US AIRWAYS FAN

Ok so US could not make FLL work for the carib due to customs. But why why not have FLL and SJU or any of the virgin islands? US has many gates at FLL that are under used. US had FLL and SJU and those flights were full (I flew it a couple of times).

Since there is no customs involved why not have routes that could work. Is it because AA flushed them out of the market with the prices? Routes like these could work since there would be no need to go to customs at all.

With all the gate space why not open up SFO FLL, LAX FLL. These routes could be seasonal.

LGA FLL, BOS FLL, BWI should be brought back seasonal. Even Newark did great.

I know that US still has its saturday service IAD SJU that does excellent. That one should go daily but I guess that aircraft is needed some where else.

Jumpgate

Wasn't there a rumor quite recently about a seasonal SFO-FLL?

I agree with your sentiments exactly US FAN.

US AIRWAYS FAN

Yes there were Rumors about SFO FLL and LAX SFO but as it looks it never happend.

US has so many gates at FLL that could be put to good use.

Econ1

Funny you mention Florida to SJU, to get to MCO I am going SJU-PHL-MCO, lol. A lot of people don't understand when I tell them at least you guys understand...it's all about the miles Since SJU-PHL is the a330 I probably would still connect in PHL to get to MCO even if they had direct service.

US AIRWAYS FAN

Hoping Clue would chime in by now or others to give their opinions.

ClueByFour

Ask and ye shall receive .

I may be in the minority, but I don't see SFO-FLL or LAX-FLL as big winners. You already have tons of AA and UA service to and from both SFO and LAX to MIA. You can one-hop the trip on LUV. At the end of the day, I don't know that there is demand for it--people on the west coast (least the ones I know) either go to the beach locally or in Hawaii or the west coast of Mexico. They don't generally make the trip east, unless it's to a nice secluded island that's somewhat nicer than MIA/FLL. Which leads to:

Had the mini-hub survived, there might have been enough demand to the islands and central america to warrant perhaps 1 319/day in either direction. Now that need is better served via CLT.

I was somewhat shocked to see the SJU route go--everybody does well down there (or so it seems--I go about once a month anymore). Ditto for NYC-FLL, although they might have simply given that one up in the face of B6.

I don't think you would have seen the FLL operation last long under Tempe in any case--there is too much competition. These guys believe in deploying aircraft on monopoly routes, not on making a route system that makes sense.

US AIRWAYS FAN

I agree with you Clue about the FLL SJU route. To me that route makes sense as the flights were always full and I think they made good money on them. Just not sure why they pulled that route. Maybe with new aircraft coming (and wishful thinking) it may come back.

It's just a shame to see so many gates at so many airports on the east coast get so under utilized.

What ever happened with Dealmaker? I have not seen him in months.

ClueByFour

If (and it's a big if) they dedicate more aircraft to the Caribbean ops, I'd like to see them try to go back to places like San Salvador, and Santo Domingo, but out of CLT.

I'm not entirely sure (as I maintained at the time) that they would have success with a full-blown focus city at FLL--AA is just too strong out of MIA and has US blown away on lift and frequency.

That's a function of aircraft, too. Remember, East alone had almost 500 mainline aircraft just 5 or 6 years back.

That's a very good question. I really wanted his take on the whole Shares mess.

stiphy

Daily service to STX would serve me quite nicely!! With the new passport requirements you'd think the USVI and PR would be playing themselves up more. A shocking number of people in the US don't have passports and this seems like a huge leg up for the US Caribbean territories!

Sean

Jumpgate

The most recent Puerto Rico tourism commercials proudly make a relatively big deal about "No passport needed!" ... So they are playing it up a bit.

I remember the ~20 minutes that US Airways had an EWR-FLL flight. It was always completely empty.

The route was doomed from the beginning. The NYC-S. Florida market is so completely saturated with the big legacy names (CO, AA) and the big low cost/charter names (B6, Spirit, USA 3000, Airtran), that I can't believe US ever really had a chance. The airports are all completely saturated as well even HPN, SWF etc.

My guess is they thought the new FLL mini-hub would attract that route as a connection to points in the Carribean, but we all know that didn't work.

US AIRWAYS FAN

But the FLL SJU route was always full and I am sure it made money. The tickets to on that route were not exactly cheap either.

No one is saying bring back the FLL mini hub. But routes that did work and made sense like FLL SJU would be nice to have.

I do know that FLL LGA flights were full (you could see those at the gate) however, I am not sure how much money were made on those flights.