Potential New Bases
 

Any guesses or rumours on what new bases might become reality? BWI? LAX? EWR? Seems like Spirit has a decent volume of daily flights operating out of those three airports, but two of them are already B6 hubs. Mgmt did say they are looking into opening new domiciles..

well. The rumor is that management said they are looking into opening new domiciles. My guesses would be BWI LAX or EWR because we have a decent volume of flights…. Although two of them are already B6 hubs so I’m not sure.

Why do airports with frequency need to become pilot domiciles. Let’s just keep what we have and not be Allegiant

Because crew room and reserves are cheaper than Y list and hotels?

Says the guy who clearly lives in an existing base. 😂

Not a rumor. They said it on the last town hall.

LAX is pretty much a guarantee. Other will be BWI, PHL, or EWR

question is what base gets reduced to staff them?

Perhaps not the best source (are any of them ?). But heard from a birdie there’s been some talks between the company and SJU to strike a deal to fix up some parts of the old terminal and in turn bring quite a few more flights in. JetBlue already big there. Combined. SJU I bet could support 35+ flights a day..

sigh. . .

What airline wants to deal with the headache that is CA. by opening an LAX base?


https://news.justia.com/california-f...aska-airlines/

Maybe it was the VP or the network guy, I thought it was two new bases this year. Maybe when the next TH comes up they will take that question, or not. Was it the VP in a TH who said PHL was going to be announced, and then covid happened?


With AB saying they can't deliver on time and getting criticized by the leasing companies for late deliveries, see what network planning comes up with now that all 33 planned new deliveries for this year likely won't happen.

Um, nearly every US airline. And JB already has an LAX base, so the combined airline will have one anyway.

Correct, but those are existing, some for decades. We are talking about a ULCC with no current footprint in CA. Just let JB deal with it post-merger and continue to expand LAS?

I can’t imagine any new base will be done without Robin giving his blessing over it. So a LAX base seems like a likely base

I'm all for more bases out west, RNO, SLC, SEA, PHX, etc. From an economic value, is growing LAS not the ULCC path and avoiding the high costs that direct employees bring by opening a base, beyond the contract employees?

I don’t think Ted or/and Bendo have any interest in this continuing as an ULCC. They are putting all their eggs in the “this goes through” basket. It’s not a mystery why our management has been completely absent from everything and anything, and that’s saying a lot consider that have always been out of touch. But it’s clear they aren’t building this for the future, they are spending JBLUs money and taking their directions.

At a quarter million people, RNO isn’t exactly huge. SLC might make sense with their new terminal but they aren’t a huge population service area either (~225k) . SEA is big enough but AK and DL are kind of monopolizing the terminal space. PDX (service area population ~2 million) has recently expanded their gates, PHX has a service area of ~4million (and growing) so certainly a possibility.

Indeed, realistically I imagine the only possible new base west of Denver itself, is LAX. DEN, LAS, and LAX could cover all west of the Rockies.

SLC also would work very well. I believe the actual size of the market is much larger than what Xcargo presented, plus it has a significant tourism bonus in terms of passengers. And mostly concentrated with one legacy.

Mmm…
PHX would have substantial Mexico/Central or South America traffic. Could you cover it out of LAX or LAS? Sure, but it might be more cost effective to have a base there.

I would put PHX as long-term, say in five years, certainly ahead of SLC or SEA. The 11 contiguous western states have 20% of US population, with 40% of the total on the coastline?

SLC MSA is 1.2m with few other options for people to fly out of and doubling expected by 2060.

Likely been discussed somewhere so apologies if so…I’m JetBlue and wondering how your bases rank by seniority? For what it’s worth (not much likely) the last time I was at a mngt/pilot town hall they said they plan on keeping all your bases! Hope so, if it makes sense etc.

There is that. While Salt Lake City isn’t all that big it is - by far - the biggest thing around. And by the time you start adding in everything close with little if any air service, it becomes a little more respectable.

A SLC base is something I’d like to see. I could easily see the big D defending that turf hard core though.

PHL would make sense to me, over twice as many flights per day as ACY and I bet a ton of ACY folks would prefer PHL. Those that live west of PHL that is.

Defending from Spirit? Are you serious?

We upped our presence in their big fortress hub to the point of justifying a crew base. DL is clearly not worried about NK.

Agree with this, I also don’t see them opening any new bases. IMO the next new bases we get will be whatever JB’s bases are when we merge. It’s pretty clear our management has no interest in actually running an airline at this point.

Truer words have never been keyboarded…

What are the chances of a new base in SJU?

Spirit used to have a SJU base. Given the insane amount both NK and JB fly to SJU, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens.

never gonna happen with the labor laws down there.

Can you detail what the labor laws are ?

required to clap every time the plane lands….

must have at least two nurses and one midwife present.

That is what the DC-3 stewardess requirement was. Seriously.

lol that’s interesting.