Originally Posted by L Dude 7
If DL or UA were to go away, many existing routes would not exist. Some airports would lose their only airline service. If DH were to go away, it would primarily eliminate excess capacity. Of all of DH's routes, only five are not served by other airlines. And of those five, four are served by other airlines via DCA:
IAD-PBI (alternative: US: DCA-PBI)
IAD-RSW (alternative: US: DCA-RSW, AirTran: DCA-RSW, BWI-RSW)
IAD-HSV (alternative: US: DCA-HSV, DL: DCA-HSV)
IAD-SDF (alternative: US: DCA-SDF)
The only airport that is not served by alternative nonstop flights from Washington is SWF. (However, SWF could be considered the outer reaches of the New York Metro area, with HPN just over 30 miles away, and EWR and LGA around 50 miles - all with plentiful service from Washington D.C.)
An interesting statistic shows increases in airport traffic - most of it claimed to be the 'idependence bubble'. FlyI has dumped excess capacity in the market. The market is not ready to pay sustainable prices for the capacity. Eliminating Indy would reduce capacity with very little impact on routes. Eliminating DL would reduce duplicate routes with AirTran out of ATL, though it would would also eliminate many other routes not served by anybody else (especially international routes) Eliminating United would reduce some of the overlap with Indy at IAD and with AA at ORD. However, many small towns in the midwest would lose their service to ORD. At IAD, eliminating United would eliminate more domestic cities than the elimination of FlyI. Furthermore, the international flights would pretty much be gone. Having to drive 45 minutes to get to SWF is not a big deal. Having to swim 4200 miles to get to Munich is.
http://www.airportsusa.com/snapshottemplate.htm
I can't help but notice that in all of the arguments from the other side about why DH doesn't have a shot at making it are chock full of statements like "sustainable" and "legitimate" and "excess" and "duplicate".
Before DH came along, prices from IAD to MANY of those citites were absolutely out-of-this-world. When you can fly to Munich for less than you can to RSW from IAD, there is no point in making arguments about what prices are "logical" and "just".
And for most of us, that's the point. Living in DC a hop, skip, and a jump from IAD, the effect of DH has been enormous. And that's a GOOD thing.
People who argue that DH is distorting the market are just kidding themselves and wasting everyone else's time. I can't help but feel that they would also expect Burger King to pay $10/hr to the guy working the fry machine because you can't live on $5.75.
When you look as just how inefficient those majors are, how many millions they overpay their executives for losing billions, how many employees they need to do the same job that other companies do with one, it's becomes painfully obvious that THEIR business models are unsustainable. If they were, we would not have 4 of the largest 7 carriers in BK court right now.