Originally Posted by
EWR764
It's also worth noting that UA and Star are a distant 3rd in the transatlantic market at LHR now that DL jumped in bed with VS. UA will be able to compete in entrenched hub markets but I'm sure they are feeling the squeeze elsewhere against AA/BA and DL/VS.
Yes, but there's not much that can be done about it now, I'm afraid. The smart money in the LAXLHR market isn't flying UA and that's not going to change. United likely has concluded it is best served treating the route as 'just another' transatlantic line, subjecting it to the same sort of variable scheduling based on demand as the rest of the system, as opposed to absorbing losses by operating during slack periods to chase HVFs that just aren't there. By the same token, the bread-and-butter UA flyer out of LAX probably isn't loyal to UA on the basis of the LHR service alone, and may not respond negatively to the change. UA's core LAX customers seem to be primarily transcon and Pacific travelers, for whom the LHR link is incremental, i.e. just another part of the portfolio. UA can't be all things to all people, and as its underperformance relative to its network peers continues, it's going to have to pick its battles.
It'll be a 787 before long, I bet. I'm not saying the route is in any danger, but in 2015, LAXLHR is not a sacred cow for an airline that seems to have fewer of them by the day...
I think this is entirely correct, but the entire purpose of the merger was to be the biggest carrier, with the biggest market share in the biggest US markets, and serve the world, gaining Corporate market share and HVFers in the process.
These things have nock on impacts, which are now being felt yet again. SEA is basically gone, BKK is gone, and LAX is being pulled down. But LAX is not just a big market, its a gateway market. There is a huge amount of entertainment and finance traffic between LAX-LHR. If UA does not offer that, it basically is giving up on many corporate accounts in LA. It then looses that traffic on its TPAC network and to places like JFK on P.S. Then P.S. is less profitable, does that get cut next?
Delta (and AA) have been willing to build out their networks, and absorb losses on routes they need in the system to gain valuable clients. United appears to look at each route in isolation, which I think is part of why they are doing so badly at this point.