Kingfisher
2006-05-26 19:22:57 UTC
Things had definitely changed since my last visit to New York's La Guardia
Airport. The quintessential business airport was always dominated by
airlines with names synonymous with business travel American and United
Airlines with hourly service to Chicago; Delta and US Airways with more than
30 shuttle flights per day to Boston and Washington.
But a quick glance out the window confirmed something was different this
time around. A few United and US Airways tails dotted the picture, but my
view was filled with many new logos I'd never seen before in this airport:
AirTran, ATA, Canjet, Frontier, JetBlue, and Spirit Airlines planes flitted
across the tarmac. Discount airlines had arrived en masse.
This always-overcrowded, slot-controlled airport had always been dominated
by a select chosen few. With its close proximity to midtown Manhattan,
airlines operating at La Guardia could usually command a premium price over
the other two major New York City airports.
What happened here? One look at the departure screens told me that these
airlines were not just taking New Yorkers on vacations to Disney World. Many
discount airline flights were bound for cities like Atlanta, Chicago,
Detroit, and Toronto not exactly your typical leisure garden spots.
Low-cost carriers (LCCs) are now competing head to head with the likes of
American, Delta, and United on their bread-and-butter business routes.
Ever so quietly, LCCs have evolved into business airlines. Most have origins
steeped in leisure flying, and many people still perceive LCCs primarily as
leisure airlines, but this just isn't true anymore. Southwest offers more
than 120 departures each day at cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas,
Houston, and Oakland. While some fliers may indeed be vacationing in these
cities, we're hardly talking about Bermuda here.
And while this is happening right in American and United's backyard, Spirit
Airlines is also operating a vibrant hub in the shadow of Northwest's
fortress in Detroit and AirTran is going head-to-head with Delta Airlines in
their hometown of Atlanta. These airlines may have begun life as leisure
carriers, but not anymore.
While LCCs are openly now chasing the business traveler, long time business
airlines have repositioned themselves to compete with LCCs for the leisure
passenger according to research from Hamlin Transportation Consulting in
Fairfax, Va.
United's imitation-no-frills-airline, Ted, primarily flies between United's
hubs like Chicago and San Francisco, to a slew of sunshine destinations from
Florida to Mexico. A complete role reversal between the high-cost legacy
airlines and LCCs is underway.
And role reversal goes well beyond route selection. In-flight service has
reversed as well. While most legacy airlines are now charging for meals or
eliminating food service altogether on domestic flights, LCCs like JetBlue
and Southwest, now offer complimentary snack boxes on many longer flights.
While legacy airlines are removing pillows and charging for pretzels,
JetBlue hosted an open snack bar on my last cross-country flight.
Every day the legacy carriers become more like their low cost competitors
while the LCCs add new perks and amenities. AirTran, ATA, and Spirit offer
business class at a very affordable price and Southwest now allows wireless
check-in from your mobile device.
While legacy airlines cancel and defer new aircraft orders, LCCs continue to
take delivery of new planes and boast some of the youngest fleets in the
U.S. airline industry. Frontier, JetBlue, and WestJet now offer
state-of-the-art satellite television entertainment systems not available on
any legacy airline flights in North America.
LCCs have also made strides in passenger comfort. While American has pulled
back their "more room in coach" product and the United Economy Plus section
is expensive and difficult to obtain if you are not an upper level Premier
flier, Frontier, JetBlue, and Southwest generally offer 1" to 3" more leg
room than most domestic legacy airline cabins.
Even LCCs reputation as short-hop carriers is changing. Southwest's average
flight segment increased 13% from 537 to 607 miles in the past four years as
LCCs begin to exploit more long haul markets. You can now fly Southwest
non-stop from Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale, or Philadelphia to cities like Los
Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego. And much of JetBlue's core business is
transcontinental from Boston, New York, or Washington to seven west coast
cities.
LCCs may not always go head to head in the same airport like AirTran and
Spirit have done respectively with Delta in Atlanta and Northwest in
Detroit. But most LCCs still find ways to break into major markets using
lower cost, alternate airports wherever possible like Southwest at
Providence and Manchester in the Boston area or JetBlue in Oakland and San
Jose in the San Francisco area.
Increasingly, LCCs are moving into major airports, like Southwest's recent
entries into Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to take on US Airways and Denver to
compete directly with United. Southwest will begin new service in United's
Washington, Dulles hub this fall and I believe that Atlanta, Charlotte, and
Minneapolis are next on their list.
While most LCCs fly 100-to-150 seat jets, legacy airlines continue to
substitute 50 to 70 seat regional jets on many routes formerly plied by
mainline jets. Eugene, Ore., Evansville, Ind, and Roanoke, Va., are a few of
many smaller cities no longer offering mainline service according to
Hamlin's research, and he sees the trend to small aircraft continuing among
legacy airlines.
As role reversal progresses I believe we may wake up to find air service
between major cities dominated by LCCs with their larger jets, while legacy
carriers primarily operate regional jets between their hub cities and
smaller cities in the region. More than 2/3rds of United's flights at Dulles
are now operated by regional aircraft according to Seth Kaplan of Airline
Weekly. The situation is similar at Delta's hub in Cincinnati and American's
in St. Louis.
Imagine flying on a short hop from Knoxville to Atlanta on a 50-seat
regional jet operated by Delta Connection and transferring to an AirTran 737
for your much longer flight to Los Angeles. As role reversal in the airline
industry continues, this scenario could be your only option in a world
turned upside down.
Airport. The quintessential business airport was always dominated by
airlines with names synonymous with business travel American and United
Airlines with hourly service to Chicago; Delta and US Airways with more than
30 shuttle flights per day to Boston and Washington.
But a quick glance out the window confirmed something was different this
time around. A few United and US Airways tails dotted the picture, but my
view was filled with many new logos I'd never seen before in this airport:
AirTran, ATA, Canjet, Frontier, JetBlue, and Spirit Airlines planes flitted
across the tarmac. Discount airlines had arrived en masse.
This always-overcrowded, slot-controlled airport had always been dominated
by a select chosen few. With its close proximity to midtown Manhattan,
airlines operating at La Guardia could usually command a premium price over
the other two major New York City airports.
What happened here? One look at the departure screens told me that these
airlines were not just taking New Yorkers on vacations to Disney World. Many
discount airline flights were bound for cities like Atlanta, Chicago,
Detroit, and Toronto not exactly your typical leisure garden spots.
Low-cost carriers (LCCs) are now competing head to head with the likes of
American, Delta, and United on their bread-and-butter business routes.
Ever so quietly, LCCs have evolved into business airlines. Most have origins
steeped in leisure flying, and many people still perceive LCCs primarily as
leisure airlines, but this just isn't true anymore. Southwest offers more
than 120 departures each day at cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas,
Houston, and Oakland. While some fliers may indeed be vacationing in these
cities, we're hardly talking about Bermuda here.
And while this is happening right in American and United's backyard, Spirit
Airlines is also operating a vibrant hub in the shadow of Northwest's
fortress in Detroit and AirTran is going head-to-head with Delta Airlines in
their hometown of Atlanta. These airlines may have begun life as leisure
carriers, but not anymore.
While LCCs are openly now chasing the business traveler, long time business
airlines have repositioned themselves to compete with LCCs for the leisure
passenger according to research from Hamlin Transportation Consulting in
Fairfax, Va.
United's imitation-no-frills-airline, Ted, primarily flies between United's
hubs like Chicago and San Francisco, to a slew of sunshine destinations from
Florida to Mexico. A complete role reversal between the high-cost legacy
airlines and LCCs is underway.
And role reversal goes well beyond route selection. In-flight service has
reversed as well. While most legacy airlines are now charging for meals or
eliminating food service altogether on domestic flights, LCCs like JetBlue
and Southwest, now offer complimentary snack boxes on many longer flights.
While legacy airlines are removing pillows and charging for pretzels,
JetBlue hosted an open snack bar on my last cross-country flight.
Every day the legacy carriers become more like their low cost competitors
while the LCCs add new perks and amenities. AirTran, ATA, and Spirit offer
business class at a very affordable price and Southwest now allows wireless
check-in from your mobile device.
While legacy airlines cancel and defer new aircraft orders, LCCs continue to
take delivery of new planes and boast some of the youngest fleets in the
U.S. airline industry. Frontier, JetBlue, and WestJet now offer
state-of-the-art satellite television entertainment systems not available on
any legacy airline flights in North America.
LCCs have also made strides in passenger comfort. While American has pulled
back their "more room in coach" product and the United Economy Plus section
is expensive and difficult to obtain if you are not an upper level Premier
flier, Frontier, JetBlue, and Southwest generally offer 1" to 3" more leg
room than most domestic legacy airline cabins.
Even LCCs reputation as short-hop carriers is changing. Southwest's average
flight segment increased 13% from 537 to 607 miles in the past four years as
LCCs begin to exploit more long haul markets. You can now fly Southwest
non-stop from Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale, or Philadelphia to cities like Los
Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego. And much of JetBlue's core business is
transcontinental from Boston, New York, or Washington to seven west coast
cities.
LCCs may not always go head to head in the same airport like AirTran and
Spirit have done respectively with Delta in Atlanta and Northwest in
Detroit. But most LCCs still find ways to break into major markets using
lower cost, alternate airports wherever possible like Southwest at
Providence and Manchester in the Boston area or JetBlue in Oakland and San
Jose in the San Francisco area.
Increasingly, LCCs are moving into major airports, like Southwest's recent
entries into Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to take on US Airways and Denver to
compete directly with United. Southwest will begin new service in United's
Washington, Dulles hub this fall and I believe that Atlanta, Charlotte, and
Minneapolis are next on their list.
While most LCCs fly 100-to-150 seat jets, legacy airlines continue to
substitute 50 to 70 seat regional jets on many routes formerly plied by
mainline jets. Eugene, Ore., Evansville, Ind, and Roanoke, Va., are a few of
many smaller cities no longer offering mainline service according to
Hamlin's research, and he sees the trend to small aircraft continuing among
legacy airlines.
As role reversal progresses I believe we may wake up to find air service
between major cities dominated by LCCs with their larger jets, while legacy
carriers primarily operate regional jets between their hub cities and
smaller cities in the region. More than 2/3rds of United's flights at Dulles
are now operated by regional aircraft according to Seth Kaplan of Airline
Weekly. The situation is similar at Delta's hub in Cincinnati and American's
in St. Louis.
Imagine flying on a short hop from Knoxville to Atlanta on a 50-seat
regional jet operated by Delta Connection and transferring to an AirTran 737
for your much longer flight to Los Angeles. As role reversal in the airline
industry continues, this scenario could be your only option in a world
turned upside down.
--
Our Homepage:
http://mysite.verizon.net/resot1sy/fishersofflorida/
Our Webshots Page:
http://community.webshots.com/user/spion007
Our Homepage:
http://mysite.verizon.net/resot1sy/fishersofflorida/
Our Webshots Page:
http://community.webshots.com/user/spion007