deepgrey

Happy to finally see this happen.

masonuc

DCA - Sao Paolo nonstop sounds awesome and I'll bet that will be a popular flight

fish114

How does US win from this slot-swap? Essentially, they are net giving up 90 LGA/DCA slots, reshuffling their network around but still losing a lot, and then getting a Brazil slot as well in addition to 66.5 M in cash which really isn't that much (66.5 M is about 10 M short of the purchase price of 1 A319).

My math shows that it works out to about $738k per slot, which is probably the average profitability of one of those slots in one year only. Do an NPV analysis, though, and its going to show that Delta made out like a bandit. This doesn't even include whatever value you might attach to the Brazil slots, I'm not going to speculate here.

The one thing that makes sense to me is that if US (for some reason) can't grow mainline OPS out of LGA, if they just simply can't sell tickets. Their express RASM is 0.1983$/mile and their CASM is $0.1918$/mile, I guess if they think they can combine some of these express ops to mainline (with a RASM of $0.1068 and CASM of $0.083), they may be able to do well. But if I were a marketing guy, I would figure out how to do that at LGA without playing this slot-swap game.

NeoOfTheCRS

DCA-GRU is technically impossible. Someone is smoking something really crazy or this is a marketing scam where your 737 terminating in CLT has the same flight number as the 767 which is going to GRU

geo1005

That's the list price. US has a significant discount as one of the largest Airbus operators in the world. That figure is also inflated much in the same way as a full-fare First Class international ticket from which just about everyone gets a discount.

dcpatti

As I understand it, you have to actually use a slot once you "own" it, and if you don't use it for a certain length of time, then it can be taken away from you. US has been running some routes from LGA that consistently have a very low load factor; see posts 141, 154 and others in this thread for examples. Given how deeply capacity has been cut across the board, my guess is that US continued to fly these low-load routes just to keep the slots alive.

I would imagine that DL will have similar challenges in getting a high load factor across the board from LGA; they may have better success with different destinations but given the lopsidedness of the deal, at least from a slot-count perspective, I would think that the value of some of these LGA slots are a liability rather than an asset, or at least the price is diluted by the chance that they may be difficult to turn a profit on.

All those statements are just my speculation so I could be way off the mark.

geo1005

I suspect masonuc was being funny.

US gets slots to GRU but has never said they would fly them from DCA.

PhotoGeek

What does this mean for US Air service into NYC? They are giving up 132 slot pairs into LGA in exchange for 42 additional for DCA.

Bob'sYourUncle

I think US will have a space issue at DCA. I can't see how they can squeeze more capacity out of gate 35A for express ops, the rest of the north pier is maxed out, and the centre pier is full too...

Seems that at LGA there is a solution, but at DCA?...

dcpatti

There is a lot of under-utilized space at DCA. The North pier is frequently pretty busy but the Center pier isn't as rough, nor is the South pier. I've heard a bunch of different theories on how things will be rearranged, including US moving to the South pier to take over the CO Presidents Club there. I do know that there's been a push to get all the *A carriers back in close proximity to one another, which possibly includes AC moving back into B or C from their current home in A. Really not sure which theory to believe but since these are slots already in use, not new slots, and since DL will likely need fewer gates now, they should be able to make it work.

uva185

Yeah, the 17+ daily flights from PHL-LGA is a perfect example of this!!

JohnneeO

I just saw that the US-DL LGA/DCA slot swap has been approved, and I have a question.

Will US still fly the shuttle between LGA & BOS?

kudzu

Yes, of course (because it's profitable )

From the linked article,

paytonc

The difference is that US values DCA more highly than it values LGA. They (and perhaps Star Alliance in general) don't have enough market share in the NYC market to fill their high-cost LGA short hops. DL thinks that their FF base in NYC will appreciate having more destinations, despite having operations split across LGA and JFK. (Will they start an "airside" bus bridge?) US would rather have a full-fledged hub at DCA, where they can also perhaps make a play for UA FFs, than to have two subcritical focus cities.

That said, I also think that the math also looks favorable to DL.

The press releases have been clear about how LGA gates would be realigned, but haven't mentioned anything about DCA gates -- probably because MWAA and not Delta would be in charge of reassigning the gates. flyer703 above mentions that UA plans to move to be next to CO in the south pier, which opens up space in the center pier. However, for all we know this could just mean exponentially more Gate 35A shenanigans.

TOPGUN750

Which gates in LGA will US be located in? Delta indicated they would be taking 18 gates in C which leaves only 2 for US but US later said they would have 6 gates and 3 parking stands so the math doesn't add up. Will gates be added?

anyone have details on this and where the new US club will be now that Delta is taking over the current US club?