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Indy

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 09:33:36 am

Indy
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Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

I was looking at the passenger numbers from Dec 2004 and Dec 2005. I expected to see the 79.2% drop in traffic for ATA. But I was a bit shocked to see United dropped 38.5%. This drop includes their regional carriers as well. What is the deal with that?

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Boofer

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 01:10:03 pm

Boofer
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Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

I think they cut a bunch of flights as part of their bankruptcy reorganization. My guess is that their reductions were mostly offset by AA and F9 (who had gains of 7,139 and 4,917 respectively), who compete on routes to UA hubs (ORD and DEN). Some chicago-bound traffic may have continued to siphon off to Southwest at MDW. And some of the connecting traffic (where you don't care which hub you connect at) may have gone to NW.

What surprises me is that, with the exit of Indpendence Air, UA hasn't taken up the IND-IAD slack yet. IAD looks to be UA's strongest hub at this point, from the perspective of having little direct competition on high-yield routes.

Also, I know UA is shifting around some of its regional carrier affiliations. They're dropping Skywest (I think they already did, and this is reflected in the Dec 05 numbers for IND). I also heard that they're talking about dropping Air Wiskey, which would leave only mainline service and Chautauqua (owned by Indy-based Republic, of course) as the carriers at IND under the UA banner. Maybe some of the December drop in mainline service is ahead of a shift to more regional carrier service?

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stlgph

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:01:29 pm


Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

If my memory serves me correct, in my own observances of some of the schedules, there were a couple of flight reductions across the board.

It is sad they are dropping good carriers do some of their express business with them and going with shady shitty carriers like Trans States. Bad United.

Boofer

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:15:41 pm

Boofer
Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

Obviously, part of the shift is hardball with the regional carriers on squeezing out costs. But I think another part of it is the availablility of the ER7's from Republic/Chautauqua. With slightly larger planes, they can carry the same number of seats, for less CASM, on fewer numbers of flights, and offer premium seating.

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