yevlesh2

Was just checking fares for a flight from WAS to Toronto (and out of curiousity, to Montreal) and they are very high .
Seems like WAS-YYZ and WAS-YUL may be great markets for Independence:

1)Other airlines fly mostly RJs on these routes anyway
2) It is only 1.5 hours
3) No other LCCs fly these routes

Indypilot

I know I'm pulling for them, but I highly doubt that will ever happen. With the 87 RJ's being it for RJ's, the 35 cities announced should just about do it. When the Airbusses start coming in November, All new cities will be airbus cities, such as LAX,SFO,SEA,MCO,MIA,TPA,IAH,DFW,MSY ect. Just guesses. However there is rumor that as the number of busses grow, some of the RJ cities will get a mix of both RJ's and 319's. Places like ORD,EWR,JFK,ATL. That should free up enough RJ's to allow for 4-6 new RJ only cities. The only issue with that, is that there are so many US cities that would still kill for us to come in there, that I don't see canada at all with the RJ's. If anything, I would see maybe vancouver, edmonton, or calgary -IAD with the busses. Keep in mind Independence is not just paying less for certain things, they are building a low cost stucture, paying little for landing fees, reducing taxes, ect ect. Adding flights to Toronto and Montreal would just increase costs and with so many other US cities, that wouldn't have those extra costs, I just don't see it for now.

cabinpressure

Before announcing where it would fly, Independence Air listed about 90 cities on its website that it was considering. YYZ was one of the cities listed, but it sounds like it wasn't really in the running. DTW didn't make the list of 90 potential cities, but is somehow one of the 35 summer launch cities.

Anyone want to guess which will be the first market Independence Air pulls out of? Seven flights per day to LAN seemed like a stretch to begin with, but now seems even less viable with NW adding its own 4 LAN-IAD flights per day.

Indypilot

I think LAN is a good fit for independence. Keep in mind, by the end of the summer we will have 35 cities to fly to out of Dulles so it's not just the LAN-IAD market for us. It's the LAN-JAX or RDU or ect ect market that passenger will have low fares to. NW doesn't have any connecting oppertunities at IAD, except Amsterdam. NW isn't matching our fares to the rest of the connecting opportunities. So if you are going to GSP, would you rather pay $600 on NW and connect through DTW or $200 on Independence and connect through IAD? Also keep in mind GRR is a large market that is within an hour drive with no LCC service except chicago express/ATA. I think they will pull a lot of the GRR and FNT and MBS and far west DET burbs traffic as well. the might even pull some AZO and TVC traffic as well.

I hope we keep LAN, i think it fits our business plan well and hope that the loads will be good enough. As far as the first city we pull out of, I hope none, but if I had to guess, I would say ATL as there is way too many seats going in an out with DL and Air Tran. We shall see.

cabinpressure

Good point. I hadn't really thought about connecting flights. The fares to the east coast seem on par with AirTran out of FNT and ATA out of GRR/FNT. And for east coast flights, IAD is definitely a more logical connection point than MDW or ATL.

Hopefully it'll do well and keep low WAS fares for DTW/LAN. I'll be doing my part by taking a DH LAN-IAD flight the weekend of 8/13-8/15.

jptasker

I think that they YYZ and YUL to IAD market is something that could have a future for Independence. Although the landing fees for YYZ are outrageous and probably don’t fit the plans of a LCC from the States.

JP

DH

Not to mention the high tax on tickets. Tax alone may cost more than the ticket itself...

yevlesh2

On the bright side, I just noticed that Independence would serve both BVT and BUF.
Both are less then 3 hours away from Montreal and Toronto by Greyhound. In fact, BVT is only 2 hour 30 mins.

I wonder if JetsGo is considering coming to either BWI or WAS?

whlinder

I don't see how DH can not fly to ATL, especially the way you guys are going after the business traveller.

I'm kind of surprised that there is no service to ABE. I thought that might be a candidate for 4-5 flights per day.

jptasker

YYZ - BUF (driving) is only two hours. My parents use to make the trip all the time to the infamous Target

JP