Originally Posted by
croberts134
It looks like US continues the 9:30 PM flight when it has a sizeable bank of flights out of PHX - the "PHX flex".
In July, the flex operates a lot of the month and US has 7 flights a day including the 9:30 PM. In September, where the flex hardly operates, US mostly has 6 flights per day with the 5:50 PM being the latest.
From their perspective it makes sense, if you don't carry a large % of the local traffic (and WN will always be the preferred PHX local carrier), then there's no sense having a flight that doesn't connect to much.
I didn't realize the later bank was so 'flex.' I also didn't realize that US doesn't carry a large % of the local traffic on the route. (Has that always been the case -- even in the HP days?) So you're explanation makes a lot of sense.
Thanks for the clarity. ^
This also helps explain why UA and AA run the smallest of their regional jets on this route. One could wonder, "Why bother?" But they just need something to feed their passengers to/from LA hub flights -- meaning they're also not looking for much in the way of local traffic.