eponymous_coward

DL flies not only PHL-LHR but PHL-CDG seasonally.

DL and B6 would be in there in a hot minute. A top 10 US metro area by population without an actual dominant carrier? You aren't going to find those on the street corners.

MAH4546

DL flies PHLCDG under JBA with Air France because Air France can't make PHL work for the life of it, and DL has a 757 to eek it out.

DL's average load factor on PHLLHR is beyond embarrassing. There are months when it average 45%.

perseus11

So you assume that seeing Europeans walking around in SOHO means all is great with AA JFK European travel? I see loads of Indians walking around Center City Philly every day that I'm there, but that doesn't mean there's a successful flight to/from DEL.

perseus11

We're addressing the situation if AA abandons Philly, not today, or yesteryear. AF couldn't make PHL-CDG work simply because there was zero feed into PHL and it was competing with US PHL-CDG 2x Daily. If AA left PHL, a DL PHL-LHR and/or PHL-CDG would likely not operate with a 757, nor would it be unprofitable. I wouldn't even be surprised to see Virgin on PHL-LHR against BA.

Fanjet

I doubt that AA will abandon PHL-LHR or PHL-CDG, let alone PHL all together. And AA has more of an opportunity to make those two routes work than DL or VS ever would.

nova08

So after 10 years of slot ownership it reverts back to AA?

This speaks to the ability to use the slot outside of PHL-LHR but does not touch on the real ownership or time.

Phudnik

DL has a transatlantic joint venture with VS, so VS is more or less already running PHL-LHR against BA. The problem is that, unlike the DL PHL-CDG (joint venture with AF), which in theory can feed European/African/Middle Eastern connections through CDG, the PHL-LHR doesn't have many VS connections in LHR and thus is mostly O/D at both ends.

nitrous

Not going to name my source but I heard that ORD-HKG might be coming soon

dylanks

CX has struggled to fill a second flight per day on this route, so this would be surprising unless AA has an advantage over CX.

Longboater

If my memory serves me correct, CX did ok filling up the front but did poorly in filling the rear, hence it was canned. AA succeeding on a potential ORD-HKG flight would depend on the flight's timing and how effective in feeding the flight. AA would be seeking to fill this flight from not only Chicago based pax but basically the entire northeast/midwest. It was mentioned in the LAX-HKG thread, AA was in the planning stages of a third HKG flight. Since JFK no longer has an Asia nonstop, the only hub that makes any sense would be ORD. Also helps that oil is still quite low as compared to when CX tried double daily ORD-HKG.

In a slightly unrelated note, once DL has enough A350-900s, they will likely take a hard look at restarting DTW-HKG. If AA wants to go after the midwest/northeast market for HKG, it would make sense they start ORD-HKG a little sooner, i.e. 2018/2019, than later.

bse118

Welcome to FT. That's an interesting first post. I'm skeptical.

JonNYC

As well you should be.

george 3

However, I work by Rock Center, and I see an awful lot of Euros with maps waiting to get on the N/Q/R headed downtown in the AM at the 49th St/7th Ave station.

ashill

Are their European tourists in New York City? Um, yes. Anecdotal observation is not a very good statistical indicator of demand for air travel to/from Europe, though, to say the least.

no1cub17

All those medical students? Yeah, most of them rarely go to India :-D and if they do it ain't profitably!