You’re right, thanks for the correction.

 

Can you say that one more time? I’ve been married going on 25 years and I don’t get to hear that I was right very often. 😁

 

Let me know how that goes when the slot programs resume next year. Sorry guys, we totally gave away our EWR/ORD slots because we needed to save pennies and be profitable 3 months earlier than if we had kept those slots.

 

It happened before when the 19 seaters were phased out, and it could happen again due to low demand caused by the virus, or through the eventual phase out of the 50 seat fleet. We don’t know how things will look post COVID. The legacies could decide that protecting a slot with a little plane on an unprofitable route makes long term sense, or they could let routes go like they have in the past. They could also go for reduced frequency on larger aircraft, which reduces the demand for slots. Either way, we’re just along for the ride.

 

Could United buy a beech 1900 and have it ping pong EWR-ABE 10 times a day to hold slots?

 

They could do anything that they want, but they’d still be paying for the slots. If they think that spending that money is worth keeping those slots for future use, or just to keep the competition from getting them, they will. If they feel that dropping certain markets, changing equipment and frequency, or letting slots go makes more sense, they may do that too. When the turboprops were phased out for the 50 seat jets, some markets were dropped, some grew due to improved service, and some remained unchanged. The same thing will happen going forward. If during and after the recovery the airlines see a value in 50 seat jets to service small communities or to protect slots, they’ll keep them around until they just wear out, if they see more value somewhere else, the decision on when to retire them could be accelerated.