Delta and NWA fire back at Independence Air

[Dav8tor]

Delta, Northwest fire back at Independence Air
Dateline: Monday June 14, 2004

Two Major network carriers Friday responded to low-fare Regional airline startup Independence Air, offering new or expanded service out of Washington Dulles, where Independence begins operating this week.

In response to the new carrier's plans to operate eight services to Delta Air Lines' Atlanta hub from June 16, rising to 16 by Aug. 1, Delta said Friday it will increase its own Atlanta-Dulles service from 11 flights currently to 15 as of Aug. 1. The service will be operated by a combination of mainline jets and regional jets flown by Delta Connection in a shuttle-type pattern, with departures from Dulles on the hour between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Separately, Northwest Airlines announced it will launch Northwest Airlink CRJ service between Lansing, Mich., and Dulles with four weekday flights beginning July 15. On that day, Independence inaugurates service between the cities with seven daily roundtrips. Lansing already is a spoke city from NWA's Detroit and Minneapolis hubs

 

[Wiggums]

Maybe Indy Air shouldn't go head-to-head with Delta right out of the gate. Perhaps when the get a few more A320s, but look at JetBlue. Even with all their A320s they decided, thanks to AirTran and Delta, that Atlanta was not where they wanted to be right now.

 

[ACAFACVG]

No surpirses here. NWA tried the same thing when Valujet went into FNT and Air Tran is still there. The legacies are desperate to stop Independence before we can prove you can run a profitable LCC in small market cities with RJs. This and international routes are the only places they dont have LCC competition so they can continue to rape the flying public with high airfares. Once Independence gets enough Airbuses start making a profit there will be no stopping I Air. The majors know this and they will do everything they can over the next year to try and run us out of business. There will be more attacks by the majors in an attempt to kill off Independence. I'm glad I have Skeen as my field general and not Grinstein or Anderson. He will run rings around these guys. If they want to match our fares thats fine. We can make money at those fares and they will continue to bleed red.

All I have to say to the legacy carriers is bring it on.........we're ready for the fight.

 

[Noam]

Arrogance?

I can't believe the arrogance coming from the ACA employees. I'm sure it is just a few of you guys and most ACA dudes are as humble as ever, but geesh!

When JBLU or LUV enter a market do you hear about those guys crushing the competition? Do they talk about legacies like they are rapeing the public? Maybe they do, but I have yet to hear it. I didn't see one post from a LUV pilot saying how they would bring USAIR down when they entered the PHL market.

Show some humility for goodness sake...the ride "down" is twice as hard as the ride "up". Grow up!

This business is largely unpredictable and you may be eating your own words real soon.

Noam

 

[j41driver]

I can't believe the arrogance coming from the ACA employees. I'm sure it is just a few of you guys and most ACA dudes are as humble as ever, but geesh!

Some people have been letting their enthusiasm turn into arrogance. The truly arrogant ones are definately in the minority...please don't let them cloud your view of our company and the majority of our employees.

 

[storminpilot]

NW and DAL don't have these cool annoucements though.


http://www.flyi.com/announcements/

 

[ACAFACVG]

I can't believe the arrogance coming from the ACA employees. I'm sure it is just a few of you guys and most ACA dudes are as humble as ever, but geesh!

When JBLU or LUV enter a market do you hear about those guys crushing the competition? Do they talk about legacies like they are rapeing the public? Maybe they do, but I have yet to hear it. I didn't see one post from a LUV pilot saying how they would bring USAIR down when they entered the PHL market.

Show some humility for goodness sake...the ride "down" is twice as hard as the ride "up". Grow up!

This business is largely unpredictable and you may be eating your own words real soon.

Noam

So I guess its arrogant to have confidence in yourself and your company? And where did I say we were going to bring anybody down? If anything, the threats to bring somebody down have been coming from the other direction. Obviously you don't live in a small market city or talk to passengers that fly out of them or you would know just how much they are getting gouged right now to help the legacies cover their losses in the 80% of markets where LCCs will not allow them to charge high fares. I live in a small market and the first thing I hear about when people find out I work for an airline is how much they had to pay to fly out of my hometown as compared to driving and hour to another airport to fly on SWA or Air Tran. As for the bleeding part its a fact. The legacies continue to bleed because their cost structure cannot be supported by the fares they are charging to match the LCCs, and if the Independence business model works, they will forced to lower fares in these small markets as well. Sorry if you can't handle that dude, but facts are facts and I'm sorry if its too much for you to handle. As for humility, I guess you think we should be shuddering in our shoes because DL and NWA have decided to join with UAL in a effort to kill us off. Maybe we should just be real nice and beg them not to pick on us or something. Victory does not go to the meek. We all know the next year or so is goin to be a battle until we establish ourselves and get more A319s. But we're not gonna give without a hell of a fight so as I said earlier, if DL and NW want to try and take us out they can bring it on.........we'll give them a hell of a battle for the passengers and we will give no quarter.....

If that's not humble enough for you then I'm sorry.........I'm man enough that the big guys dont intimidate me......just makes me more determined to beat them

 

[ACAFACVG]

NW and DAL don't have these cool annoucements though.


http://www.flyi.com/announcements/

Yeah they're pretty cool.......my favorite is the Dennis Miller announcement with Carville and Matalin a close second.........

 

[AnimalTale]

. I'm glad I have Skeen as my field general and not Grinstein or Anderson. He will run rings around these guys. If they want to match our fares thats fine. We can make money at those fares and they will continue to bleed red.

All I have to say to the legacy carriers is bring it on.........we're ready for the fight.

Since I have flown for ACA, I hope they KICK A$$!!! But remember SKEEN is a business man. No matter what KoolAid he gives you, he is there to make money for himself(you, my friend, are a dispensible and replaceable pawn).
I also flew for another carrier that Skeen ran. He sold it and made a killing.

Just enjoy the ride and keep your options open. It is a cut throat industry. Nwa and Delta (with their revenues and LIFT) can literally CRUSH ACA> But we also remember David and Goliath. Keep your fingers crossed and be HUMBLE with your success. Pride is good! Good Luck >

 

[Flyforyou]

ACAFACVG,

I'm glad you're enthusiastic about our new operation(I AM too), but why don't you let our actions speak for us. You won't make any new friends with posts like that, and in this industry, sometimes you need them when you least expect it.


CVG Capt.