Independence Air iClub - How soon will the FlyI critics complain?

I sit here and read this board - All of the dumb posts about FlyI clogging up the runway and creating havoc at IAD. Well, lots of folks have also financially benefited from the existence of FlyI - the passenger! That's YOU and ME! Prior to FlyI, UA regularly gouged local traffic. I'm sure if FlyI goes away, UA will continue this practice. While I fly UA, I also fly Independence because locally they offer a decent product. So all the naysayers that like to yip on this board about FlyI, I hope your wallet is nice and fat - you're going to need it! :mad:

The post-911 airline ticket pricing structure is much different than pre-911. I disagree with pundits who claim that ticket prices at IAD will go 'to the moon.' Just take a look at what's happened to ticket prices for DCA ... they have dropped to the point where I've found some cheaper tickets flying into DCA than IAD, and that's when FLYI was doing 300 flights/day out of IAD.
Just take a look at what happened to (the old) USAirways at PHL and CLT. USAirways had higher ticket prices out of there until Southwest, Airtran, etc went on the offensive and started serving those cities. I don't think that you'll see United jack up ticket prices to the moon at IAD because JetBlue is planning on starting a mini-hub at IAD. One thing that JetBlue has going for it that FLYI did not is rational ticket pricing.
You will see ticket prices that are no longer huge loss leaders for airlines out of IAD. Personally, I think that FLYI did a lot of damage to all airlines desiring to serve IAD due to their fire sale prices. FLYI was giving the product away to the point of pricing tickets well below cost. And that's the reason why FLYI was able to burn through $300 million in less than 18 months.
I'd love it if I could continue to get paid my current wages and find retailers that would sell me everything (from gasoline to groceries to cars and everything in between) for below their cost. Any business that operates on the premise that 'we lose a little on every sale but make up for it in volume' is destined to fail. Anyone who thinks that a business model like the one employed by FLYI will be successful is a lousy businessman.

Bottom line: ticket prices will rise a little bit at IAD so that airlines can turn a small profit. They won't stay at fire sale prices and they won't rise to the point where airlines make a ton of money.

Seat2C

I hope you're correct. UA has jacked up their fares on routes that FlyI has dropped. I guess only time will tell...

One other element not being considered in this discussion is just how low fares are from BWI, and how airlines at DCA and IAD have to match those low fares. It's the Southwest Effect plain and simple. Southwest offers ridiculously low fares from BWI. In fact, the recent DING! fares from my home airport, SEA advertised lower fares between SEA and BWI than SEA and LAS. That's not an anomaly either. Travelers in the D.C. area already benefit from very low fares, even if it's not on all airlines at all airports, and they will continue to do so when FlyI declares Ch. 7. Fares in major Southwest markets (BWI, LAS, PHX, CHI) are already very low because Southwest has an immense amount of seats in those markets and those fares will continue to be low. Travelers in those markets should feel very lucky because fares can't go to the moon simply because Southwest is holding United and other airlines back.

The huge fare increases will be to small markets.

Before FLYi, UAL routinely charged $400-900 for IAD-GSO, which has a flight time of approximately 40 minutes.

One other element not being considered in this discussion is just how low fares are from BWI, and how airlines at DCA and IAD have to match those low fares. It's the Southwest Effect plain and simple. Southwest offers ridiculously low fares from BWI. In fact, the recent DING! fares from my home airport, SEA advertised lower fares between SEA and BWI than SEA and LAS. That's not an anomaly either. Travelers in the D.C. area already benefit from very low fares, even if it's not on all airlines at all airports, and they will continue to do so when FlyI declares Ch. 7. Fares in major Southwest markets (BWI, LAS, PHX, CHI) are already very low because Southwest has an immense amount of seats in those markets and those fares will continue to be low. Travelers in those markets should feel very lucky because fares can't go to the moon simply because Southwest is holding United and other airlines back.

Southwest effect never hit DCA/IAD.... You could drive 1 hour and get them from Northern VA, but airlines have not put the same prices in the WAS/BWI markets. In fact many of the airlines were not putting the FlyI fares on DCA flights --- they were "WAS" fares, but travel was airport specific to IAD.

Southwest effect never hit DCA/IAD.... You could drive 1 hour and get them from Northern VA, but airlines have not put the same prices in the WAS/BWI markets. In fact many of the airlines were not putting the FlyI fares on DCA flights --- they were "WAS" fares, but travel was airport specific to IAD.

To be honest, I'm not surprised. For a significant number of travellers to and from DC, I bet a lot of travel involving WN involved secondary airports on BOTH sides of the itinerary. For instance, say you were in downtown DC, Arlington, or Alexandria, and travelling to Chicago, Boston, NYC, or a handful of other cities, you'd have to hit BWI, MHT/PVD, or ISP respectively. That would involve secondary airports on both ends of the itinerary, making it more trouble than it's really worth. It's worth $100 to me if I can avoid a rental car or two hour commute on either end of my trip.

dca-tys was normally about $200. the past two trips i've spent about $150 on US. once US and HP are fully integrated, fares going west from dca will drop a little.