nwa330

With this merger happening could this effect the Micronesia service any? I wonder what the future plans are and if they would grow that part of the operation? I would love to see nonstop service to GUM from LAX and see them try to grow this into hub that feed more people throughout SE Asia.

KosraeTV

Yes CO Mike services are in danger. However there has always been talk of the new planes when / if delivered to do the LAX to GUM route in time for the build up opening.

There was serious talk and proposals sent to Smith Street on this route before. It is not dead.

sbm12

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.40 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Will they consider it? Absolutely.

Will they operate it? Maybe.

pacific832

I'm not an insider, so take my insight with a grain of salt... but it's my understanding that the current runway of the GUM airport (Won Pat International) isn't long enough to handle the size of plane needed for long-distance flights b/w GUM and LAX. However, if you're on island, you'll notice that the Guam Airport Authority has already begun extending the runway. It's still at least a few years away from completion, but, once complete, it should be able to accommodate larger planes.

Here's a link about the runway expansion (an additional 2000'!): http://www.guahanmagazine.com/node/696. The article states a completion date of April 2010, but I can vouch that it's way, way off. There's actually a road currently bisecting the runway extension, and it's not scheduled to be closed until 2012 at the earliest (and yes, you read that correctly: a public road bisects the runway extension... apparently runway protection zones weren't always incorporated in the past).

Kosrae, you mention that CO Mike services are in danger. What do you mean by that? I know that it's impossible to predict the outcome of this merger, but I'm personally most afraid of changes to our travel rewards flights (it's nice to only need 25k miles to other Pacific Islands/East Asia, and 60k to the States). I believe United currently requires 35k and 80k respectively. Yikes!

I assume you're in Kosrae and on the island hopper route? I'm very jealous... I hear it's an amazing place.

cova

With CO's new service from SNA and coming UA services from SFO to HNL - that sort of makes HNL a mini-hub (again). If traffic justified LAX-GUM with a 787 - then they might consider - but if the choice was SFO-HNL-GUM versus SFO-LAX-GUM - which would people choose? And consider EWR-HNL and IAH-HNL.

Plus the new CO service from SNA-HNL to feed HNL-GUM.

sbm12

I cannot imagine that much of the SNA-HNL traffic is anything other than O/D.

nwa330

The runway is 10000 ft, that should be enough. I see Philippines Air flies this route.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/PAL103

Hartmann

I don't understand how CO Mike is in danger... That network is somewhat of a cash cow.

Exleftseat

GUM could and should become a secondary Asian hub for the merged airline, probably at a much lower cost than the expensive NRT option. But I am not running the airline, so just my 5 cents worth.

pacific832

Actually, the Philippines Air flights go first to Manila, then to LAX. http://www.philippineairlines.com/fl.../route_map.jsp. Odd that flightaware doesn't note that.

I'm pretty certain there are no current direct flights between GUM and LAX.

KosraeTV

Co Mike funneling into Japan and such is a good route but they were cutting back on flights. They removed Hong Kong then opened it, they removed bali and opened fiji. There is shuffling going on and with United... Japan becomes an interesting market.

What is in danger is Island services for sure. Expect fares to go even higher then what they are and there's a danger for services to certain places to be cut.

Guam is a good hub IMHO but it is in the middle of no where and they are always facing a political night mare. Every politician at every election year uses CO as a whipping boy to show the evils of corporate greed but they do not consider the multiple millions in just tools that are kept out this way and the then consider the parts... the figures are way out of proportion to the revenues.

bloodyeyeballs

While I would love to see a GUM-LAX nonstop as I live in LA and fly to Guam several times a year, I would be happier to see a second GUM-HNL flight leaving at night that could connect to a daytime HNL-LAX flight. It is only my 2 cents, but this would hopefully be the more likely scenario. Keep in mind that the GUM-HNL flight leaves early but also connects with redeyes coming in to Guam from Saipan, Palau, Manila and other spokes of this hub. An early GUM-LAX nonstop leaving at 6 or 7 am would get into LAX around 11pm to midnight and be unable to connect passengers to other Western cities such as Las Vegas, SFO, etc. A GUM-LAX nonstop would have to therefore leave at noon or later to get in the next morning in LAX which would leave connectors wandering the airport in Guam for long layovers. As I do business in Guam and already hate finishing the work day at 6pm and hanging out until the next morning, all this would do for me is let me sleep in the next day, but still not get me to where I wish to go any earlier.

Now if they can do an GUM-LAX redeye, I would love it, but do not believe it would happen for the above reasons.

On the outbound, similar time restrictions would be present: if they left LAX early, it would directly compete with the present LAX-HNL-GUM route, but get into guam earlier. Those with connections to other islands would have to hang out at GUM until the HNL-GUM flight catches up. A redeye from LAX to Guam would be nice, but again I do not believe it would happen, but would like to be pleasantly suprised.

sbm12

Japan frequencies are growing.

HKG got cut because of US immigration policies. Those were reversed and the route came back.

Vulcan

Food for Thought:

Will we soon see UNITEDMICRONESIA

KosraeTV

We will NEVER see a UntiedMicronesia

Some were, some were not. They took some flights out due to the bottom lines. Hoping to pick them back up later on.

Yes immigration was an issue on hong kong but it was also that it wasn't feeding enough at the time.