teddyballgame

American Airlines’ vanishing act in Boston - - Boston.com

echoaviation

I feel so bad for Mr. Sprague...

PinnacleFO

This article is very misleading, it says they are leaving but then says if they merge they will be a major player in Boston.

teddyballgame

I don't see how.

US used to be the biggest airline in BOS in mainline departures (DL always had an edge in passengers carried due to many more wide body aircraft -- for example, DL used to fly L-1011's from BOS to YUL.) US flew non-stop from BOS to every big Florida market, as well as to cities such as IND, CMH, BUF, EWR, YYZ, etc. Not to mention the many mainline flights a day to PIT, some even with a 767, which was a seasonal through flight to and from FRA.

But in the Wolf years, it was decided that every single passenger departing BOS or elsewhere in the Northeast should be funneled through a hub, and most non-stops to other cities were ceased.

Then, when the BOS domicile closed in 2010, US handed all of its BOS-Caribbean business over to B6, on a silver platter, along with its BOS-LAS flights.

Today, US only flies mainline between BOS and PHL, CLT, PHX, and the two Shuttle markets, LGA and DCA. All other destinations from BOS, and even now some of the flights to the hubs, are served by regional airlines.

And I can't even begin to name the many markets that mainline AA served out of BOS, especially when it was a decent sized wide body base, that are no longer on the schedule.

That hardly sounds like a "major player" to me. (And I'm not criticizing the poster to whom I'm replying, but rather the reporter who made this completely uneducated and unsubstantiated claim.)

tailendcharlie

Best avatar on APC.....

aa73

We'll get it all back when they snap up JB... all part of the grand plan. IAG and oneworld need AA to own NYC.

I expect AA to make a play for JB in the not so distant future. In order to satisfy the DOJ, AA needs to pare down all of the overlap with JB before any kind of deal. that is why we see AA pulling out of just about every NY/BOS/SJU Carib route they compete on with JB. They did the same exact thing before they bought Reno.

With a US and JB deal, AA will be a formidable competitor and will finally give DL and UA a run for their money in NYC.

Flyby1206

That might have been the plan under Arpey/Horton, but will Doug be more interested in making PHL the powerhouse market and forget about JFK? It will take years to complete the AA/US merge, by then it may be too late to grab JB

aa73

Flyby,

Its my opinion that Arpey/ToHo cater to the demands of Big Brother (IAG.) IAG is financed by one of the biggest and most powerful financial institutions in the world, the Rothschild clan. They want AA to own NYC like BA owns Heathrow. I don't think Parker and Co have a choice in NOT to carrying on this plan. NYC simply represents too big of a market for AA to even be a distant second.

All IMHO of course.

Flyby1206

Thanks for the response aa73,

As with most everything, follow the money to get the answer. That makes $ense with IAG/Rothschild calling the shots. Whatever happens I hope it works out for AA and it's pilots in the long-term.

KillingMeSmalls

This is why NY is not cost effective over PHL as a HUB. If Joe Schmo from Ohio want to fly to Europe he won't be connecting through NY. BOS is not slot controlled like LGA, JFK, and DCA, so I see them expanding there after the merger.



I would love for AA to buy JetBlue, but NY loves JetBlue and so does the government. The DOT would make that deal so unattractive it would never get done.

If you thought that slot swap between US and Delta gave away a lot of slots, just wait for this deal.