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Charlotte-Douglas Airport (CLT) Expansion


uptownliving

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The Russians, who are very competent aircraft designers, have decided to enter the regional aircraft market. While it didn't get much mention, if any in the American media, the Sukhoi Superjet 100 has been well received in the foreign press. Since USAir seems to like to purchase European airplanes over American built ones, I wonder if we will see these in Charlotte?

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Looks like USAirways could be getting a few more Asian, or European slots.

United Airlines is "spinning off several kew assets."

United officials want to "Convert the assests into cash." This would mean selling 66 acres of it's headquarters, selling it's international routes, possible selling of the Frequent flier awards program they have. This {United milage plus} brought in 600 Million for the company in '06...

Also, the selling, or joint venture, of it's base in San Fran.

:rolleyes: United is a star member... USAirways is a star member....

United wants to shrink, USAirways wants to grow internationally.

___________

Rumour has it, if DoUgIe get's the aircraft, USAirways could see some new international Charlotte routes:

Paris

Vienna

Dublin

Tempe also wants 33 new "oceanic" flights by I think 2010 ?

Just rumor though.

Also, The Pittsburgh crew base is rumored to be shutting down in Jan.

I think the DC operation is already bigger then PIT.

Look for a big announcement in october; Another rumor.

Edited by Miguel
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a charlotte paris flight would be great. how likely do you think this is?

I think we are 96% likely to have a Paris flight by 2010.

Usairways plans to add at least 3 new European routes a year: Phili is currently maxed out... Unless Philadelphia sorts out the gate dispute between Southwest, and Delta gates in the international terminal.... which is keeping USAirways from adding more European frequencies...

If USAirways does plan to internationally expand Charlotte, the routes would probably be:

Paris

Dublin

Rome

Vienna

These routes would not surprise me at all. Especially Paris, and Dublin.

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US dropped CDG after 9/11 and never resumed the service. It is a possibility that the non-stop could be reinstated, but not until there are enough wide-body aircraft available. At the very earliest, we're talking 2009. The flight just broke even in terms of revenue back then, so utilizing the aircraft from PHL to Europe rather than CLT made more sense. There is still a good chance that BMI could start service to LHR when open skies begins. As Star members, they have been fairly vocal about their interest in CLT. The only other European carrier to show interest in CLT has been LOT Polish (also a Star member) which would provide service to WAW.

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How is USAirway's pax load on the Gatwick flight?

EDIT. The idea of LOT coming would be exciting since all their widebody orders are for the new 787s.

i believe that once the 787's begin to arrive we will see many more international flights. Due to their efficiencies, other star alliance carriers will be sending planes our way. Sadly, usair is ordering the a350 and wont be getting any of those until 2011 at the earliest.

Regarding where we will get, paris and rome are unlikely unless we can support them organically since air france nor alitalia are star alliance partners. thinking of star alliance partners, flights to vienna, warsaw, heathrow, zurich/geneva, portugal, stockholm ar all possibilities once the 787 comes online. the most likely of these is heathrow and secondly i would think switzerland. personally, i believe clt can support a flight, at least in the summertime to paris so those would be the three euro flights i see in the next 3 years

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Looks like USAirways could be getting a few more Asian, or European slots.

Also, The Pittsburgh crew base is rumored to be shutting down in Jan.

I think the DC operation is already bigger then PIT.

Look for a big announcement in october; Another rumor.

Im hearing PIT will be closing in March. Heres a link from the OCT 07 USAirways mag regarding the metropolitan and Southhaus.

Charlotte real estate

Edited by Skyybutter
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US Airways just announced it will close the PIT domicile January 1, 2008. All flying hours currently based there will be moved to CLT and DCA.

This was expected news no one just new when. Its sad considering how amazing the PIT airport is and how busy it once was. Here are excerpts from a Q&A. Note that Charlotte revenue rose more than any other USairways base or focus city.

October 3, 2007

Q. How will this impact the Pittsburgh area and surrounding communities?

A. We have been operating at a significant loss in Pittsburgh for a number of years and must reallocate our resources to more profitable areas. Beginning in January, Pittsburgh will see a reduction in service from 108 departures* today (31 mainline, 77 Express) to 68 departures (22 mainline, 46 Express). This means we are cutting flying from 39 cities today to 20 cities in January, primarily smaller markets, but also to Chicago O

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Here's the text of the email my illustrious CEO sent me today. Edited for adding bold type where CLT is mentioned.

Oct. 3, 2007

Dear Fellow Employee,

Today I will be in Pittsburgh to talk about our reduced January schedule. This announcement, which likely will not come as a surprise to many of you, is very difficult nonetheless. It results in a need for fewer ground support employees and the closure of our PIT crew base.

I'd like to take a moment to talk through some of the factors leading to this decision. I will be talking to employees in PIT throughout the day and we've also posted a video interview with President Scott Kirby to awaCompass and theHub that explains the reasons behind this decision.

As many of you know, changing market conditions and competition at PIT have sharply eroded our ability to operate there in an economically viable way. That's been the case for many years, but in the past year alone, PIT has lost more than $40 million. These losses are unsustainable -- we simply cannot afford to not take action.

After continued analysis, our January peak-day schedule will go to 20 destinations (from 39 today), and our daily flights will go to 68 total (22 mainline and an estimated 46 Express) from 108 today (31 mainline and 77 Express). The Express numbers are in the process of being finalized by Express partners Air Midwest, Colgan Air and Trans States, and could change. Even after these flight reductions, US Airways will still fly more flights to more cities from Pittsburgh than any other airline.

More than half of the flights that we expect to reduce are Express flights to smaller cities from PIT. US Airways mainline will continue to offer nonstop flights to East and West Coast cities, to our hubs, and to Florida.

For our people, the impact is meaningful and includes the following:

* Approximately 500 active pilots and flight attendants currently based in PIT will now bid schedules that originate in other crew bases.

* Mainline airport and fleet service jobs will be reduced by approximately 100 employees.

* Approximately 350 US Airways Express customer service agents and fleet service positions will be eliminated.

* All employees (Express and mainline) will be offered jobs elsewhere in the US Airways and US Airways Express system. We will have representatives on hand to talk each individual group through the options available to them in the coming weeks.

I'm often asked why we can't seem to make Pittsburgh work and the simple answer is that in spite of all of all that is good about Pittsburgh, the facts are as follows:

* The population of the PHL metro area is about 2.5 times larger than that of PIT, and that's important when you decide where to put a hub. Charlotte has also seen significant growth in its population over the past five years, while Pittsburgh's population has declined.

* PHL has generated 2.4 times the domestic revenue that PIT has; in CLT, domestic O&D revenue is 33 percent larger than PIT.

* Over the past four years, CLT domestic revenue has increased by 41 percent, PHL by 22 percent and PIT by only 6 percent.

* The competitive landscape has also changed. AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest have entered the market and have understandably chosen the most profitable markets (like BOS and NYC). This has reduced our profitability on these core markets. This is important because the larger margins in the core markets help offset the marginally profitable flying to smaller markets.

The flight reductions mean that a crew base no longer makes economic sense; at 22 mainline departures from PIT, there simply are not enough flights to justify it. By comparison, DCA and BOS mainline today have around 70 mainline departures daily; PHL has around 140; CLT well over 200. Additionally, the new mainline schedule is more similar to other US Airways cities that don't have bases, such as: Los Angeles (26); Chicago and Orlando (22), Tampa and San Francisco (20 each) and DFW (19).

PIT also produces the lowest returns of any of our hubs (negative 12 percent) and has a very inefficient use of staffing and real estate resources. Gate usage alone is about half the efficiency of other hubs. With the reduced operations, it no longer makes sense to bank arrivals and departures. PIT is being de-peaked so that the resources there are used more efficiently throughout the day.

We have to continually analyze where our airplanes fly and measure that flying against other opportunities. Simply put, we have to put our airplanes on routes where they are most needed (based on customer demand) and where they can produce positive returns (based on economic conditions).

While we are mindful of the impact on PIT employees who have served US Airways loyally for many years, and on our loyal customers, this is the right decision for our airline. We will take care of our employees to ensure they know the options available to them. For the immediate future, we'll also focus on serving customers with mainline service to the cities they visit most in a way that maintains the economic viability of our airline. Also, the Operations Control Center (OCC), RIDC and heavy maintenance base will remain in PIT. The OCC will house 600 jobs and the 700 maintenance employees who are employed in PIT will remain there along with about 80 RIDC employees. With 400 employees remaining at the airport, we will continue to be a major employer in Pittsburgh.

Most importantly, you should know that our decision in no way reflects on the quality, dedication and pride of our PIT employees. Sometimes in spite of those facts, the business realities must drive decisions that serve the company as a whole. I continually receive great feedback from customers about our fantastic Pittsburgh employees and I'm sure that will continue in the future.

Representatives from Human Resources, Flight Ops and InFlight will be in PIT over the next few days and weeks to answer questions and provide information for our employees about their options.

While this has been an extremely difficult decision to make, I believe it is the right one for US Airways. The most difficult part is the effect it will have on our Pittsburgh team. We are committed to making the transition as easy as possible for those dedicated employees and we will ensure that everyone affected is treated with respect and fairness.

Sincerely,

Doug

Edited by Miesian Corners
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Well....I for one think this is a smart move....anything that puts the airline on more firm financial footing, the better for Charlotte.

Looking at what he said about the performance of Charlotte and Philidelphia, Philly has 80% more revenue than Charlotte. Charlotte is growing at 9.0% annually and Philly is growing at 5.1% annually....at this rate, Charlotte would equal Philly O/D revenue in 2023.....of course that was using basic straight-line assumptions, but I guess its realistic to assume that Charlotte won't see the same level of transcontinental service as Philly until 2020 or so...

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