NWA at DCA
 

I know that NWA will be moving into Terminal B with Delta at DCA as part of this merger thing. A few weeks ago, a link posted to my NWA.com itinerary said that the move would take place by the end of August. A couple weeks ago, the itinerary said the move would be completed at the end of September. Today, my itinerary says it will be complete by October 20.

I'm curious about this move and its feasibility. Terminal B at DCA is not really that big, especially given that Air Canada and Continental also operate out of it. Does anyone know any more about NWA's move into Terminal B at DCA? Might Air Canada or Continental be moving into Terminal A?

It's most likely that they're trying to figure out the logistics of it. As I mentioned in the DCA thread from last week, there are some times where the Terminal B Concourse where DL is (not where CO is) will be very tight in the mornings, lunchtime and in the evening - even if Air Canada moves out. There will be 83 flights/day between the two carriers at DCA, 60+ on E-Jets/mainline (which need jetways) - to maintain everything as-is right now would mean each gate (assuming they can talk AC into moving to another place, likely in A) would mean over 10 departures/day out of each gate.

I tend to doubt CO would move (they have a nice PC, and a great location - Terminal A is not the most enviable place due to it being away from the garage/Metro), and they need 4 gates for their operation (22 flights/day, plus 3 AS flights that they handle).

mersk862 has done an excellent job of analyzing what is sure to be one of the more complex combinations.
I thought there had been some talk of the DL shuttle moving over to A sort of like at LGA, but I guess they are trying to keep it all together. If the shuttle moved, is there enough transfer from the shuttle to mainline to require an airside bus?
I also can't imagine CO moving -- their club is the classiest at DCA -- the old restaurant of the historic terminal.
I'd also heard that NW's lease on terminal A is very favorable, acquired when from Eastern or US during the first round of airline bankruptcies?

What has been said upthread is in keeping with my understanding as well. AC is very likely to move, but there is still not enough capacity in B for NW/DL. CO is apparently resisting moving (for obvious reasons), and may ultimately get a sweet heart deal to move over to A. Moving the shuttle to A is probably a non-starter as the extra 10-15 minute walk will greatly hurt is competitiveness with US's shuttle.

Personally, I hope the integration takes as long as possible... The NW WC staff is excellent.

Delta doesn't allow bookable connections from the Shuttle to other cities at DCA (much like they don't at LGA; for whatever reason they do at BOS). Irrops are one thing where an agent can override that, but that's why the only way you can do a Shuttle-non Shuttle connection at DCA is booking it multi-city (I've done this for LGA connections a few times when I lived in BOS).

That being said, DL won't move the Shuttle to A. They're competing with the US Airways Shuttle (and to an extent, CO to EWR and AA to JFK). All those carriers are in the main terminal area - real easy walk from the Metro and the parking garage. With DL running E-Jets now instead of mainline, they need to do everything they can to stay competitive with US at least - putting the Shuttle in a much less ideal location isn't going to happen.

My gut feeling is there might be some remote-parking of RJs and bussing passengers out to those flights.

... while i understand why, how competitive is that, compared to US or CO? I mean thats one of the BIGGEST things that ticks me off at ORD when I'm flying UA... the walk to the RJ's in the middle of winter or bad weather (one reason why I don't fly those routes at that time of the year) ... so a businessperson, do I a) take a flight where I walk onto the plane and don't get wet... or take a bus to a RJ where I walk to the plane and get wet before my business meeting in NY...

I completely agree that it's uncompetitive with CO - though US has been doing it at DCA for years. I think the ideal situation for Delta is to at least get Air Canada to move which would allow for maybe all but one evening flight and a couple of morning flights to have jetways. I'm guessing the reason why DCA keeps getting pushed back is because the powers that be are still trying to figure out the answers to all these questions, and/or figuring if they can realign flight schedules to make it possible to have everything at a jetway.

Having recently experienced the merged ops at LAX, I do hope they hold off until they arrive at a solution. At least the alley between the south and center fingers are wide enough that it is unlikely that planes will need to be towed in.

Confusion, confusion with the merger. It will be nice when we have stability back in our lives. I still love old Termainal A that I have used for years with NW. Recently, I dashed out to DCA to pick someone up, parked the car, ran into the DL terminal. Then it dawned on me-- yes, my relatives had departed the DL terminal with NW in LAX but they still arrived in old Terminal A on their NW flight; my reflexes took me to Terminal B because that's where I now arrive on the DL flights that I take more frequently.

Most of all, I'll finally be glad when I can go to the DL website and see all my flight itineraries. Since I use my NW FF number and book now mostly DL flights, I feel lost and have to make an extra effort to track my outstanding travel reservations because there is no central online location where I can check on my upcoming flights. I'm also sorry that DL does not offer a fax your boarding pass option as NW does with internet checkin-- hope that will be added in the future.

If there is not enough capacity, this then fits Delta management's criteria for consolidation and it will absolutely happen. ;)

Seriously though, I wonder if Delta's fubared consolidation of other stations is the reason that this is being postponed 'til October.

You mean they want to get this one right so that Jim Oberstar won't say "told you so" to the regulators.

Delta and US Airways today announced a slot swap involving DCA and LGA.

-Delta picks up 125 slots at LaGuardia from US Airways. Delta will also move into the US Airways terminal and leave the Marine Air Terminal and Delta Terminal
-US Airways picks up 42 slots at National from Delta. This will drop Delta down to about 55 daily flights at DCA and allow for the consolidation in Terminal B. Looks like flights to BOS, DSM, CVG, GRR, HSV, IND, JAN, LEX and MSN are all going away (with US Airways picking up the flights to the markets they don't already serve from DCA). Delta also gives US some slots at Sao Paolo and Narita.

At the end of the day, should everyone sign off on this, Delta will have 270+ departures out of LaGuardia to over 50 destinations. National will have 55 daily departures to JFK, LGA, ATL, SLC, MEM, MSP and DTW.

Also, it looks like this might be the proverbial final nail in the coffin for the CVG hub - for an extra 250 flights a day (125 round-trips), planes will have to come from somewhere...given that many of the LGA markets will be most likely on CRJs/ERJs, I'd guess that those planes are coming largely from CVG, especially if DL is giving up its slots on DCA-CVG.

This means new Skyclub's at both airports

Bob H

pouring more money and time into NY... well this goes with their "we WILL be the biggest carrier flying from NY" mantra... freakin crazy as that sector is sooo saturated... giving up slots in NRT???? what are these people smokin??? I will NEVER fly in/out of any of the NYC airports unless it's a must or the first or last flights of the day... hmmmm what did that travel and leisure list say last week...

Worst Delayed Airports in the US

• PHL - 22% of Flights Delayed
• ATL - 22% of Flights Delayed
• IAD - 22% of Flights Delayed
• SFO - 23% of Flights Delayed
• JFK - 24% of Flights Delayed
• LGA - 24% of Flights Delayed
• DFW - 24% of Flights Delayed
• MIA - 26% of Flights Delayed
• ORD - 27% of Flights Delayed
• EWR - 30% of Flights Delayed

... oh, forgot to add that DTW, MSP and DCA were in the top 10 of least delayed...

After reading it through it, it's unclear as to what will happen with NRT slots. It could be some landing rights, it could be slots (good for one PHX-NRT r/t starting in 2012).

For Brazil, it ends up looking like it's not slots at Sao Paolo, but a route-agreement trade. DL will trade one of their unrestricted USA-Brazil rights (one in question is used on ATL-GIG; DL has 14 more of these, used for ATL-GRU and JFK-GRU); in return, US gives DL their Brazil allocation, which must be used to GIG.

In the end, DL loses nothing (but a little bit of flexibility in the unlikely event ATL-GIG ever goes away), US gains the ability to do CLT-GRU (a route that's more sustainable than CLT-GIG, due to the business nature of GRU). US will still have to get the actual landing slots in GRU somehow, but this gives them the rights to fly to GRU.