US Airways Dividend Miles - DCA slot swap, much ado about nothing?

Now that the last of the flights are loaded it seems a lot of wrangling went on for not a whole lot of material change.
A few more flights in the already overflowing 35A/B area but it doesn't seem like much has changed.
I understand the dominant position US has as far as total slot numbers in DCA but at least from my perspective it seems there was a whole lot of back and forth for little change in DCA.

DCA saw the smallest operational change since US didn't get to add that many flights/day - an average of a little over 1 per hour. The big issue with DCA was one carrier controlling over 50 percent of the slots, as you say.

Jim

I see more 757s now, including United and AA. Other than that, doesn't seem like much difference.

I guess it depends on one's point of view.

Some March adds:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-airways-dividend-miles/1296976-first-round-new-dca-service-loaded.html

BDL 1x E70
BGR 2x CRJ
BHM 3X CRJ
FAY 1X CRJ
IND 1X E70
ISP 2x CRJ
LIT 2x E70
MEM 3x CRJ
OAJ 1x CRJ
OMA 1x E70
PNS 2x CRJ
SAV 1x CRJ
TLH 1x CRJ
VPS 1x CRJ

CLT-DSM 2x CRJ
CLT-OMA 2x CR7
PHL-SLC 1x 320 (Starts 5/24)

Some July adds:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-airways-dividend-miles/1326013-new-additions-dca-update-including-san-diego-beyond-perimeter-add.html

3598 4:20PM DCA 6:07PM AGS CRJ
3599 6:35PM AGS 8:17PM DCA CRJ

3149 6:00AM MSP 9:30AM DCA E75
3357 8:30AM DCA 10:23AM MSP E70
3358 10:55AM MSP 2:27PM DCA E70
3140 2:40PM DCA 4:26PM MSP E75
3141 4:59PM MSP 8:29PM DCA E75
3148 9:00PM DCA 10:44PM MSP E75

2319 6:00AM VPS 9:30AM DCA CRJ
3941 2:40PM DCA 4:13PM VPS CRJ
4092 4:50PM VPS 8:13PM DCA CRJ
2318 8:15PM DCA 9:40PM VPS CRJ

2315 1:50PM DCA 3:44PM XNA CRJ
2315 4:25PM XNA 8:04PM DCA CRJ

3919 6:00AM YUL 7:59AM DCA CRJ
3880 10:10AM DCA 12:01PM YUL CRJ
3871 12:36PM YUL 2:35PM DCA CRJ
3996 3:04PM DCA 4:52PM YUL CRJ
3897 5:27PM YUL 7:27PM DCA CRJ
3918 9:05PM DCA 10:49PM YUL CRJ

US 3854 DCA 07:30 YYZ 09:00 CRJ 0 12345--
US 3936 DCA 10:10 YYZ 11:44 CRJ 0 1234567
US 3938 DCA 16:12 YYZ 17:44 CRJ 0 12345-7
US 3786 DCA 21:00 YYZ 22:27 CRJ 0 1234567

They cut lga cmh, that's all I know =(

Now that the last of the flights are loaded it seems a lot of wrangling went on for not a whole lot of material change.
A few more flights in the already overflowing 35A/B area but it doesn't seem like much has changed.
I understand the dominant position US has as far as total slot numbers in DCA but at least from my perspective it seems there was a whole lot of back and forth for little change in DCA.

I think they added UA's old gates (10, 11, and 12). And UA's old club closed last Monday, which they'll take over (I just really hope they renovate it first!).

But other than that, mostly small Express stations were added. Although I've seen mainline return to MSY here and there which is nice.

I guess it depends on one's point of view.

Or how the slots are utilized...

A pair of slots is usually considered as necessary for operating one flight - a plane uses one slot for the departure then another slot for the arrival. So 1x DCA-BDL-DCA uses two slots. And that means that the 30-some slot pairs that US received would only allow 15+ new flights. This is what my earlier post was based on.

However, by using a little imagination, the number of new flights can exceed the number of slot pairs. A plane can fly DCA-BDL and then BDL-PHL<connect>DCA (or the reverse to offer non-stop BDL-DCA) and only use one slot plus the already existing service PHL-DCA (or DCA-PHL). Thus, in theory, US could add as many flights as total new slots. But it appears that mostly US stuck to a pair of slots per flight with some use of slots for only outbound or inbound but not both.

This excludes the beyond perimeter addition which came from converting existing within perimeter slots and is thus completely different than the new slots gained through the slot swap.

Jim

I suspect that most of these new markets will likely be served by RJs, which I cannot stand. If DCA was to make one facilities improvement (beyond connecting the terminals post-security) I would recommend that they build an RJ terminal where the old hanger is next to terminal C. The shuttle buses do not help with delays and are miserable in the summer.

PHL-SLC also got the axe.