Just heard SFO WB base in the works. Hence the move to the new terminal.

Oh man, thanks for the laugh!

If anything SFO dies in the next 5ish years. The WB future will most certainly be out of SEA if not HNL. Alaska wants to monpolize seatac and DL taking Asia 330 routes was a stab in the back to management

Bahahaha.

SFO terminal move has been in the works for years.

SFO = Gateway to Asia = Lots of established long haul competition. Not exactly the kind of market the Anglers like to rush into.

I'd believe SFO closing long before I'd believe WB's there. Frankly they'd be better off closing it, if they can crew the flying out of other bases, and maybe open one or two botique domiciles in towns where other majors don't have bases (ex AUS, SAN). If you actually want to live in the Bay, why would you stay at AS vice UAL???

It's the one of the bases where there's actually room and business for WBs. LAX nope. SEA big nope. PDX maybe. ANC yes. But if pax WBs start flying in Alaska, make sure the last one turns off the lights before you leave.

Room? Yes.

Business? Yes.

Lots of competition? Yes.

So unless they plan on remote parking the 787s in Seattle, there's only 1 gate for a widebody. It's funny that when Port of Seattle was asking the airlines what they wanted from renovations, Delta got more widebody gates, and Alaska got a bus terminal.

LAX won't have widebodies because we pledged our fealty to OneWorld.

PDX might have widebodies but the market there isn't as strong.

ANC doesn't have the population.

So that leaves HNL and SFO.

I’d believe SFO/HNL. Seattle, ANC, LAX sound most restrictive.

Hoping for some LAX routes :). Now, what do we call the place? If the new family wants to go toe to toe with the big-3 legacy WB carriers in Asia and eventually Europe, I'm not sure either a "state specific" name and/or logo on the tail is going to be the best marketing strategy when that time comes. That time will come if this deal gets inked. My gosh, if done right this could be amazing. Fingers crossed.

The biggest hangup with SFO is pilot retention, that was an ongoing trainwreck with company-wide ramifications up until Feb. AS was taking regional pilots, giving them a NB type or two with ETOPS and then assigning them to the junior base, effectively serving them up on a silver platter to UAL.

Nobody in their right mind would stay, unless they live in ANC and absolutely want to eventually be based at home. I've met several ex-AS pilots commuting to SFO from PDX, so even PDX won't keep them.

But I guess having a WB option in SFO might mitigate the bleeding just a bit. But it's still going to be hard to compete with UAL, which will be hiring for at least anothe decade.

Again it's not just about SFO, almost all new-hires go to SFO and the majority then resign within a year.