Duke787

This was definitely a Kirby driven decision based on comments reported in this FlightGlobal article published today

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...ted-pr-433518/

EWR764

In the same communique, Kirby also stated that United's DEN schedule "makes no sense" and specifically cited the current afternoon bank as a detriment to local business travelers as it concludes too early. I would expect some major scheduling changes at DEN in the coming year. DEN has clearly been performing well as a connecting complex, but in the last 10 years UAL essentially ceded the local market to WN, and the continued growth of the DEN area suggests that making O&D more of a priority would be a wise move.

He also stated that United should not be flying RJs in competitive markets, so hopefully we continue to see less of that as Kirby settles in and is able to implement more of his vision across the company. There may be some legitimate gripes with his management style, coming from the HP/US lineage, but it is clear he believes United's domestic network is woefully underachieving and I am glad to see a renewed emphasis on it as the company attempts to catch up with Delta.

Given United's busy, competitive, high-demand/high volume hub structure, I can understand why they are hesitant to commit major capex to smaller gauge, at this point. Priced appropriately, with schedules optimized for connections, UA can probably fill larger 737s and Airbii to most places in the US from EWR, ORD, DEN, SFO, etc.

spin88

Pay rate may have something to do with this, I don't know what rate they would need for the cs100.

But I suspect that network plays a big roll. Delta has ex-DTW/LAX/SEA/MSP/ATL lots of flights to midsized markets (cities of around 300-500K people) were a plane of the 717/cs100 size is a perfect fit. Many markets have flights to three (or even four) delta hubs so the traffic is more diffuse.

United has a network that tends to out of many hubs either serve small markets (see all of the little texas towns) or larger cities from usually only two points. United also pushes a lot more of its connecting traffic via ORD/IAH than Delta does any of its hubs except ATL. That suggests to me that UA needs more larger planes than does Delta.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

AA does the exact same thing out of DFW that UA does out of IAH relative to this. If you have a hub in Texas, you're gonna feed into them with regional jets from small towns in Texas and bordering states. There's a lot of money in a place like Lafayette, Louisiana. Still hard to justify anything but regionals in some cases.

spin88

I agree. Just pointing out that the airlines are different in their networks. AA is more like UA (two big hubs carrying more traffic, and serving lots of smaller towns) than is Delta which tends to have a presence in far more mid-sized markets. The cs100 is a very nice passanger friendly A/C, and I look forward to flying it on DL. It will be a much better ride than the 7-narrow-7s UA is using, but it was probably network wise a less important aircraft for United.

flybit

united needs the C100 so its passengers have comfort in RJ's people would not complain if the RJ was a C100.

findark

If they put an oven in the E75s I think they would be strictly preferable to pretty much any narrowbody that doesn't have lie-flats, except maybe 1AB on the 753. They're already fighting competition in F and a clear win in Y.

spin88

As a passanger, I 100% agree. I find United's combined RJ and 737 fleet to be the worst by far of the three majors. Delta is far, far better.

But a combination of (1) pay rates for pilots and (2) network density (number of passengers on each spoke) may mean - and Kirby suggests that this is so - that CASM for running a CS100 seating about 110 passengers is going to be higher than running a 738/739 where UA can fill the 738/739 at decent PRASM.

sbm12

The CS100 is too big to be a RJ. And it is too big to be operated by the regional carriers which means significantly higher costs. If UA wanted a 100-120 seat plane the 73G made sense for a lot of reasons, making the CS100 a no-go.

Once it decides to not do that the CS100 remains a no-go.

minnyfly

Someone shake Kirby and tell him he's not in charge of fortress hubs anymore. UA has a great need for small narrowbodies. He can't just buy a bunch of A321s and shove the traffic through a hub.


Of course you do. But I will state that UA Express has double the amount of E170s/175s as DL Connection. And although they have more 50-seaters, the large majority are the more preferable ERJs. For a Y passenger, UA's regional fleet wins hands-down.

rmadisonwi

Umm.......

What UA traffic is not going through a hub?

saFlyTalk

I hear the newest 737MAX's in production have a much larger amount of space in the overhead bins. People not fighting as much about overhead space = faster boarding.

spin88

I can't sit by and let these "alternative facts" go unchallanged. Per Wiki (a few months out of date):

DL Connection =

-158 CRJ-200
-27 CRJ-700
-237 CRJ900/ERJ 170-175

UAX =

- 23 prop jobs
-258 CRJ-200/ERJ-145s
-80 - CRJ-700
- 160 ERJ 170-175.

Sorry, Delta wins that hands down. Bigger planes, and far fewer crappy RJS. And given that delta carries far more domestic passengers, a far smaller part of the network.

EWR764

UA's more recent 739 and forthcoming 738 deliveries have this bin mod... they drop down a few extra inches and are taller to accommodate roller bags stored lengthwise on their sides.

spin88

As someone who boards early, I don't like the mod as it makes the cabin feel very cramped. The 737 is already tight, and this just removes headroom. I know why they did it, but for me its not a positive change.

I should add that Delta's retrofit on the 757s have these same (or similar) bins, and it makes the plane also feel cramped.