Why did it go from being profitable over the long term to unprofitable?
Easy, DL building up and ANA starting service. Regardless of what's going on with AS/DL, it really provides something that UA doesn't and that's feed. UA had decent feed over the years but that is slowly dwindly and I think the local market has probably migrated to DL because there is more to offer from a network perspective. And with ANA operating on its own metal, UA is probably relying more on local traffic or what they can connect to the stripped down UA NRT hub or ANA's feed. UA was strong(er) in SEA in the 80-90's but that has slowly diminished, and as much as its kind of sad to see this vestige of PA get eliminated, the writing was on the wall.

SEA - NRT was basically toast with the closing of the sUA 777 pilot base and the addition of NH flying that route within minutes of the UA departure.

This to me is the major takeaway of today's presentation. It seems a major part of the revenue lift UA is predicting is based on ancillary fee income, e.g. upsells (to both E+ and F). That's been the case for a few years, of course, but it looks like UA is doubling down on that strategy.

I don't mean to reinvigorate the tired "UA should save F seats for elites" vs. "UA should sell those seats any way it can" debate. Only to point out that it's clear which path UA sees as the way forward. Hard to imagine that CPUs won't continue to decline in quantity and frequency.

I realize this statement was for investors but just think how different and more politically savvy the message would be with the addition <in bold> of just a few words:

"We are working together to build on United's core strengths, enhance our customer's flying experience and deliver excellent long-term results for our investors," said Jeff Smisek, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We are committed to achieving sufficient and sustainable profitability that will benefit both our stakeholders and our valuable customers."

Oh I absolutely agree. But there will come a point where with the current fleet and replacement aircraft deliveries (739s for 757s) can only bring in so much in additional savings. Meaning unless they are fitting rockets to get the planes to sonic cruise and then turning the planes into gliders or eliminating seats on the plane altogether (weight savings!) you can only do so much until the next generation of aircraft comes on line.

Forget it. Your hero begat this zero. You guys worship Gordon, but Gordon worships Jeff.

'Bethune says he was looking only for the best. He credits Smisek with saving the airline.

"It's not like in the movies when some guy saves an airplane from spinning to Earth," says Bethune. "But he engineered the salvation of our company."

---

Bethune agrees that getting Continental and United employees to share the same vision will be exceedingly difficult. "But if it can be done, he's the guy to do it."'

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/trave...ger04_VA_N.htm

I am surprised there's no mention of US leaving Star Alliance and the US UA codeshares that will be terminated.

One has to wonder if UA will add capacity to certain city-pairs in which they have been funneling passengers to US (ie PHX-SFO, PHX-LAX).

Not much details from the slides -- I would imagine that it would be a mix of the new Max + e175s (if it wasn't dropped).

SEA - LAX sees the return of mainline service effective April 1st.

I have assumed the position......bent over with hands on ankles.

+1. The lack of E+ or ability to upgrade to J is huge for me on these 5-6 hour flights. NH's 767s have only a 31" seat pitch in Y, which makes for a very uncomfortable experience.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayi...45/?csp=travel


I have assumed the position...bent over with hands on ankles.

I might bold the last sentence differently to highlight what's really going down. My take of Smi-speak would go:

... said Jeff Smisek, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We are committed to achieving sufficient and sustainable profitability that will benefit both our stakeholders and our valuable customers."

I doubt the majority of FTers would be classified as valuable in Jeff's world.

BOHICA

No lost love for NRT-TPE as soon as UA ever gets around to starting SFO-TPE for reals.