Originally Posted by moondog
UA's market share between the US and China is already the largest (by far); making it bigger would only encourage complaceny.
I watched the last DOT allocation closely and was pleased with the results. CO's route was an obvious void and AA deserved to get a skin in the game. As for DL, my thoughts were and are that the ATL flight would have passed over many US markets in order to provide 1-stop service to people in places like Huntsville and Augusta (not a lot of action there).
I agree completely. IMO, NW and UA face long odds in their quest to obtain additional combination frequencies when CO and AA each have only one daily flight (compared to UA's four and NW's three).
Weren't you hoping that AA would go with a west coast origination rather than ORD for its 2006 startup?
The current treaty allows for a new airline designation in 2008 - I suspect DL will apply but unless it has exited Ch 11 and is showing promise, I doubt it gets named. My guess is that 2007 frequencies will go to CO.