IAH-MAD
 

is nonstop Madrid service in the works for Houston? Surely there's a market for it. I think Houston is severely underutilized as a longhaul market by its incumbent carrier.

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Faire du ciel le plus bel endroit de la terre c'est impossible sans Concorde!
~ConcordeBoy

CO's European strategy is to focus as much transatlantic flying as possible ex-EWR, which has a massive O&D market and excellent connection opportunities from all parts of the U.S. Even if enough overall traffic existed to support IAH-MAD, there may not be enough high-yield pax out there to make the operation profitable.

Understandable. It seems having Air Europa provide the metal for that route would be better. I just dont think that a market with that much potential should continue sans nonstop service.

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Faire du ciel le plus bel endroit de la terre c'est impossible sans Concorde!
~ConcordeBoy

FWIW AA does not operate DFW-MAD service.

So are you saying you dont think the region has the traffic to generate it? Or are you saying that that would be an advantage to CO should it choose to operate Texas-Spain. I just think that if Delta could pull that off from Georgia, surely south Texas could follow suit.

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Faire du ciel le plus bel endroit de la terre c'est impossible sans Concorde!
~ConcordeBoy

ConcordeBoy:

Times have changed. For a while now airline growth, especially entry into new markets abroard, will be extrememly limited. Airlines will remain conservative with their expansion. So Continental for the most part will only expand transatlantic service out of Newark, as that is their transatlantic hub.

I fail to see what the market is for IAH-MAD. Whatever local passengers there are served sufficiently with a connection through Newark. Connecting traffic is handled through Newark. Most markets that could connect through Houston can connect just as well though EWR (west coast, southwest, etc.), while EWR can also handle connections from the eastern seaboard. So, at best, a IAH flight would only cannibolize that EWR flight.

Atlanta is different because ATL is a very powerful connecting hub. Delta has made ATL primary for connections. JFK is mostly OD.

Finally, ConcordeBoy, where do you get these bizarre ideas? If I were to say that I heard a rumor that Continental was considering flying nonstop from College Station, TX, to Singapore, would I give that rumor any credit? I could say that CLL-SIN is just as likely as IAD-MAD.

The problem with that analogy is that DL's ATL Worldport is twice the size of CO's IAH hub. Simply put, DL can generate enough feed to send a plane almost anywhere on Earth nonstop from Atlanta.

Houston simply doesn't make too much sense as a major European gateway. Its geographic position is such where someone flying in on the West Coast would get to Europe faster using connections via EWR, BOS, ORD, or even ATL. Midwesterners can take advantage of ORD or DTW. Southeasterners will utilize ATL, CLT, or go via a Northeast gateway.

In CO's eyes, it makes more sense to use the equipment on a run to Latin America, since IAH is in an ideal geographic location, not to mention the strong O&D and connecting traffic.

Don't ask me to quote exactly when & where, but Continental has already stated in the past that, for now, Houston's hub is best served for Latin American international connections and Newark is for European connections. However, when the new fifth terminal is finished at IAH in a couple of years they've said they plan on adding more nonstops IAH-Europe. (Continental already has the rights to fly nonstop IAH to Rome or Milan, for example.) A Houston Chronicle articled mentioned IAH-Madrid as a probable first new Europe nonstop to be added, not so much for the IAH-MAD traffic but instead for the MAD-Latin America traffic, which makes sense. In the meanwhile, though, everything's just wait & see. (The widely announced but never-happened service to Argentina is a good example of no certainty, though.)

I would expect IAH-FRA (already served by LH) or IAH-FCO to be the next transatlantic destinations for CO.

Thank you Eurofly-
My sentiments exactly, and that should answer BizJet's question.

I doubt FCO.. more likely MXP considering that basically the only intercontinental flights that will still remain at FCO by year's end will be PHL and NYC.


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Faire du ciel le plus bel endroit de la terre c'est impossible sans Concorde!
~ConcordeBoy

i'm sure CO (Continental Airlines) has many high-priced MBAs that do nothing all day but analyze potential routes. i'm not going to tell them how to do their jobs. if there is enough business to support a route, i just assume they will start the route. otherwise, i assume they won't.

Euroflyer mentioned a very important point, lots of passengers who have to fly to Middle America don`t have any really alternative to Iberia, which operates 2 daily non-stops to MEX and 2 or 3 to MIA from MAD plus many more flights into that region.

If CO is able to generate enough feeder service in Spain and southern Europe, that route could be very successful.

Middle America seems to be the main target for the upcoming AMS-IAH nonstop as well, as mentioned earlier, Iberia really dominates into that region from basicly all over europe.

With KLM connections from all over europe, that route coudb be a moneymaker as well.

And the yield to Middle America seems to be much higher in comparison to most of the north american markets, especially from europe...

I can understand what you're saying, but I think you have a little too much faith.... remember such routes as UA's JFK-HKG, CO's Greensboro-Greensville, AA's SJC-CDG, DL's JFK-NRT, etc???

Look at IAH-Montreal as an example of why the IAH-Madrid flight might happen: I'm not sure how much Houston/Montreal traffic there is, but it's obvious from the flight schedule (leaves Montreal early, returns Montreal very late at night) that it's designed for Canadians to connect to Latin America. (Plus, in a Houston Chronicle article IAH-Madrid was specifically mentioned by CO as a possible flight for the new IAH terminal, since it would be a connection for Madrid-Latin America.)

When is the scheduled date of completion for the new international terminal? Also, will Terminal D lose its int'l status?

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Faire du ciel le plus bel endroit de la terre c'est impossible sans Concorde!
~ConcordeBoy