They could easily do two flights a day from CLT-GSO and or CLT-FAY and fill up an A319 or E190 without a problem. FAY has heavy loads ALL the time. No offense the route just would not make sense to have a Dash 8 on since eash out bound leg there are well over 70 on a normal flight. In addition you would notice as well, AVL always is full. Perhaps it time to start bringing a 700 into there or an E170 dare I say it... However there are a ton of markets the Q would make a lot more sense with..... EWN, CHO, TYS, to name a few out of CLT.

 

That logic isn't necessarily sound...it's not just total demand and capacity matching that matters. Frequency is a big variable in the equation...to 'slippery slope' your point why wouldn't you just send an a380 once/week clt-gso to take care of the weekley pax demand out of there? Smaller capacity + turboprop fuel efficiency works extremely well when you want higher flight frequencies in certain markets (avl and gso being two of the best examples actually).

 

meyers its like you only post on this thread to rebuke anything the pdt folks point out.

Its not my lifelong goal to fly the shortest routes in the smallest TP out of CLT. Short routes are most cost effectively served by TP aircraft, that is their niche.

Airways marketing has chosen to operate less efficient A/C on several of those routes. At a company that has gone the extra mile to put me in the cheapest hotels, whipsaw our labor grps, remove our guestpass privs, reduce our sicktime while feeding us mice with our crewmeals, among countless other BS moves to save a buck - you have to ask why airways does not operate the most efficient aircraft on the short haul routes. here I go flying the dash on a 218nm trip while a crj is flying to GSO 70nm away.

Frequency does stimulate some demand but more importantly it gives you a competitive advantage over operators with fewer flights into a station.

I say run 15 dashes a day if u have to - save your jets for the routes they are most efficient on. Mgmt are nickel and diming everyone including us, posting an overall financial loss and we are letting marketing decide our fleet allocation. horrible.

 

I thought the air whisky contract is pretty iron clad in that they have to give them a certain percentage of flying, even if it is inefficient After all, didn't they invest like 15 million in airways, PDT and PSA can't say that.

 

Of course PDT and PSA didn't, they are wholly-owned. Our cash goes directly to mainline. ?.

 

Anyone hear anything about a new class of F.A.s been in progress right now???

 

LOD, Israel (Reuters) - US Airways has no plans to reduce its capacity any further even as the recession has dampened demand, particularly for business travel, chief executive Doug Parker said on Wednesday.


"We are pretty happy with our fleet right now and have no plans to reduce capacity any further," Parker told Reuters after a news conference to mark the new Philadelphia-Tel Aviv route, referring to the United States market.


"If anything, we will have a modest expansion internationally," he said.


The U.S. airline industry sharply reduced capacity last year. Parker said that the airline was braced for higher oil prices, but ruled out further hedging since carriers were hurt by hedging when oil prices slid late in 2008.


Hmmmmmm? I guess he forgot about PDT

 

Damn Doug Parker....probably no reduction in mainline but who cares about those young turbopropers right? I hope oil skyrockets!

 

Like Parker said about RAH, the money invested doesnt mean anything more then an investment much like they would have gotten from a bank. It was to secure financing and that's it. However contract carriers do have a certain percentage of flying they have to get.

However mark my word. This whole FFD stuff will come to an end and it will happen fast. The reductions are hitting the Wholly Owns right now hard, (PDT,PSA, Mesaba, Comair) because they dont have a set amount of flying guaranteed. However I think you will see many legacy carriers go away from contract carriers and only carry enough to prevent the whole comair issue from years ago to occure again.

I really do think they are seeing the huge waste of money they throw away with the FFD when it makes more sense to either reduce capacity and to it themselves and or let their wholly owns do the flying. I think you will see here in the future the contract mins lowered greatly in the future of all majors in order to cut cost and keep more control over how their flying goes.

Why is PDT losing planes right now? Its because they are up on leases and they flying cant be reduced at RAH, AWAC or Mesa right now. They are all down to the mins. If USairways could, I believe they would reduce all of the above down even more, they just cant legally. Thus PSA/PDT will take a brunt and have done so already.

 

Anyone have info about how well this flow-thru hearing went yet?