knope2001
Nov 23, 11, 4:24 pm
For a change I'm the one to start a happy holidays thread like this -- usually I'm a latecomer. I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. It's important to step back and try to put things into perspective, and I hope to do that this Thanksgiving.
I will throw a small bit of airline-related stuff into the mix.
Delta and USAirways are being forced to divest of several slots at LGA and DCA as part of their slot-swapping deal. Two sets of eight slot pairs at LGA, and one set of eight slot pairs at DCA. Airlines had to bid for them if they wanted them, no single airline could win both sets at LGA, and nobody with a lot of slots (or their code-share regional) could bid on them.
Frontier was interested and even filed motion to try to break them into smaller bundles. It's not clear that Frontier even bid, but if they did it wasn't expected that they would win anyway.
It was assumed that Southwest would come in with deep pockets and win the auction for the DC slots and for the better set of LGA slots. Official word is not out, but multiple preliminary sources say that Southwest was shut out -- JetBlue got DCA and one set of LGA, and Canadian discounter WestJet got the other LGA slots.
Where is pertains to Frontier is that Southwest is an aggressive competitor which...even with the AirTran purchase...has rather limited resorces in LGA and DCA. The more slots Southwest has in LGA and DCA, the more likely they pressure Frontier.
With no additional LGA or DCA slots, it's less likely that WN will see LGA-MKE/MCI/DEN and DCA-MKE/MCI as the best use of their limited slot resources. That's no certainty that they won't be in those markets, and they are in fact starting up LGA-DEN in 2012. But with fewer slots, that helps Frontier because for Southwest:
MCI-DCA very likely does not start (possible with more slots, but not necessarily gonna happen anyway)
MCI-LGA is much less likely (rumored but who knows if it was looming or not)
MKE-DCA likely moves to MDW-DCA
MKE-LGA probably gets trimmed somewhat
DEN-LGA may not become as frequent as it would otherwise
For as important as LGA and DCA are, this can't hurt. Westjet has no competition for Frontier, and JetBlue didn't pay through the nose for those LGA and DCA slots to come to Denver, Milwaukee or Kansas City.
It's obviously still not public what Southwest really plans to do in Milwaukee when everything is WN. They may well have decided that already or it might be under further study. If they had received more LGA and DCA slots, perhaps odds were better some of those limited resources would remain dedicated to MKE. With no added access, it seems more likely assets will shift to more important WN stations.
I will throw a small bit of airline-related stuff into the mix.
Delta and USAirways are being forced to divest of several slots at LGA and DCA as part of their slot-swapping deal. Two sets of eight slot pairs at LGA, and one set of eight slot pairs at DCA. Airlines had to bid for them if they wanted them, no single airline could win both sets at LGA, and nobody with a lot of slots (or their code-share regional) could bid on them.
Frontier was interested and even filed motion to try to break them into smaller bundles. It's not clear that Frontier even bid, but if they did it wasn't expected that they would win anyway.
It was assumed that Southwest would come in with deep pockets and win the auction for the DC slots and for the better set of LGA slots. Official word is not out, but multiple preliminary sources say that Southwest was shut out -- JetBlue got DCA and one set of LGA, and Canadian discounter WestJet got the other LGA slots.
Where is pertains to Frontier is that Southwest is an aggressive competitor which...even with the AirTran purchase...has rather limited resorces in LGA and DCA. The more slots Southwest has in LGA and DCA, the more likely they pressure Frontier.
With no additional LGA or DCA slots, it's less likely that WN will see LGA-MKE/MCI/DEN and DCA-MKE/MCI as the best use of their limited slot resources. That's no certainty that they won't be in those markets, and they are in fact starting up LGA-DEN in 2012. But with fewer slots, that helps Frontier because for Southwest:
MCI-DCA very likely does not start (possible with more slots, but not necessarily gonna happen anyway)
MCI-LGA is much less likely (rumored but who knows if it was looming or not)
MKE-DCA likely moves to MDW-DCA
MKE-LGA probably gets trimmed somewhat
DEN-LGA may not become as frequent as it would otherwise
For as important as LGA and DCA are, this can't hurt. Westjet has no competition for Frontier, and JetBlue didn't pay through the nose for those LGA and DCA slots to come to Denver, Milwaukee or Kansas City.
It's obviously still not public what Southwest really plans to do in Milwaukee when everything is WN. They may well have decided that already or it might be under further study. If they had received more LGA and DCA slots, perhaps odds were better some of those limited resources would remain dedicated to MKE. With no added access, it seems more likely assets will shift to more important WN stations.