There is a rather large maintenance facility in CLE. That is helping out the base. That and I think the loads are pretty good for the flights we have left. I don’t know what the margins are.

Looks like a 5 year commitment...

We should be beyond that now.

$1M/mo for 10 more years.

“A restating of the airline's financial obligations for concourse D, the now-shuttered Hopkins expansion built in the 1990s for Continental Airlines, which merged with United in 2010. United is still on the hook for paying off the outstanding debt on the $110-million concourse; it should be paid off in 2029.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/articles.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2016/03/united_airlines_reduces_gate_o.amp

I’m biased but it seems like a reason to use the terminal. Guessing, the local government has made that somehow cost prohibitive for us as they tend to do most things.

The fact they can’t lease those gates to SWA/NK/F9 etc speaks volumes to the demand from CLE.

They don’t get along. Entrance from C terminal to D was dry walled over a long time ago. United saw that the lights were turned off in the mothballed terminal. City said they did it to save money. United said that wasn’t allowed in the contract. City had to turn the lights back on. $. So someone said.

I don’t remember the details but from what I understand is that CAL and CLE had some arguments over terms and money. Rather than give in to what the city wanted, they took their ball and went home.

Even if they force a little flying into the airport, it seems like a crew domicile isn’t needed to cover 16 flights. The CLE pilots are a good group of people and I hate to see the crew base close, but with only a few flights a day, it’s really hard to justify.

They can get four 737s at once inside hangars for heavy checks. That contract was renewed recently I believe, so some of the costing includes planes having to come in and out of there anyway.

Couldn’t a crew just deadhead out after a plane is delivered for maintenance without needing a base? I get the commitment to the city for gates but the crew base seems odd at this point being that we have other cities in the system with many times the flights and not even a rumor of a base. Florida is the exception. That rumor will never die.

Yes, or a crew could overnight as well. Both have associated costs. The requirement to regularly bring planes in and out may be just one of many variables when they cost out paid moves and PS transportation in 8-H-3, Closing a Base. So does leaving it alone. Apparently the lines on the graph haven’t crossed yet.