Originally Posted by
meyers9163
So you do not work for the airlines and thus dont have access to the hub or any other site that shows all the stats and reasons behind the closure of LGA? Because I'm sure if you did you would understand the amount of money being lost in LGA for USairways. Its different for USairways then DAL/CAL/American etc. DAL for example has JFK and the ability to connect through NY a lot better. They can also go International out of JFK. Thus their Market share is a lot larger. USairways only has some 3% of the flying out of NY. As compared to some 30% I believe is the number for DAL. CAL has a large amount as well due to Newark..... Where USairways does not have such a network to support growth or an airport, LGA, that allows the most profitable routes.
Now if the port authority were to drop their strick rules on the distance a plane can go out of LGA. Then maybe it would be worth USairways to stick around. But that has not happen and probably never will. I think as of right now the furtherst a flight goes out of LGA is to DEN. Nothing further then that. Thus LAS/PHX are not able to be serviced out of LGA fo USairways and thus hubs they serve include PHL/CLT out of LGA for connections.... You think many want to do that when they can go to JFK/Newark and go direct?
US Airways shrank their own market share. The percentage of express flying that US Airways has out of LGA is far higher (at least it seems that way to my eye when I fly in and out of there), than Delta and especially American.
Management decided to increase express flying out of LGA because they wanted to protect slots. That meant larger mainline aircraft were taken out of LGA and replaced with regional (mostly turboprop) aircraft that few short flight time but high frequency routes, as we all know. This meant a net loss of market share because US Airways had fewer seats in the market with smaller aircraft.
I'm pretty positive the perimeter range for LGA is 1500 miles. If US Airways can't find profitable routes within 1500 miles of LGA they might as well just throw in the towel now. There would be a lot of benefits to them keeping LGA open, including improved employee morale and customer satisfaction.
I understand management's argument for reducing LGA and increasing DCA, and I think a more even slot swap would have been incredibly lucrative. The disparity in the number of slots lost in LGA and those gained in DCA was too high to make this look like a real lucrative deal to me. I don't buy that this management team understands the dynamics at play here. You need to look at more than the numbers that they've passed around to all of us trying to make this deal look good.