I was checking out the Ryanair site and see where they offer fares of .99 pounds.

To get customers back why doesn't USAir offer a minimum number of seats
per plane 5-10 at a real discounted price and say they have a million seats
for sale at the discounted rate.

The advertisements would have to be very specific, ie. $2.05 per segment
not including taxes and fees, bookable only over the website (oh well, another
problem) and limited seats per flight (putting in the number of seats available
per flight) but available on every domestic segment through lets say the end
of April or May.

Its my belief that once the customers get to the website even if the low fare
is not available, the regular fares are now competitve with the LCCs
and people would book the flights with US. Also if there really is overcapacity
at least there would be some revenue. (I have an issue with "overcapacity",
but that's something else.)

Oh, and also the fare would state there would be a separate charge for
each piece of baggage, maybe $15.00 per bag. Maybe US could then afford to hire new baggage handlers.

Two problems there:
1.) the web site would be overloaded to the point that nobody would be able to actually book anything. Of course, the media would jump all over that and put yet another USAirways customer service blunder in the spotlight.
2.) to sell even 5 tickets at $2.05 per seat would mean they have to fill the rest of the seats with higher revenue tickets to make the break-even point. But they can't do that easily when they are competing with other carriers on price, so the flights would likely go out at a loss.

Ryan Air is relatively new and likely has much cheaper labor than US, too, so they can probably afford these kinds of short term stunts. They also didn't just come off their worst Christmas travel weekend in their company's history.

Jetsgo in Canada did this last year offering all seats on flights to most (if not all of) of it's destinations for $20.04. This is in addition to the numerous seats they offer every Sunday evening for $1. So my point is this has been done with a North American carrier.

While Jetsgo is a LCC and they are quite popular in Canada there costs are much lower then those of US Airways. I think if US Airways were to slash fares it would cause a large media frenzy, like PHL said, and would also give them much needed positive publicity. But with one foot in grave I doubt they could afford to slash fares to such low levels; $2.05 is very very cheap.

The problem with US legacy carriers has been their selling seats a way below the cost of operating them. While a nice gimmick -- and I think $20.05 is more like what would have to be offered to make marketing tie-in sense to the new year -- it would further run up US's financial troubles and it would flood the market with more cheap seats, force other carriers to match, and make life miserable for the regular business travellers who would be paying for this promo with their higher fares. In the end, it would add another half billion to the loss column. No, it's time to put this airline out of its misery...

$20.05 makes a lot more sense. They already have $29 GoFares so aside from the novelty factor I don't really see much point to it. They can fill the planes -- that isn't the problem. The problem is doing it profitably and that gets back to productivity and operations.

The problem with US legacy carriers has been their selling seats a way below the cost of operating them.


Costs are the driver.

Keep in mind...
Easyjet's yields are around 20% below Southwest
Ryanair's yields are around 20% below Easyjet

BTW (and most importantly), Ryanair has the highest profit margins of any carrier in US or Europe.

Those guys have a lower cost structure vs. Southwest because they
1. Have a more concentrated and scaleable network than even Southwest does (this is why Southwest has higher pilot pay rates than US Airways, but has less labor costs)
2. They pack the plan with more seats than Southwest (only 136 on WN's 73ng)
3. They have a less than complete product offering often asking pax to pay for amenities
4. Ryanair doesnt fly to most main airports

Because their costs are in check they can afford the very good free publicity that goes with paying your customers a Pound to fly.

Costs are the driver.

Keep in mind...
Easyjet's yields are around 20% below Southwest
Ryanair's yields are around 20% below Easyjet

BTW (and most importantly), Ryanair has the highest profit margins of any carrier in US or Europe.

Those guys have a lower cost structure vs. Southwest because they
1. Have a more concentrated and scaleable network than even Southwest does (this is why Southwest has higher pilot pay rates than US Airways, but has less labor costs)
2. They pack the plan with more seats than Southwest (only 136 on WN's 73ng)
3. They have a less than complete product offering often asking pax to pay for amenities
4. Ryanair doesnt fly to most main airports

Because their costs are in check they can afford the very good free publicity that goes with paying your customers a Pound to fly.

Agreed. Did I not hear that they have also taken out recline on the majority of their aircraft?

Heck, not only is Ryanair taking out the recline from planes, they're also removing all window shades (save weight), and their safety "cards" are stickers on the seat in front of you.

If Michael O'Leary can find a way to cut costs, you can bet he's going to do it.

I don't think the $2.00 fare was a mistake, it just took them a long time to
listen to my advise.

Now that there's been promotions in the national media, I wonder how many
additional people check the USAirways web site before buying a ticket.

I don't think the $2.00 fare was a mistake, it just took them a long time to
listen to my advise.

Now that there's been promotions in the national media, I wonder how many
additional people check the USAirways web site before buying a ticket.

Great call, sheepherder! ^ ^

USAir just waited until the right time: Tax Weekend.

BTW, do you happen to know tonight's lotto numbers? ;) :)

Great call, sheepherder! ^ ^

USAir just waited until the right time: Tax Weekend.

BTW, do you happen to know tonight's lotto numbers? ;) :)

Carefull -- you might get the right numbers... for August ;)