Originally Posted by
Hedley
I thought for sure that he would follow Delta’s lead with the A220 coming out of the pandemic. It would have offered a great product for small to medium markets, given UAX up to 70 more 175’s, and facilitated the elimination of the single class 50 seaters. The brand would be greatly improved. He went a different route. Instead of a SNB, he ordered hundreds of max/neo’s, got no additional 175’s, and the single class 50 seaters are still going to be mostly phased out. I’m glad that the United pilots dug in their heels on scope. It forced Kirby’s hand and it turns out that he picked higher paying aircraft over a SNB. I guess time will tell which company picked the right path.
Agreed. I hope it works well. Though UA (and many others) has had history of doing poorly when they allow their feed to atrophy.
One of the things Kirby did very well when he came from AA that really put UA back in the game as OM was leading the company was to dramatically expand the network with all those old 50 seaters over the pretty strenuous market/wall street and customer objections. I truly hope that this currrent upgauging results in continued improved connectivity and is not just being driven by a CASM - only perspective. UAs strength is their network. Shrinkage in domestic network connectivity isn't what I'd be betting on out of the pandemic.