AA's LAX-MIA "monopoly" - how much longer?
Feb 19, 2011, 8:43 pm
#1
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AA's LAX-MIA "monopoly" - how much longer?
Just got off the plane in MIA for my annual Florida trip and I remembered AA is the only carrier flying LAX-MIA, which seems very bizarre to me. Granted I know several carriers fly LAX-FLL, but I cannot think of another major airport pairing that only has one carrier like LAX-MIA does. (Perhaps US has something CLT-somewhere big that it owns exclusively, but I don't consider CLT a major city...sorry) When was the last time a different carrier than AA flew LAX-MIA? And I keep hearing rumors about another carrier (DL?) starting up LAX-MIA, just wondering how close (if at all) to fruition that is.
EDIT - according to Mark and other reporting, DL will start up the route on 6/9, so if the mods want to change the subject line to reflect this you are more than welcome to.
EDIT - according to Mark and other reporting, DL will start up the route on 6/9, so if the mods want to change the subject line to reflect this you are more than welcome to.
Last edited by wrcraig; Feb 24, 2011 at 6:00 am Reason: DL starting up LAX-MIA
Feb 19, 2011, 9:42 pm
#2
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for AA, the route is a hub to hub. The only other carrier that I could see flying the route would be UA, which has a hub in LAX. A UA MIA-LAX flight would have live off of connections beyond LAX and O/D traffic. AA can feed connections on both ends, and have O/D traffic. Furthermore, MIA is AA's latin america/caribbean gateway.
Feb 19, 2011, 9:51 pm
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I can see Delta moving FLL-LAX to MIA in the near future. Delta will actually have more daily flights from Miami than Fort Lauderdale as of the end of March, when MIA will be one of Delta's busiest domestic non-hub stations.
Feb 19, 2011, 10:43 pm
#4
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DL owns ATL-JFK in much the same way. Others fly to LGA, but it's similar to the MIA/FLL situation.
DL moving to MIA also makes some sense: between them, KE and CZ there are about a half dozen flights to Asia and Australia on Skyteam airlines out of LAX.
DL moving to MIA also makes some sense: between them, KE and CZ there are about a half dozen flights to Asia and Australia on Skyteam airlines out of LAX.
Feb 19, 2011, 10:51 pm
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Feb 20, 2011, 9:10 am
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Same would apply to EWR and LGA to IAH for CO. Others fly to JFK (though its still pretty limited service).
Feb 20, 2011, 9:44 am
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Just got off the plane in MIA for my annual Florida trip and I remembered AA is the only carrier flying LAX-MIA, which seems very bizarre to me. Granted I know several carriers fly LAX-FLL, but I cannot think of another major airport pairing that only has one carrier like LAX-MIA does. (Perhaps US has something CLT-somewhere big that it owns exclusively, but I don't consider CLT a major city...sorry) When was the last time a different carrier than AA flew LAX-MIA? And I keep hearing rumors about another carrier (DL?) starting up LAX-MIA, just wondering how close (if at all) to fruition that is.
SEA-PHL is US only.
SEA-IAH is CO only.
Many ex-MCO and ex-TPA flights are served by WN only (when they used to be served by a major, such as TPA-STL on AA)
You can make excuses all day long about XXX being a small airport, or somewhere is not a "major city", but the reality is it's all O&D driven and certain markets don't have O&D and/or connecting traffic to make it worthwhile. I'm personally surprised that there's enough traffic between TPA and LAX to get a daily nonstop on DL.
Feb 20, 2011, 11:08 am
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As far as I know (unless something changed within the last two weeks) DL still flys TPA-LAX daily on a former NW A320.
Dan
Dan
Feb 20, 2011, 12:52 pm
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Feb 20, 2011, 3:50 pm
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Certainly this might be a future route of Virgin America. I'm always a little surprised that B6 has not entered into MIA. True B6 is fairly top heavy at FLL but B6 still went into LAX (versus LGB) and into LGA and EWR despite its huge presence at JFK.
Feb 20, 2011, 4:13 pm
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A few years ago Delta even tried LAX-JAX. That, however, didn't last very long.
Feb 20, 2011, 4:41 pm
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the FLL flights are to feed cruiseships, with UA and CO together, you will see LAX-MIA soon
Just got off the plane in MIA for my annual Florida trip and I remembered AA is the only carrier flying LAX-MIA, which seems very bizarre to me. Granted I know several carriers fly LAX-FLL, but I cannot think of another major airport pairing that only has one carrier like LAX-MIA does. (Perhaps US has something CLT-somewhere big that it owns exclusively, but I don't consider CLT a major city...sorry) When was the last time a different carrier than AA flew LAX-MIA? And I keep hearing rumors about another carrier (DL?) starting up LAX-MIA, just wondering how close (if at all) to fruition that is.
Feb 20, 2011, 5:35 pm
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That being said, the UA 757 between MCO and LAX has always been excused away as entertainment industry/Disney/whatever. But that DL LAX-TPA flight just has never made sense to me. Professionally I've flown plenty of times to SFO and SEA and v/v from TPA. However, I've never flown LAX-TPA professionally. It's just one of those flights that has never made sense to me as an armchair CEO.
You can give me all the TPA to (DFW,IAH, SLC, ORD, DEN, WAS, NYC, CLT, ATL, MIA, CHI, DTW, MSP, MSY, BHM, JAX, BNA, MEM,) flights you want. Those "make sense". It's hard to believe that any flight between TPA and any non-hub, non-military, non-regional location makes a ton of sense.
Feb 20, 2011, 7:19 pm
#14
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If AA wants to take greater advantage of its B6 partnership, B6 at MIA makes a lot of sense. It could, in theory, allow AA to reallocate some of its JFK-MIA flights and offer services such as BUR-MIA for Caribbean-bound Valley-dwellers and Pasadenians.
Feb 20, 2011, 7:22 pm
#15
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Tampa-Los Angeles is a local market of 756 daily passengers. It's no Miami (2,768 passengers a day), but that can support a non-stop, easily.