Originally Posted by
cbn42
WN only took the O&D market share from AA at SJC. They did not establish a hub there to take any of the connecting traffic.
What do you think is the higher revenue traffic - the O&D or connecting?
If AA pulls out of any more hubs, WN may step in with more service for the local population, but they aren't going to keep the connecting passengers coming there.
If AA pulls out of any hubs, AA won't be carrying that connecting traffic either - take away CLT and DL gets most of it, take away PHL and UA gets most of it, take away PHX and WN takes most of it.
Depending on the size of the "focus city" - number of daily flights - WN may well take a share of the connecting passengers. You do know that WN connects a higher share of traffic than any of the legacies, don't you? The one relatively short-term saving grace is that WN has said that their fleet will remain static this year, meaning growth comes from bigger average plane size rather than fleet growth - 7378's and getting rid of the 717's. But bigger planes can't serve more markets without taking frequency from other markets, it just increases the average seats per plane.
Jim