Originally Posted by
spin88
You have been advocating United shrinking since 2012, its not worked out well.
I do not believe I have never advocated for this. If you are unable to provide a source, I would kindly ask you edit your post to remove the misquoting.
Originally Posted by
spin88
Of course the big difference is that LAX is the airport for the nation's second largest air market with 18.6 Million people. And not poor people with few high spending businesses (like BNA, LAS, PIT, STL) but a key market for large numbers of industries with premium traffic (finance, insurance, banking, entertainment, some tech).
Yes, LA is a big market with lots of traffic. Most of it O&D, which makes it attractive despite relatively low yields compared to other markets abandoned my legacies.
Originally Posted by spin88
This model does not work. Passenger spends $30K/year in travel. UA offers 15 destinations, AA and DL offer 45. Unless United stands out with
superior service.
United looses this - and most other HVFer traffic. But to keep the designations going, you need connection traffic.
Actually, that's the model of most airlines at LAX. Connecting traffic for most is I the single digits.
Maintenance of a network is most critical in hubs with 40%+ connecting traffic like CLE or any of Delta's legacy hubs.
Originally Posted by spin88
The cumulative cuts to LAX have taken UA from no 1 to no 3 since 2012. Last three months, AA had a 20.13% market share, Delta had a 17.16% market share, UA was back at 14.69% market share.
http://www.lawa.org/uploadedfiles/LA...rrier-2016.pdf
I assume they are already past the tipping point of HVFers moving to DL or AA, hence another round of cuts to routes ex-LAX.
Perhaps you should look at the trend in passengers carried, consolidating the share of merged airlines pre-merger, rather than focusing on relative market size. You'd see a much smaller shift than implied.