phlwookie

The question that is actually more important than "Is route x profitable?" is "Could the aircraft/slot/route authority/etc be used more profitably elsewhere?". This is really the key for the future of CLT to smaller European destinations.

I suspect you'll see them tinker some in the next few summers - in PHL we've seen routes like ARN, BHX, MXP and OSL come and go, SNN come, go, and come back, EDI start this year, and upgauges and season extensions on BCN and VCE among other tinkering. This could include more experimentation of routes from CLT, tries for the same routes out of JFK, PHL or MIA, or just about anything else. There are some impediments to this (spreading crews and aircraft types all over the place, regulatory hurdles for new routes, etc) but if a route is a marginal performer, something will happen. I also suspect that any slots that they can get their hands on at LHR will quickly be snapped up, potentially at the cost of dropping service on another route entirely.

What low hanging fruit are left? CPH, OSL, VIE, IST and ARN are Star hubs. Bad time to start Moscow given the political environment. HEL might make sense from PHL. More frequency to MAD? NCE, DUS? Iceland? Or do you focus on Latin America with "spare" 757s and A330s? Whatever the answer is, it should be an interesting few years coming up for AA international service.

linglingfool

As the forums merge, you'll learn that among all the idle speculation and self-proclaimed experts, there are about a half dozen posters on the AA side who generally know what they're talking about. MAH4546 is one of them.

perseus11

Your emotions appear to be guiding your rationale, rather than facts. I'll say one thing, CLT is very fortunate to have a flag waver as forceful and dedicated as yourself. BTW, this year, the seasonal CLT-FRA ends on 9/1/2014. PHL-FRA seasonal ends on 10/1/2014. So I guess they decided to shorten the one that "does better", by a month this year.

Piedmont767

I'll say one thing, CLT is very fortunate to have a flag waver as forceful and dedicated as yourself. Thank you. That actually means a lot to me.

BTW- The second daily CLT-FRA started sometime in April with an A333/A332 combo, the in May the second daily PHL-FRA started with a A332/762 combo, which later gave way to double daily A332 on both routes. And next year, the second daily CLT-FRA has been loaded to start a month or two before the second daily PHL-FRA is scheduled to start- both the second daily CLT/PHL-FRA will probably be cut soon enough, due to the fact US left Star.

Cltfc

[QUOTE=Piedmont767;23254245]Are yes! The person who said CLT-MAN would never happn, the person who said CLT-GIG would be cut in early 2010, among other things. The person who has predicted doom and gloom for Charlotte, for years and been wrong nearly all the time. Really sounds like he know what he is talking about!


And you were correct when you recently said that Phl-Dub was down gauged to 767 because the route was not performing well and some one asked if there were issues with the A332 fleet and you said no they are running perfectly when in fact one airframe was out of service (you quickly edited that post) I live here in CLT and I believed from day one this merger would not be good for CLT internationally speaking- I know you feel otherwise. Don't worry if you get bored flying CLT- Lon and MAD- you can always transfer to another AA base that will give you lots of flying opportunities

brero

Back in February I purchased a CLT-MAN non-stop for the end of September - return in October. I just received an email a couple of days ago changing my flight to a one-stop in PHL since they apparently trimmed the "season."
Do you think I should just accept this change without complaining or should I call and try to get some sort of compensation or something else for them changing my flight from non-stop to one-stop?

aztimm

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GNRMatt

Is the price less now for this one-stop trip than it was when you purchased it for your non-stop? If so, you can easily cancel your flight and re-book it with the new route and get some money back that way. Otherwise, I wouldn't really expect any type of compensation from them.

MAH4546

I have never predicted gloom and doom for Charlotte; I firmly believe the hub will remain a large on and is very important to AA. I predicted that CLTGIG would be discontinued as soon as US got access to GRU. I was right.

I don't recall ever saying CLTMAN would never happen - there's enough Florida feed for it to work; but the route is likely being discontinued anyway. There is no point in AA flying CLTMAN with it's higher cost structure instead of MIAMAN.

US and AA will still be separate for 2015, so this junk yield flying might last one more summer. And there's plenty of junk yield flying from PHL that won't survive, either.

If we really need any proof that CLT-Europe has an incredibly bleak future, look no further:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/201...-domestic.html

AA officials have made it abundantly clear to CLT officials that CLT will not be a long-haul/international hub for the airline, hence the international terminal was canned.

perseus11

Lots of international connecting traffic is "junk yield" flying. So are you predicting that AA will discontinue all international connecting traffic via PHL and CLT, that does not have sufficient international O&D to produce glowing Yields? if so, then you must also be predicting that JFK will be magically upgraded via AA's extensive slot pool to add most of the PHL international connecting services as well as new services to compete with DL, etc. - and PHL relegated to a mostly domestic Hub, with limited service to only a very few high yielding destinations, such as LHR. Although I don't agree with the referenced posters glowing international future for CLT, IMO, it has nearly the same level of non-citation referenced credibility as those of the MIA flag wavers.

My prediction, at the expense of being repetitive, is that JFK/PHL will both be upgraded. JFK to support additional NYC O&D centric international traffic and bleed DL in an attempt to establish better HUB profitabilty. PHL to support the majority of connecting Europe/Near East traffic. CLT could retain some Caribbean tourist traffic, LHR, MAD and possibly 1 or 2 seasonal European destinations, which can be supported with local tourist rate O&D. If LH dropped CLT-MUC, I could see either a corporate supported year round FRA or MUC, with some established feed into CLT to enhance the yields. Unless AA feeds CLT-LHR, I'm uncertain if it could support 2 year round flights.

C010T3

You predicted a lot of things for CLT-GIG since the service was applied for. One thing we can safely say is that we will never know what US would have done with it had the airline stayed independent.

GRU and GIG have been operated concurrently for more than a year now, so even your prediction of "as soon as" failed.

Speedracer2

For an airline I read "as soon as" to be within a year. Now that both GIG and GRU are gone, what's next? My bet is that only the OW hubs and perhaps FRA will remain as year round TATL destinations from CLT.

This will leave CLT as something similar to what MSP is for DL, a dominant domestic regional hub with a handful of international destinations.

MAH4546

A one year overlap is certainly "as soon as," and GRU was operated with a horrendous daylight schedule that probably lost US hundreds of thousands.

But now we finally know that not only did CLTGIG absolutely suck in terms of financial performance, but CLTGRU was as big a disaster. Shocking.

Cltfc

I just found more concrete evidence that CLT- LIS,MAN,BCN and BRU will not return in Summer 2015. Checking flight schedules for late June I noticed that none of these flights have been added in US Airways.com system. Some have argued they were new in 2014 so it will take time to evaluate. I found the PHL-EDI which was a new seasonal route in2014 has been added for the 2015 schedule this leads me to believe that CLT routes will not be back in 2015.

SkyTeam777

I can't seem to find LIS at all anymore from CLT. I know BCN is operating, but were MAN/LIS/BRU cut from the schedule this year?