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

What will the new USAirways look like at IND after the merger with America West? They're a pretty good airline with a very strong hub at PHX and a really good secondary hub at LAS. USAirways, of course, is no longer the big dog at Indy that it once was, but still offers quite a bit of service from here to east coast destinations. I doubt the service will increase at all - actually, I expect it to decrease. Hopefully, the new merger will improve fares, reliability, and passenger comfort though.

One thing's for sure, America West is really jumping into the big time now, with flights all up and down the east coast as well as to Europe.

Site Admin

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

I suspect the schedule will get reduced as well. Hard to say but HP has never been really interested in IND.

Site Admin

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

Of course, it all depends on traffic demand on the IND-PHX route as to wether they're interested in IND. I am surprised they don't jump into the IND-LAS fray. It used to be WN and TZ, now NW too. I bet they could make a real statement with service on this route.

After the US merger, though, I expect them to revert to more hub-and-spoke arrangements for IND. Gone may be the IND-DCA flights (mostly because landing slots at DCA are coveted and HP/US may want to fly from another city with that slot. My prediction is that IND keeps all the PHX flights, loses one or more of the US DCA routes and possibly another US route, with those shifted to CLT for hubbing. PIT is already dehubbing, so expect to lose the rest of the PIT service.

Keep in mind that HP tried an eastern hub at Columbus (CMH), and it was an utter disaster. They're hoping with the fire-sale acquisition of US to get transatlantic service and a serious presence on the east coast (and IND is not on the east coast, of course.) Now, they'll have a southeast hub in CLT and a solid mid-atlantic hub at PHL, with all the European and Carribean destinations out of those two cities. Much more o&d traffic ex-CLT and PHL than there ever was ex-CMH.

Member

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

America West has tried several times to jump onto the midwest to Las Vegas band wagon, and for whatever the reason, the service wasn't as much of a success as they believed it would be, for they have decided to allocate their resources elsewhere, or just decided it was easier to route a majority of their traffic through Phoenix. in the fall of 2003, they began service from St. Louis to Las Vegas, but despite the service reductions from American and a viable gap that could be filled, they did not keep the service very long. if you look at their route map, there is a significant gap in the service from midwestern cities to Las Vegas. and many cities with service to Phoenix often see 1 - 2 flights daily at most.

i would personally think they could carve a niche, at least with west coast travelers going east bound, especially with their name recognition and what have you, but i guess that is not the case. they've also pulled out of Chicago Midway entirely.

as for Indianapolis, we'll have to see what becomes of it. the DCA routes from what i understand are quite lucrative, so keeping them might be an option. it will be interesting to see what becomes of the Boston and New York La Guardia facilities. the foot hold in the Boston market could make for lucrative service in and out of the Boston area, from the actual Boston airport. if they could get costs under control they could definitely give Southwest and a few other LCC's in the area and surrounding airports a run for their money.

Site Admin

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

Last time I checked HP was a few years ago. Don't remember if it was 3 or 5. Time flies when you get older. Anyway when I checked they were a bit more expensive than the other carriers. The thing that kept me from using them was their on time record. Plus my wife had a really bad experience with them on a trip from southern California to IND.

Site Admin

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

I suspect that their Western base of operations makes it tough to do Midwest to LAS routes, given their historically higher operating costs (CASM). It's only been recently that HP has gotten their CASM competitive with the low-cost carriers. So when they had a relatively high CASM, they had to fill their planes fuller to make enough money on these routes. With their base in the west, they had to run planes out in the evenings and back in the mornings, and at most could only make 2 turns a day with those planes. They just couldn't make the revenue model work with this situation.

I think that when the new generation of smaller mainline jets (i.e. B-707) and larger regional jets (EMB-170 and CRJ-70) get deployed in larger numbers, you'll see a lot more airlines trying Midwest-West service. See the new IND-SLC routes for example. These jets make it much more economical to offer this kind of service.