Bring a knife to a gunfight - ACA future

[46Driver]

I seriously doubt we are going head to head with SouthWest - or Air Tran - or Jet Blue. I bet the company is looking at smaller cities not served by the 3 noted above as well as people who might want to pay a little extra for the convenience of flying into Dulles vice Baltimore.

 

[KingAirer]

I thought DCA was the prefered airport for Washington. IAD seemed like a long drive to me.

 

[AWACoff]

If ACA screwed the pooch by suing United...I guess Air Wisconsin must be involved in beastiality as well because we sued shortly after ACA did. I doubt the lawsuit has much to do with anything. Otherwise, interesting post.

 

[climbhappy]

aca similarities to the old midway

with aca having a larger fleet to amoritize costs over, they should be able to make money if they can brand their airline successfully and offer things like frequent flyer perks. airtran has been using buy three legs get one free...for a while.

midway was profitable with 24 rjs and 8 737s only until the demand dropped off before 911 and the ensueing tailspin.

they were flying out of little ol raliegh durham, yet a hotbed for tech and biotech business travel.

there are good opinions expressed here, but time will tell.

i don't feel they(ACA) had any other choice, so go for it!

 

[AirBoard]

Re: aca similarities to the old midway

i don't feel they(ACA) had any other choice, so go for it!

That just about sums it up folks. Regardless of what you think of the decision we had no real choice. Just look at the facts putting aside the hardball we played w/ United.

1. United in Chap 11.
2. 78% of Chap. 11 airlines will end up back in Chap 11 in 5 years (figure was noted in a webcast)
3. Increased low cost competition (ie Mesa) in regional area.
4. Unattractive deal offered by United.


What would you do faced with this situation:

1. Go along with United and take your chances everything works out - status quo, small opportunity for growth at best.

2. Be proactive and get out sooner rather than later.


I'm not jumping for joy as our stock tanks but I feel our mgmt. made the best decision faced with their predicament. Love em' or hate em' they only have growth in mind.

 

[General Lee]

EMBDRVR,

Well, I am working on it. I did make a small reference to it yesterday in another thread, but I do not delve into it as much. I will try to avoid it in these threads, but that doesn't mean I will forget it.


Airboard,

I agree that UAL handed you a bad deal, but I think it really is risky to go at it alone with no name recognition (compared to United Express). I hope it works.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[climbhappy]

name recognition

General Lee,

did valujet have any name recognition after the crash, and what about airtran with 10 to twelve tired old 737-200 ( before the ad agency said "change your name and paint the planes"), now they're climbing up delta's skirt. No offense meant!

did jetblue have any recognition? only the best financed start up with 130 mil in seed capital before they ever flew.

People make a difference and their attititudes. ask gordon bethune , whose book, from worst to first chronicled how he changed the culture of a bunch of self deprecating people to where they are now.

if keegan(correct name?) can rally his troops to the call of proving the critics wrong, this may well be the airline story of this decade!

 

[NEDude]

I have to disagree with the statement that IAD is better for a LCC than BWI. BWI is perfectly suited to pick up traffic from three major cities - DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

I think this will be interesting to watch however.

Best of luck to all of you Blueridgers, hope it goes well.

 

[j41driver]

Think about it for a minute. ACA is going to go head to head against the only profitable airlines in the country, SWA and JBLU. They are currently saddled with a whole bunch of RJ's which are huge money losers when pitted against the 73's and 320's.

Where does it say we plan on competing directly with JBLU and SWA with CRJ's?

 

[j41driver]

Re: ACA morf into JET BLUE EXPRESS

Jet Blue is buying the new jet from Brazil and is going to start up a Jet Blue Express carrier. Why not just buy out ACA and you now have a working airline to place the new aircraft.

There is not going to be a JB Express carrier. When the EMB's show up they will be, for lack of a better term, mainline aircraft and will be flown by pilots on the jetBlue seniority list. It's not going to be a different carrier at all. Unless something has changed since they announced the EMB order.