Originally Posted by
uva185
I would much rather see US get the slots from DL and begin to offer more nonstops from DCA. That is truly
better for the consumer to have access to/from cities previously unserviced from DCA....not more nonstops to the NE and Florida
And US is absolutely free to do that now with it's about 50% of DCA slots. If US is so concerned about lack of non-stop service between DCA and:
BHM
ISP
ITH
BHM
LIT
MYR
PNS
SAV
TLH
they could serve those markets non-stop with only a fraction of the slots they already have. Heck, if US was so concerned about service from LGA to the smaller markets in the NE, they could have used some of the 100+ slots they want to trade away and done exactly that instead of doing things like running 18-20 Dash flights between LGA and PHL every day.
The whole purpose of this exercise is market concentration. Higher market concentration leads to higher fares - so what if those wanting lower fares have to go to IAD/BWI to get them.
Jim