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US Airways cancels Delta acquisition

monsoon

By monsoon
in Charlotte

Which Southern Hub will they Keep?  

93 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Southern Hub will they Keep?

    • Atlanta Hartsfield
      51
    • Charlotte Douglas
      9
    • Both Hubs will remain
      33

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

Posted
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WSOCTV is reporting that USAirways is planning to make an offer to purchase Delta Airlines. Since neither airline based in Charlotte the very first thing that comes to mind is would they keep the hub located in Charlotte given its proximity to Atlanta where Delta is based and operates it's hub in the world's busiest airport.

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turbocraig Burg

turbocraig

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Hmm... This sounds a lot like United's failed 2001 bid to buy USAirways. I imagine the Dept. of Justice will nix this deal for the same reason they nixed that similar set up 5 years ago: Reduced competition, concentration of market power, etc. Keep in mind also that the USAirways in question 5 years ago was a much smaller entity than today's combination of USAirways and America West. Now, there's even one less major carrier in existence with that recent hook-up.

As far as hubs go if this deal does pass muster, I'd say Charlotte will look a lot like Pittsburgh in the new USAirways route system. We'd be a "key focus city", which is a conciliatory term for, "We're pulling your hub status and reducing your flights to reflect your market's true origin and destination, but we don't want to totally piss you off." You can expect all of our long-haul service to be routed through Atlanta. Don't forget that Delta has a secondary hub in Cincinnati as well, so lots of our northeastern service would probably be routed via that airport now. Our airport would really serve the sole needs of the local population. You could probably also kiss our direct London flight g'bye too.

But, like I said, I don't think this will get to far off the ground (pun intended).

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turbocraig Burg

turbocraig

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After thinking about it, I totally forgot about US's Philly hub. Cinci would probably suffer a similar fate as CLT with the bulk of northeast traffic being funneled through PHL, but would likely maintain more direct service than we would. I also imagine PHL would remain the combined airline's European gateway as well. In any case, CLT would be a key focus city at best.

As far as the combined airline's name goes, I'd expect them to choose Delta as they've been around forever and have an international brand name. "USAirways" has only existed as a name since 1997 (USAir six or so years before that). They just don't have the name recognition outside this country (and western Europe). Plus, "USAirways" is more Ameri-centric than "Delta", which is probably a hash in the 'con' column as well in today's environment.

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atlrvr Metropolitan Area

atlrvr

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Perhaps is United gets back on solid ground it would chose Charlotte to open a hub to rival Delta southeastern hub. I wonder if USAirways (ahem, Delta) would join Skyteam, or stay Star Allinace? If they went skyteam, Charlotte would almost certainly lose Lufthansa as well (and possibly Air Canada).

I still don't understand why USAirways wouldn't be more interested in a merger with Northwest or United, both of which have much less hub overlap. I would think with Delta, that enough flights would have to be cut, that there really couldn't be any costs savings.

All that said, the current USAirways is proving critics wrong, so perhaps Parker knows what he's doing.

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atlrvr Metropolitan Area

atlrvr

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at the cost of what? we could lose our london, munich, frankfurt, mexico city, san jose cr, cancun, aruba, bahamas, etc flights! i would sacrifice southwest and jet blue to keep our direct flights. a huge selling point of charlotte is the quantity of direct flights.

this merger would not be a good thing for charlotte. this would be the worst merger that could happen for charlotte. united, aa, continental, northwest would probably all keep a southeast hub but delta already has that se hub.

hopefully the doj wont approve this deal

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nowensone Burg

nowensone

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Apologies if a dumb question, but is it possible that Delta would see some benefit of making CLT their main hub, such as some cost advantage here, lack of excessive traffic and delays, etc.? Or is it far too important to be at the hub of the other airlines and their routes (for multiple carrier routing)?

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Pillsbury Burg

Pillsbury

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Here is a link to the letter from US Airways to Delta offering about $8 Billion in cash and stocks: AJC

Sorry, it's an AJC link and you may have to register.

Apologies if a dumb question, but is it possible that Delta would see some benefit of making CLT their main hub, such as some cost advantage here, lack of excessive traffic and delays, etc.? Or is it far too important to be at the hub of the other airlines and their routes (for multiple carrier routing)?
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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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Apologies if a dumb question, but is it possible that Delta would see some benefit of making CLT their main hub, such as some cost advantage here, lack of excessive traffic and delays, etc.? Or is it far too important to be at the hub of the other airlines and their routes (for multiple carrier routing)?
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atlrvr Metropolitan Area

atlrvr

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If Delta tried to shift all their operations to Charlotte, then the over-crowding at Charlotte would be far beyond what is currently experienced in Atlanta. And as I mentioned, Hartsfield is currently undergoing MAJOR expansion, including a new international terminal, new convention center, new people movers and public transit improvements, and I believe they just completed a new 5th runway.

Edit. For Charlotte to have a prayer to be competive , the city would have to find about $2-$3B to pump into the airport in the next 2-3 years. I highly doubt the FAA is going to give Charlotte any money to compete with an already superior facility that they just provided a huge amount of money for.

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nowensone Burg

nowensone

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If Delta tried to shift all their operations to Charlotte, then the over-crowding at Charlotte would be far beyond what is currently experienced in Atlanta. And as I mentioned, Hartsfield is currently undergoing MAJOR expansion, including a new international terminal, new convention center, new people movers and public transit improvements, and I believe they just completed a new 5th runway.
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turbocraig Burg

turbocraig

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Apologies if a dumb question, but is it possible that Delta would see some benefit of making CLT their main hub, such as some cost advantage here, lack of excessive traffic and delays, etc.? Or is it far too important to be at the hub of the other airlines and their routes (for multiple carrier routing)?
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