Originally Posted by
e6bpilot
I personally think Delta is 100 percent full of crap when it comes to AUS. They are negotiating for real estate there. They are already fully engaged in turf wars in several other locations. Unless they have some secret aircraft order that they aren't disclosing, they will be forced to either redeploy capacity from elsewhere or call up the SkyWest armada in order to grow by a huge margin in AUS. Either way, it feels like a paper tiger. Southwest currently has a huge margin in Austin and it will remain that way for the foreseeable future.
I still don't see a crew base for the reasons I stated previously.
Earning season for the airlines begins tomorrow with Delta reporting first. They will again have better metrics across the board. Delta can and would put a hurt on SWA if they could. Some places they are. Real estate is the issue. Nice power point presentations to boot. This is still a competitive industry. Look in SEA. They are deploying capacity to match ALK not only on the domestic but on the long haul wide body stuff. Delta is a power house right now and has been for a few years. SWA played offense for decades. Defense is now their playbook. AUS has high O&D hence why SWA does well there and market share reflects it. It is a perfect spot to set up with a complementary hub and spoke. Both want that real estate once it's built. I'm not saying it's going to be a base but Delta has the money and resources to make it difficult for SWA. Senior mangement won't say it publicly but if you catch them in the halls they will tell you they are worried.