and United are building true global networks and are able to command a revenue premium with the business travelers for a superior product. Meanwhile, Parker AA is busy announcing seasonal E175 service to random hamlets with no competition. Our results speak to the effectiveness of our business plan.
So what's interesting about your quip about operating into "hamlets" is those hamlets often have a higher amount of pax and revenue than some of our international markets. If you have some spare time, you can look up bts.gov and see passenger throughput between origination and destination airports. A good example with our own operation is Tulsa to DFW tomorrow...almost 2000(!) pax between those city pairs tomorrow booked on us.
So Vasu/company uses government data such as that to pick routes and develop them. Some there isn't much data on, and a risk is taken.
I think AA's largest problem is branding in that we don't have one, we are just a generic transportation company. Nothing really sets us apart. Also I feel the "American" name hurts us overseas as well. Parker's idea was to not be a Walmart but a Target, basically a step above the lowest common denominator.
Both Delta and United have a higher overall CASM than us but of course make up for that with higher revenue as well. My wife is a typical business traveler both domestic and international. By far her main priority in booking flights is schedule and seat available. Anything else is simply icing on the cake. East coast to west coast delta has better scheduling of flights. She won't even look at United. She does fly on AA when I can convince her to (rarely!).
You work harder to make less money than your same seniority counter part at Delta or United.
Do we? I'm really not 100% sure in that, we might in some cases but not in others. From what I've seen however is SWA has all of us beat. But this group would never consider some of the items in SWA's contract, such as being a "lance capt".
This thread is about "time to WB CA". If enough people share your views on the importance of maintaining those jobs then time to WB CA will probably be more like 20+ years to never.
The more we make the stronger we become. Operating money losing routes just to say we are an international carrier probably isn't a great long term business plan.