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US Airways cancels Delta acquisition


monsoon

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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Help me understand how ATL can absorb the 25M passengers from the CLT hub. ATL today is already congested and delay prone even on good weather days. What is the business case to send someone to connect at an airport that costs more and is more prone to delays?
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This is called strategy. US wants to shake up the industry. Further consolidation is inevitable. If CO goes after DL to keep US out, then NW has no prospective partner. NW and US are the perfect fit. Along those same lines are the fact that DL has some valuable assets that could be sold off once the airline was purchased. Also, buying a carrier in bankruptcy means that you only deal with the bankruptcy court and the company's creditors, NOT its employees or management (for the most part). The company's creditors care nothing about employees or what the acquisition might do to a community, they only care about getting what cash they can. Ah the down side of capitalism.

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I also had the thought that maybe they are hoping they can bait someone else into buying a struggling cash-bleeding airline. If Continental were to buy Delta, NW may see the writing on the wall and agree to be bought by USAirways (maybe even for a relative value)before they get pounded out of existence. Meanwhile, CO is stuck with an airline hemorraging money.

That's my wishful, best case scenario for how this plays out.

EDIT. I see that MC already expressed my thoughts :)

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I could not agree more that objectivity is essential for a resonable discussion.

In 2005 there were 28.2M total passengers at CLT. 90% of those passengers were connecting at CLT, which that comes out to 25.3M. These numbers come directly from the Charlotte Airport.

So back to the original question, how could ATL absorb all those connecting passengers from CLT if it were to be closed?

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I don't like this at all. Isn't Hartsfield going through an expansion. There is no way the "new" Delta would operate two hubs so close together. That does not make economical sense. And economical sense is what they have been lacking up unitl this point.

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Even if the number 90% times 25.5m, the question is still fundamentally the same.

All you guys who think US Airways is really after NWA: Do you really think that that is the outcome of this? Why would they not just put an offer for NWA? It seems quite a lot of work to pitch a merger with one company just to buy another one.

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When RDU lost its American Airlines Hub, it was a good deal for the residents of that metro. That legacy hub was replaced by the very excellent Southwest Airlines network. We people here in Charlotte could only hope for the same to happen here. This is where you can fly to via Southwest from Raleigh. The comments that we won't be able to fly anywhere from CLT if our legacy hub is closed simply isn't true if this is an indication.

Southwest_route.jpg

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Even if the number 90% times 25.5m, the question is still fundamentally the same.

All you guys who think US Airways is really after NWA: Do you really think that that is the outcome of this? Why would they not just put an offer for NWA? It seems quite a lot of work to pitch a merger with one company just to buy another one.

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.....

Again, it makes little sense to me, but that's what I was told by some guy on CNBC today.

Show the non-stop service, metro. Also, show us all those hot international destinations that SWA serves from RDU. I can hardly wait to board a 737 with extra fuel tanks attached for the nine hour flight to FRA.

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When RDU lost its American Airlines Hub, it was a good deal for the residents of that metro. That legacy hub was replaced by the very excellent Southwest Airlines network. We people here in Charlotte could only hope for the same to happen here. This is where you can fly to via Southwest from Raleigh. The comments that we won't be able to fly anywhere from CLT if our legacy hub is closed simply isn't true if this is an indication.
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When RDU lost its American Airlines Hub, it was a good deal for the residents of that metro. That legacy hub was replaced by the very excellent Southwest Airlines network. We people here in Charlotte could only hope for the same to happen here. This is where you can fly to via Southwest from Raleigh. The comments that we won't be able to fly anywhere from CLT if our legacy hub is closed simply isn't true if this is an indication.

That isn't a true comparison. If you look at the non-stop services offered from RDU that map dwindles down to near nothing:

post-1-1163624757_thumb.jpg

Sorry I couldn't find a better map but this shows direct flights from Charlotte. This map is from 2002:

post-1-1163624978_thumb.jpg

post-1-1163624757_thumb.jpg

post-1-1163624978_thumb.jpg

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Last month we needed to make a quick one way trip to Philly at the last minute.

The price tag on USAir was $780. Flying Airtran through ATL $264. Which one do you think we took? :rofl:

Even more amazing, this was a hub to hub flight and USA still wanted close to $800 for the damn seat.

Interestingly enough making the connection only added about 1.5 hours to the trip. That is a return of $344/hour. I will certainly take that pay anytime.

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Even if the number 90% times 25.5m, the question is still fundamentally the same.

All you guys who think US Airways is really after NWA: Do you really think that that is the outcome of this? Why would they not just put an offer for NWA? It seems quite a lot of work to pitch a merger with one company just to buy another one.

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When RDU lost its American Airlines Hub, it was a good deal for the residents of that metro. That legacy hub was replaced by the very excellent Southwest Airlines network. We people here in Charlotte could only hope for the same to happen here. This is where you can fly to via Southwest from Raleigh. The comments that we won't be able to fly anywhere from CLT if our legacy hub is closed simply isn't true if this is an indication.

Southwest_route.jpg

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Last month we needed to make a quick one way trip to Philly at the last minute.

The price tag on USAir was $780. Flying Airtran through ATL $264. Which one do you think we took? :rofl:

Even more amazing, this was a hub to hub flight and USA still wanted close to $800 for the damn seat.

Interestingly enough making the connection only added about 1.5 hours to the trip. That is a return of $344/hour. I will certainly take that pay anytime.

Just out of curiosity I went to Orbitz.com and typed in a trip for 2 from CLT to STL (St. Louis) leaving this Friday (November 17th) and returning on Sunday (November 19th). The price for non-stop from USAir comes out to be $268 and with 1-stop the cheapest comes out to be $268 (the same price).

I ask you in this situation, is it not advantage to just have the direct flight and not have a layover?

It is funny to note that included in the 1-stop carriers Continental is offering the flight for $1,418 and Delta is offering it up for $1,417. :shok:

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But I've booked round trips to Philly for less than 260 with only a couple weeks' notice. With emergency fares, it makes sense to take the multiple connections. But there are so many conditions where non-stop service is important. I used to travel every week for my job. If I didn't have non-stop service from here, I would have moved.

Only 1.5 hours extra for a connection is not the norm, especially in iffy weather.

Also, my time is worth more than 344$/hr. :)

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Just out of curiosity I went to Orbitz.com and typed in a trip for 2 from CLT to STL (St. Louis) leaving this Friday (November 17th) and returning on Sunday (November 19th). The price for non-stop from USAir comes out to be $268 and with 1-stop the cheapest comes out to be $268 (the same price).
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But I've booked round trips to Philly for less than 260 with only a couple weeks' notice. With emergency fares, it makes sense to take the multiple connections. But there are so many conditions where non-stop service is important. I used to travel every week for my job. If I didn't have non-stop service from here, I would have moved.

Only 1.5 hours extra for a connection is not the norm, especially in iffy weather.

Also, my time is worth more than 344$/hr. :)

To fly round-trip this weekend, Friday and come back Sunday for one person via USAir it would be $248. That's fairly short notice IMO and that's extremely cheap so maybe I'm missing something.

*EDIT* - Which by the way is the same price direct out of RDU from any other carrier besides Southwest.

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