2014 Oklahoma Commercial Aviation Discussion

[no1cub17]

Everyone is bearish on OKC-ORD.

United has cut to 3 daily, American has cut to 3 daily. Southwest has dropped back down to 1 daily.

Bearish on frequency, bullish on yields. Fares to/through Chicago are insane. Then again fares anywhere out of OKC have gotten insane lately.

[catch22]

If yields were good they would be adding more frequency to allow the market to grow more. Yields are trash so they are cutting capicity to bring the yields back up. Bear.

[no1cub17]

If yields were good they would be adding more frequency to allow the market to grow more. Yields are trash so they are cutting capicity to bring the yields back up. Bear.

Meh, the triopoly is getting content making fat profits. Why grow capacity and potentially lower yields. But we can agree to disagree.

[catch22]

Because if the market wants to grow, you can capture more traffic at a slightly lower yield but make up for it by increasing your capacity.

Do you want 1 passenger to pay $600 if you have 2 that will pay $350?

Right now the market is providing 1 passenger at 600 and the second passenger is not showing up for the $350.

[catch22]

The UA March schedule has been uploaded to reservation systems. We lose mainline to IAH effective March, Denver reduced to 4 daily.

[s00nr1]

The UA March schedule has been uploaded to reservation systems. We lose mainline to IAH effective March, Denver reduced to 4 daily.

Yay consolidation. Other than the SEA add, options continue to get worse out of OKC.

[catch22]

Yay consolidation. Other than the SEA add, options continue to get worse out of OKC.

Without going into detail, people are not using the mainline seats. Routinely has less than 75 people on a 150 seat jet. Why should they continue to send it to OKC if OKC has no interest in using it?

[OUman]

^Makes sense. It's what Delta calls "right-sizing" the aircraft to the market. Empty seats will not get you larger aircraft, especially these days.

[catch22]

Use it or you lose it. The E175 is proving to be the perfect aircraft for OKC-IAH. Initial indications are that United loves it, and the schedules are illustrating that.

It provides mainline quality at half the plane. It arrives into the C concourse in IAH, which is used almost exclusively for mainline and E175 ops. Carry on luggage fits on board, which allows for passengers to make quick connections without waiting for carry on bags. It has two restrooms on board, and power in the seats. Wifi will be coming on board the Express fleet next year, and also hot meals will be available on all "large" Express flights. So the 170/175 and CRJ700.

It's a good fit for the business market, and it would not surprise me to see all IAH flights go to the 175. The March schedule will be 6 E175's if I remember right, and 3 145's. So it is slowly coming.

[s00nr1]

I'm great with the E75s 100%. It's the ER4s that drive me nuts.

[bradh]

The 175 is a great plane. The seats are strangely firm but everything catch said is dead on.

[damonsmuz]

Saw some posts on a.net about AA going all RJ to ICT next summer. Is this just a dummy schedule or is that legit? Is AA making any changes to OKC-DFW with aircraft type that is not already happening today??

[ljbab728]

Saw some posts on a.net about AA going all RJ to ICT next summer. Is this just a dummy schedule or is that legit? Is AA making any changes to OKC-DFW with aircraft type that is not already happening today??

As of now, AA is showing 5 flights next summer with S80s and 5 with CR7s. That is basically the same as now.

[damonsmuz]

Weird question: What makes the S80 "Super" ?

[catch22]

Weird question: What makes the S80 "Super" ?

It's an MD80. American used to use the term Luxury Liner for all their jet aircraft, and amongst the branding they named their MD80's "Super 80's" to differentiate their MD80's from those of competitors.

It has stuck and they still use S80 as the fleet code.

GDS it displays as a M80 or M83. But their internal systems show S80/S83.

[venture]

To add to Catch's comments, I believe the "DC-9 Super 80" or DC-9-80 series were launched prior to the merger with McDonnell. It eventually was renamed to the MD-8X branding. AA just kept the Super 80 name around for awhile. They did change to calling it the Boeing MD-80 after the Boeing/MDD merger was done.

[ljbab728]

It's an MD80. American used to use the term Luxury Liner for all their jet aircraft, and amongst the branding they named their MD80's "Super 80's" to differentiate their MD80's from those of competitors.

It has stuck and they still use S80 as the fleet code.

GDS it displays as a M80 or M83. But their internal systems show S80/S83.

The Sabre GDS still displays S80.

[Plutonic Panda]

Frontier Airlines giving passengers early Christmas present with $19 flights | KFOR.com

[no1cub17]

Frontier Airlines giving passengers early Christmas present with $19 flights | KFOR.com

I wonder why they're pulling out of OKC - if people do anything on here it's gripe about price (me included) - so one would think F9 would've been a smash success here?

[damonsmuz]

Frontier has has success here. But the potential for them to have even greater success exists elsewhere.

As their business model changes the need to add and remove routes does too.

Others on here can provide more details than I have... but that's the Cliff Notes version

[catch22]

The Sabre GDS still displays S80.

Ours shows M80.

[Plutonic Panda]

Frontier has has success here. But the potential for them to have even greater success exists elsewhere.

As their business model changes the need to add and remove routes does too.

Others on here can provide more details than I have... but that's the Cliff Notes version

I know nothing about the airline industry other than it revolves around transporting people in an aluminum tube high up in the sky, but I would think if they were successful here they would stay. I can't understand what having a market that is doing well would do to hurt them or prevent them from being successful elsewhere.

[Tigerguy]

I know nothing about the airline industry other than it revolves around transporting people in an aluminum tube high up in the sky, but I would think if they were successful here they would stay. I can't understand what having a market that is doing well would do to hurt them or prevent them from being successful elsewhere.

As said above, they'll chase the dollar signs if they can. Frontier, with their new business model, is more sensitive to that than they might have been in the past. I don't know what the numbers looked like for OKC, but if they think they can get better numbers somewhere else with that plane, then they'll shuffle it around. Now, if you were to pull out your wallet and buy them a few A320s, then they might think twice about shuffling planes around.

[catch22]

It's also important to note that their model is changing. OKC and cities our size are not really fitting into the new business plan.

It's like if Marshall's changed their business model to a dollar tree model, there are a lot of shopping centers they would need to pull out of because the demographic isn't the one they are chasing.

[Plutonic Panda]

As said above, they'll chase the dollar signs if they can. Frontier, with their new business model, is more sensitive to that than they might have been in the past. I don't know what the numbers looked like for OKC, but if they think they can get better numbers somewhere else with that plane, then they'll shuffle it around. Now, if you were to pull out your wallet and buy them a few A320s, then they might think twice about shuffling planes around.

Is the A320 a hundred million plus plane? I looked at the numbers for the Dreamliner and I was blown away.