boycruz

Was bored so played with flightaware today

found only 12 mainline AS flights from SFO today
anywhere

I know that skywest flies some more departures from SFO for AS

This coupled with no hawaii flights from OAK
makes me wonder if AS wont rebuild much of its bay area base
when traveling resumes

tonei

I don’t think any conclusions should be drawn from what schedules airlines are flying right now. But the distinction between 737s and E75s also doesn’t seem terribly useful (especially since a bunch of the E75s are operated by Horizon, which is wholly owned by Alaska). My understanding is that Alaska isn’t constrained as much as the big 3 when it comes to contractual requirements to operate a certain percentage of flights with mainline aircraft, especially for flights operated by Horizon instead of Skywest. So with so few people flying it makes sense that they’d lean on their smallest and most efficient aircraft when they don’t need the cargo capacity.

I see 46 AS flights out of SFO today, plus another 16 from SJC and 4 at OAK. For comparison there’s about 75 out of PDX and 34 out of ANC (though a few of those are cargo). And of course 100+ at SEA.

tom911

Even UA, the dominant carrier at SFO, is only running about 1/3 of their pre-Covid schedule. From an article last week:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business...f-15654701.php

PV_Premier

The amount of business travel demand out of the SFBA was enormous pre-CV19. Virtually none of that has recovered to this point, and politically, the SFBA is more sensitive to/willing to absorb public health guidance about non-essential leisure travel. Both of these facts suggest that air travel will be much slower to pick back up than other major cities, IMO.

sfozrhfco

SF has already started a tourism campaign to let people know it is open for business. More will open next week including offices and hotels have been getting more full at least on weekends. That said the big tech conferences are not coming back anytime soon and with Southern California still mostly locked down there is not much flight traffic demand within the state. There is pent up demand to travel but with COVID far worse in much of the country and few places outside the US accessible, it is safer and a lot less hassle to just stay home.

I would not be surprised if AS eventually ends up just slightly bigger than it was pre-VX purchase. PNW markets will remain important. With WN in HI and now In PSP, those markets are becoming over saturated and they have largely removed themselves from JFK/EWR/BOS. Not sure where else they could be relevant—especially as the AA partnership would give AS flyers access to the areas of the country where AS is weak.

As more gates some online next year in Terminal 1, blocking access to competitors is also less relevant. I don’t think AS has the stomach to fly lots of money losing flights when SEA and other core PNW markets remain their primary area of strength.

worldwidedreamer

As a SFO-based fan of Alaska, I'm more optimistic that service levels will eventually reach pre-Covid. While I've historically been a UA Platinum and WN A-list + Companion Pass, the merged airline scratched most of my itches...and when it is in OneWorld the global partners mean it will be a viable UA competitor at SFO. AS fits me well because it offers much of the good parts of both UA and WN.

While AA offers flights to about three cities that AS does not serve from SFO, the OneWorld partners add decent connections to Europe + Asia + Australia that make AS much more viable for this globetrotter not to mention lounges.

My big gripes? It is unconscionable that AS still does not have a lounge at this hub airport, and the AS Visa is not in the same galaxy as premium products from AA, DL, UA or honestly WN.

My big hope? That AS uses this as an opportunity to make the merger that should have happened all along: with JetBlue.