Air Battles...Delta Connection OKC-LAX

[venture]

Ugh no no no no no.

Delta 9575 * 7:00am
06 Oct 2007 OKC 7:58am
06 Oct 2007 LAX Embraer 145

Delta 9576 * 4:45pm
06 Oct 2007 LAX 9:25pm
06 Oct 2007 OKC Embraer 145

Flights will be operated by....ExpressJet. LOL These are not replacing their currently own branded flights...this will be contract flying for Delta - much like ASA, Comair, etc.

This is going to make things really interesting now. We have 3 airlines battling for the same market. Fares should do well here, but more times than not...when this happens, the market implodes and everyone vanishes. Don't be shocked to see OKC without LA service in a year or two.

[Kerry]

Not actually the same route - one is LAX there other is ONT. In a city the size of LA it isn't really even serving the same customer base. I think this great news. One less reason to fly through Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City

[venture]

Kerry...
United Express already operates a daily flight to LAX, so no this isn't the same that ExpressJet operates under their own brand, but it is already operated right now.

New service is great, but not when we start killing each other off. Las Vegas was a good example of over doing a market. I don't consider Champion in this because they are a charter outfit. However, you had Allegiant come in and start it...then America West (now US Airways) followed by Southwest. Allegiant is gone...US Airways is down to 2 weekly flights from daily...and Southwest is hanging on to 1 flight.

We have to be very careful in where we push to get airlines to add service. There are so many other cities that we need right now, there is no reason to double up on routes. San Francisco, Seattle, the Florida crowd, Boston, Philly, etc.

[Kerry]

I agree with you finding another city to provide serive to. SFO would have been good.

[OUman]

Source: Delta Air Lines Expands Its Western Gateway With New Non-stop Flights Between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

I think this is more of a DL-based decision more than anything. If you have read the news lately, you'll know that DL and DL Conn are re-building the LAX focus operation to a hub. Indications are DL will increase its international service between LAX and other cities, may be even a return of some routes like LAX-NRT-LAX. DL-loyal passengers who want to catch a connecting flight from LAX would be the target. Also, keep in mind that this is a 50-seat jet, and it's serving more connecting pax than those who solely want to go to Los Angeles, who would go with Expressjet since Los Angeles O&D pax usually avoid congested LAX.

SFO and SEA would probably come online with United Express and Horizon Air. I dunno about the FL airports, with the recent failures of Transmeridian and DL Conn. on the OKC-MCO-OKC route. Even WN's Sat-only service didn't last more than a year.

And LAS is probably more down to what it should've been to begin with. Even then, we have plenty of seats to/from LAS with Champion's 8 weekly roundtrips, USX's twice weekly and WN's daily. As traffic keeps going up between OKC and LAS, you'll either see an upgrade in aircraft size or frequency IMO.

[jbrown84]

It seems weird that ExpressJet would operate the flight when it's pretty much a direct competitor with one of their own flights.

[OUman]

*edited*