cova

Reported in The Desert Sun back on Feb 15th, that CO (actually CO Express) is pulling out of Palm Springs - May 2nd.

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbc.../1003/business

There is a more recent article than the above.

Having just returned from PSP on CO, friends tell me that the more recent news article lists one of the reasons for the pull out was customer dissatisfaction with the RJ on that route. The other majors all have mainline jets AA, UA, NW, DL.

PSP is the 8th fastest growing airport in the USA - and this is a high end market. If CO ever wants to attract a high end market that pays for full fare FC like AA - then CO should be in this market with mainline and flying nonstop to EWR from PSP.

This is disappointing that CO is AGAIN pulling out of PSP - having flown there many years ago when the PSP market was not as hot.

Let me add: Hats off to the CO agent at PSP - who appears to be the last one still there. He not only checked in a full plane of 50 people (with several oversold) - then moved to the gate for check in. He appears to be the only one from CO still at PSP - and he did an excellent job at both the counter and the gate - all alone. The flight was oversold by at least 3 - and no volunteers - so I guess there were some denied boardings on Monday 4/9. PSP is not a market where people volunteer to give up their seat - no matter what the offer is.

MBM3

I have often wondered why they never have assigned any mainline flights to PSP, even if it were only on weekends. Even though it is primarily a leisure destination, there is certain a high number of weathy people who live in the Palm Springs area and are willing to pay for F.

I love Palm Springs, espescially the La Quita Resort, but refuse to take an ERJ flight for 3hr38mn. ONT or LAX are not bad options, but the drive adds an entirely different (and unwanted) wrinkle to the typical long weekend trips that I take.

FWAAA

If the pullout is due (at least in part) to customer dissatisfaction with tiny RJs on a somewhat long route (for such a tiny airplane), then this is very good news. Every journey begins with one step, and customer pushback to all-coach, all-30-31 inch pitch RJs is a great first step.

In part, it illuminates the pressing need for some consolidation in the USA domestic market. As the OP points out, four other airlines (two of which are CO's "partners") fly mainline jets to PSP. As passengers migrate to LCCs on many routes and as airlines offer more and more frequencies (very important to higher fare passengers), they necessarily have to fly smaller and smaller airplanes. And so many former mainline routes have been RJ'd. Especially on CO.

If the big six consolidated into two or three larger legacy survivors, some duplicative hubs could be shut down and frequencies could be maintained on, get this, LARGER airplanes (over fewer hubs). And those larger airplanes could even offer First Class. And with fewer hubs, some routes might even support point to point service.

We really don't need six legacy airlines operating numerous hubs all over the country trying to be all things to all passengers. It leads to things like 3 hour RJ flights going head to head against several competing mainline options.

cova

Having flown the RJ - IAH to PSP several times - in the beginning you would hear comments from surprised passengers as they boarded.

CO needs to code share with NW and DL on the PSP route and offer it on co.com. NW code shares with CO on the RJ route through IAH - but CO does not do the opposite.

I also heard that CO was going to code share with another PSP carrier - to route passengers to another city in CA. CO used to code share with AA Eagle on the LAX-PSP route - but I do not think AA Eagle flies this route anymore.

IAATM

Does anybody know any good examples of cities that started with zero CO service, then received CO Express service, and then matured into mainline (737) service?

I can't think of any off the top of my head. I can only think of cities that were already mainline that were subsequently augmented (or downgraded) to RJ's.

I've been hoping for 73G service to PSP from EWR for a long time, and somewhere in the back of mind mind hoped that at the very least, CO would put a 735 on IAH-PSP, replacing the RJ.

MBM3

I wouldnt mind the quick jump over from LAX. I have done it to SAN and it wasnt all that bad.

socrates

From the article:

Continental still flies its larger, 747-aircraft during the tourist season - primarily on Saturdays in the month of March, Kidd said


747 Aircraft? Wow...great research by the writer

cova

15-20 years ago CO had mainline from IAH-PSP. CO has recently (at times) done the 735 from IAH-PSP on Saturday only.

The first article implies that the disagreements between CO and XJT are the reason. Maybe XJT will add PSP to their new XJT branded CA routes.

If CO and XJT could stop flighting - then I think it would make sense for CO to have a mini-hub at PSP flying from IAH and EWR with mainline and connecting to (maybe) XJT routes to smaller CA cities and AS routes out of PSP.

otralot

I flew NW into PSP a few years back and on the return I inquired about UG possibilities (I was a CO Gold or maybe Plat at the time). I was told by the snooty TA that they were very hard to get as so many peolpe paif for FC out of PSP.

Of course, just before boarding my name was called for an UG. Great views of the Grand Canyon PSP to MSP.

cova

I have flown the NW flight from MSP-PSP and yes upgrades are nearly impossible. Once on a NW flight (no Plat upgrades) but a family with small kids occupied half of First Class. Always lots of children on these flights as the families are visiting the rich grandparents. Lots of low keyed wealthy people in the Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert area. Even Bill Gates' father lives in Rancho Mirage.

Bonehead

"Brian Kidd, deputy director of aviation marketing and development"

ElkeNorEast

Seems to me the fares in & out of PSP are (were?) ridiculous - I priced out a trip to PSP for a quick break a couple of months ago, and CO was asking ~$850 r/t for the pleasure of 3+ hours on a Barbie Jet.

No thank you very much. We flew into ONT for a 1/3 of the price and rented a car... much better option.

dan1431

Flew this route once and vowed never again...now I fly AS or NW into PSP.

BTW, the J.W. Marriott in PSP is very nice.

Dan

theblakefish

Great...my company decided this year to move our winter meetings to PSP from Scottsdale.....wonderful. I flew this route last year, but I (too) refused to fly an RJ for that long of a route. Thus, I flew CO IAH-SFO, then changed to AS SFO-PSP. Got another segment, but it was very expensive.

I guess that AS, DL are my best bets.....but it is still a bad move, IMHO.

Xyzzy

I would think that they're already working on doing this. Of course, they're flying the same RJs as CO, just not as far.