Originally Posted by
DL/AA
ive been on the shuttle at all points in the week and day (granted only lga-dca-lga) and they're always empty, barely 50% full on a good day for dl it seems.
with fuel prices these days, is it just a matter of time before these flights become rj's? its sad, but i just dont see the same # of people on these flights these days.
a couple years ago, the dl shuttle used to cxl all the time (more so than the token 2 or 3 cxls a day these days) and the gate agents would just hand you the amtrak schedule, so maybe that's where everyone has gone?
is us airways always this empty too?
I flew the Shuttle almost weekly end of 2006 to beginning of 2007. Monday morning to DC, Thursday evening back. These flights always had lots of people on them. Not always full, but plenty of people. And I always had a full Y ticket too. My thoughts were always that the Shuttle was doing pretty well.
Even though the climb is a higher proportion of the flight, remember that every flight has a climb... So some statistics will tell you that it's not so profitable because you burn more fuel per mile, but people are paying as much as they pay to go all the way to Atlanta on an LUT fare, so...they're still using less fuel overall and getting the same (or maybe even greater) revenue. Also, the climb is shorter than on longer flights. Generally only go up to 18-20,000 feet or so.