Not the biggest piece of news by a long shot...but I noticed that there hasn't been much industry reaction to XJT's branded flying. Good luck guys, hopefully this won't amount to much.

American attacks ExpressJet with RDU special offer

American Airlines is offering passengers of its three new American Eagle routes from Raleigh-Durham International Airport double frequent flier miles.

The promotion is valid for travel from May 1 through July 31 on all nonstop American Eagle flights between RDU and Jacksonville, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; and Louisville, Ky.

Triangle Business Journal reported last month that American would debut the flights May 1 in direct competition to three routes scheduled to be launched May 7 by upstart carrier ExpressJet. The doubling of frequent flier miles ups the ante on American's end as it tries to ward off the much smaller ExpressJet, which also is initiating service May 7 from RDU to New Orleans, San Antonio and Birmingham, Ala.

To qualify for the promotion, travelers must register at www.aa.com/offers using promotion code AARDU.


You can find the article at http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/...0/daily15.html

 

AMR has always agressively responded to startups flying "thier routes". Even though the RDU hub is much reduced from its hayday, AMR still thinks of it as "thiers". I'm only suprised that they didn't put MD-80s on these routes, with hourly service, for $50 round trip.
I'd guess the lack of response to XJT is because they aren't messing around in anyone else's back yard.

 

Its called "flying under the radar" gents XJT is just trying to fill a niche that has been neglected (like service and non-stops) or is too small of a market to justify interested from the big boys.

 

Hopefully XJET has enough manpower, money, and other resources to continue. We'll see what happens. I bet not, but ya never know.

 

So far everything is running perfect. 100% completion factor and like 97% on time. Loads are looking good and we are still early in the beginning. Already have had numerous full flights. The article is a bid over dramatic. AMR went on top of XJT on what 4 flights? Plus i think XJT prices are cheaper anyway. That's just a small number of our overall flights. Also the reason why they didn't through 80's on it is because the market might not support it. I wish they would because those gas guzzlers are very inefficient for the loads XJT is getting. We only need like 25-30 people on board to break even which is very easy to do. XJT is going for markets that typically no one else does. Also didn't AMR have to cut service back our of Boston to do the RDU flying we are doing? I heard they dropped the BOS-EWR shuttle so they could put the planes on our routes? I think XJT will do just fine on those routes.

 

thiers is spelled theirs

 

Not sure about the BOS EWR shuttle. However, the BOS STL is being done by S80 and RDU AUS is the S80. So I have heard. Which does make more sense. Thats a long poke for an RJ, at least a 135. The BOS bid I was looking at for May did have some new routes out of RDU. So, thats my 2 cents. At least BOS got the flying.

 

Yeah i saw that about the RDU-AUS in the 80 but the deal is that we aren't doing that route. I think the media F-ed that one up. We are doing RDU-SAT but not AUS. check out

http://xjet.com/menu/whyxjet/routemap.htm

Either way it should be interesting to watch.

 

RDU-AUS was ERJ flying until recently, but the upgrade to MD80 happened before Xjet announced their new service. The May bid packet shows only one reduced frequency from BOS, a CMH overnight, the EWR flying ended mid April. Some of the increased RDU service seems to have come from ORD.

Superpilot, AMR's traditional idea of 'Competitive Response' was always "Overwhelming Firepower". They have always flooded the market with seats to drive out competition. Taking a loss in the short term has never deterred them before. The double AAdvantAAge miles offer seems like slowpitch compared to what they are capable of.

I get the impression that they think Xjet is not going to be difficult to run out of RDU. But if they're wrong, I would expect some very predatory trade practices to be forthcoming.

 

I know AA can be pretty nasty but thus far they arent going crazy yet. I just looked at the loads for RDU to some locations and they look pretty good considering we are just starting there. FWIW