Colgan Operations BDL
 

Since Colgan has taken over most of the flights at Bradley their on time record has been intolerable. Specifically, flights 3231 3214 and 3263's on time performance must be under 25%. With Continental pulling the BDL-IAH flight we have no alternative in Hartford for reliability and must choose another airline. How does Continental let Colgan continue to operate these flights with this miserable and unacceptable on time performance?

I see no alternative for Continental other than pulling out of Hartford. Otherwise they will continue to allienate their premium pax like myself

And yet they are increasing Colgan operations, with the Q200s into EWR coming in October (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=840062). Not that having these additional flights will increase the on-time performance, but they will be on the schedule.

Good luck.

It won't increase service, but it will increase frequencies. :D That sounds familiar.

OUCH! But hey...at least we still have 500 miles and a whole can of coke (if we ask)....better than what US offers out of HVN--that's clearly not service...

Why use BDL? I flew into BDL once when I was there, it was only because I was traveling with family arriving via a different routing at the same time...and we were going to a nearby town.
If you're in HVN, wouldn't MNRR or car service get you to EWR as quickly? If you spend 1 hour to Hartford, checkin 60 minutes early, and a 30 minute trip (that isn't ontime anyway), originating in EWR sounds a little easier. EWR should be 2.5-3.5 hours travel to/through NYC to EWR. So, if you have a 2+ hour connection, one of the 3/4 of flights that are delayed, etc, then you usually are saving time.

Edit: I also generally try to spend as little time as possible in BDL or Hartford in general...

US has great service out of New Haven.

It is impossible to drive to EWR from New Haven as you never know what the traffic situation would be.

Continental's code share with Amtrak, while a great idea has fares that make no sense and are unaffordable

Agreed, but I should have quoted...sbm12 used that line in another forum and some minor hilarity ensued.

Skip the codeshare and just buy an Amtrak ticket + CO ticket. Those are still probably more expensive in a lot of cases since you'll be paying the non-stop premium, but it is worth checking.

I've done the US flight in to HVN before (2001) and it wasn't bad, but I'm not sure I'd be willing to subject myself to US these days just for that.

I ve skipped the code share and taken the train, however, most of the time it is cheaper to fly from BDL than it is from EWR even though you have to go through EWR.

The point of my post is "Does anyone care that Colgan's operations are sub par and ruining Continental's reputation"? Obviously not as nothing is being done to combat the delayed flights

I think that the reason there is not more outrage over the failings of the Colgan operations to operate on time is because they just don't affect enough people. CO is already carrying fewer and fewer passengers to WAS from EWR, and I'm sure that the other CO Connection/Colgan routes are seeing similar effects. When the number of affected passengers is so low it is hard to generate a lot of backlash. I think that cova has expressed similar disdain for the DCA service rather regularly here and most of the responses are to just take the train or fly out way too early. It costs CO business, but it is on lower fares as you noted, so the lower load factor may not actually be costing them any real money.

The fact is that CO isn't a great option in some markets. And I think that using the list of markets served by Colgan from EWR is a pretty good place to start identifying the places where it isn't a great option.

The Q200s are Commutair; the Q400s are Colgan. So while the point (more prop operations at BDL and other northeast cities) is basically valid, it's not quite as you stated.

Colgan does a pretty good job serving IAH on time unless weather problems.

I had a feeling that is why you were probably doing, since ex-EWR can be pretty expensive. I just threw my suggestion out there because I figured with a F ticket, it seems that they charge a H or Y for that first leg, so it is significantly more.

But to your point--I think there just aren't enough people ex-BDL for them to prioritize it over larger cities such as PVD and BOS.

And I do realize how much you can sometimes save by using a CT outstation. I was helping a friend with fares to Spain last summer. Every major city was within a small range, but for some reason, we were able to get him a ticket out of HVN for something like $300 less than anything else.

If this involved US out of HVN, their pricing seems to be almost totally random. Some flights out of HVN are extraordinarily expensive ($597+ cheapest listed fare for HVN-PHL-ATL at the moment), some are amazingly cheap ($226+ to SEA/OAK/SNA/SMF/LAS). There's a bit of a Southwest effect (I guess they'd prefer to sell a ticket HVN-PHL-xxx than have WN transport the passenger from BDL or PVD), but otherwise it seems like they threw darts at a map and set prices accordingly. Unfortunately for me, my most frequent trip is ROC-HVN, for which the fare is $485+ at the moment (usually higher). Since this is leisure travel, at $485 it's easier either to fly to LGA and take MNRR, EWR and take Amtrak, or just drive the 370 miles. Flying takes almost the same time as driving this kind of route anyway; I just hate driving even more than I hate US...

HVN continues to be the most underutilized airport in the country. There are almost 4 million potential enplanements but they are all leaked out to other facilities. Bradley is located in a remote area and despite the State of Connecticuts attempt to get Fairfield county pax there no one uses it from that part of the state. Bradley is also operated by the State hence the fiasco with operations up there. Case in point, the State offered NW $500,000 to operate BDL-AMS service and they took the money and ran. One day after their announcement they outsourced their operations there.

Tweed Airport is the best kept secret in aviation. It's one mile off the highway and has millions of people within a 100 mile radius. United understood the potential for jet service right after deregulation in 1978 and tried unsucessfully to operate 727 service to Chicago until the Mayor at that time Ben DiLieto chased them out. Look at Manchester New Hampshire and Burlington Vermont how those cities thrived after their airports were enhanced.

United tried again with 737-300 and 500 service to Chicago in 1990-1994 but again the city impeded their success. Too many flights were canceled as United had to work around the trees aorund the airport which the neighbors wouldn't cut and no one at the city would do anything about it

Southwest looked at the airport in the 90's as it fit their parameters but the infrastructure was not there and they chose Bradley.

Continental should wake up and fly ERJ-135 to Cleveland and discontinue their Colgan operations at BDL. They would capture the very affulent Fairfield county pax

Continental had 4 flights a day from Tweed to EWR in the 80;s and 90's and were quite successful before all the ATC delays at EWR