Originally Posted by
coast in
Totally agree with your analysis. The problem UAL management has is, if you put five 750 mile radius circles around all 7 of UAL's hubs you end up with a big glaring hole in the Southeast (where DAL probably makes 50% of it's system wide profits). And if you transverse any of those 7 UAL hubs it becomes readily apparent that most are now bursting at the seams. UAL will go somewhere and I would argue the Southeast is its last frontier. But (and a big but) UAL probably wont step on DAL's toes and try and establish a true Southeast hub, but more likely a smaller regional hub in the periphery (FLA or nearby). 400 more Max's and 150+ A321's are coming and they will need a home, somewhere.
ATL is better geographically and is actually a major city with great wealth and CLT is just a cheap city for American to squeeze flights into. MCO doesn't really have either of those.
Also at this point i'd say it's a big stretch to say that those planes coming in are growth. With the current administration and economic climate hurting aviation heavily i'd say it's very likely those planes are replacements. It's still growth to replace an older 319 with a new 321NEO with cheaper CASM too. Might just be replacing the RJs too at some point doing the same routes with more seats.