2015 Oklahoma Commercial Aviation Discussion

[Snowman]

So my wife and I are finally guilty of contributing to the leakage to DFW. Last minute trip to LA - tickets out of OKC were $700+ each, out of DFW barely over $200, and this is on AA, not Spirit. At least we'll get to have dinner with friends tonight. That drive back when we return is going to be hell though. Bizarre but makes sense given low oil prices and AA aggressively matching Spirit's fares. If only OKC was a big enough market for Spirit, I'm sure we'd see fares go down across the board here. Hopefully we don't have to do this again!

Last minute tickets are notorious for having the prices jacked up, it probably just means the flight out of DFW was nowhere near full.

[catch22]

http://www.flyokc.com/statistics/Oct...nplanement.pdf

Alaska still doing well on filling flights, north of 80% LF. Averaging 63 people per departing flight, 69 on the way back. Plane holds 76.

[AP]

What really sucks is that Frontier leaving the market has really skewed our overall numbers. United is up big time though.

[gopokes88]

What really sucks is that Frontier leaving the market has really skewed our overall numbers. United is up big time though.

Yeah I'd venture to say oil being down isn't really hurting us that bad. We might even be up in November, those October numbers are solid.

[catch22]

What really sucks is that Frontier leaving the market has really skewed our overall numbers. United is up big time though.

United has captured most of the Frontier traffic by beefing up capacity to DEN (Went from all Q400 to mostly Airbus after Frontier pulled out), Alaska probably picked up a bit of that slack to SEA and PDX.

Looks like Delta captured Southwest and some AA traffic last month.

[catch22]

Just noticed, looks like November Alaska (SkyWest) is operating the CRJ7 on SEA-OKC, which is a monumental mistake IMHO.

4 hours westbound on a CRJ is brutal, especially now that the winter North American jetstream is beginning to pick up, some of these flights may approach 4 1/2 hours with the winter headwind.

[HangryHippo]

Why make that switch, catch?

[catch22]

Why make that switch, catch?

I keep track of schedules quite a bit and as far as I can recall, November was always for sale as an E175. Which makes me believe this was a pretty recent switch.

That leads me to believe that SkyWest had an E175 go out of service unexpectantly for something requiring a few weeks of work. Or they planned on having a frame available but a delivery was late from Embraer so they had to backfill the route with a CRJ.

It's still a poor decision, they should have pulled an E175 off of the SEA/PDX-SLC routes to keep a 4 hour route on the most comfortable plane, especially since it is a brand new market and any hiccup can turn a customer off of the new carrier in the market.

[HOT ROD]

agreed, surely they could have put the crj onto a shorter SEA/PDX to SLC route and let OKC have the E175 while 'ours' is being repaired. Why didn't they give the crj to Milwaukee or whatever the other city Alaska expanded to along with OKC?

Anyway, hopefully the switch is just for November.

[no1cub17]

Last minute tickets are notorious for having the prices jacked up, it probably just means the flight out of DFW was nowhere near full.

Nope - DFW-LAX flights were damn near full all day. It's just fares were coincidentally much cheaper around the time spirit operates their flights. No idea why that would be!

[bradh]

So maybe this is a stupid question, but I saw the UA 757-300 flying in today for OU's charter to Waco. Does that plane fly in dry from IAH? I couldn't find on UA's website where that was a revenue flight.

[catch22]

So maybe this is a stupid question, but I saw the UA 757-300 flying in today for OU's charter to Waco. Does that plane fly in dry from IAH? I couldn't find on UA's website where that was a revenue flight.

Yes, by contract of the charter it is required to be flown non-revenue on the way in to pick up a charter. The idea behind this is because they don't want any passenger related issue to compromise the charter segment which the airline would be required to refund the cost to the team fully. A good example would be a medical diversion or unruly passenger creating a diversion situation.

[bradh]

Makes perfect sense, thanks catch for the clarification. I was confused when I saw the 753 flying over downtown, so I had to check it out on flightaware tonight.

[catch22]

Going to add some speculation.

Last few weeks American has been announcing several routes from PHX to the region. While I can't say for certain if OKC is in line, it is possible.

America West never had the brand in OKC to fight against Soithwest to LAS or PHX. Us airways never had the brand loyalty in OKC to continue PHX after the LAS hub closed for HP.

I think with the strength of the AA brand in OKC, it is logical to see PHX return to compete with DL's SLC and UA DEN access to the desert / mountain west.

Of course, the jury is still out on PHX as a hub anyway. It may be a last breath like UA CLE service was, we end up getting tied in to the hub in its last days.

I think PHX has potential in the AA network, but how profitable once fuel skyrockets again?

Just some Sunday morning thoughts.

[gopokes88]

Going to add some speculation.

Last few weeks American has been announcing several routes from PHX to the region. While I can't say for certain if OKC is in line, it is possible.

America West never had the brand in OKC to fight against Soithwest to LAS or PHX. Us airways never had the brand loyalty in OKC to continue PHX after the LAS hub closed for HP.

I think with the strength of the AA brand in OKC, it is logical to see PHX return to compete with DL's SLC and UA DEN access to the desert / mountain west.

Of course, the jury is still out on PHX as a hub anyway. It may be a last breath like UA CLE service was, we end up getting tied in to the hub in its last days.

I think PHX has potential in the AA network, but how profitable once fuel skyrockets again?

Just some Sunday morning thoughts.

Fuel won't be skyrocketing for a while, unless the wars in the Middle East cranks to another level.

[damonsmuz]

I see AA announced PHX-MEM and PHX-MAF. I know West Texas towns have been dying for west bound flights (Abilene,Lubbock and Amarillo) for quite some time now that was not on a Southwest plane. I'm guessing AA has a few planes sitting around...

Would OKC-PHX flights take away from OKC-LAX ???

[catch22]

Depends on how they handle LAX traffic. They briefly ran 3 daily to LAX. In lieu of that returning, they may look to add 1 daily PHX.

PHX offers domestic west coast connections that LAX doesn't. LAX handles transpacific connections and premium O&D traffic that PHX can't. With the right strategy, they can keep both hubs profitably.

Why use seats on OKC-LAX for west coast connections, when PHX can handle some of that, leaving LAX as a premium??

[no1cub17]

Would be a logical add, given the constraints at LAX. Would hate to see OKC-PHX somehow replace LAX though - hopefully the 2x LAX service stays! I'd think 2x PHX should work on E75/CR7/9 equipment. Lots of connections still available at PHX.

[Plutonic Panda]

Oklahoma City airport expects busy holiday week | News OK

[whatitis]

I never flew until recently. I was still in school and not making the money that gave me the opportunity to fly. Well now we've flown several times, several places all out of okc until just the other day. We decided to go to Miami/Ft Lauderdale. The tickets out of OKC even months in advance were around $350-$400 per person. However through spirit, it was $175. Also the flight out of Dallas was a direct flight where the flight from OKC had a 2 hour layover in Atl I think. Anyway we decided to visit the wife's grandma who lives right off I635 and then fly out.

[catch22]

Alaska has a fare sale $119 o/w to SEA and $159 o/w to PDX. That is tax included. Good opportunity.

[HOT ROD]

are the planes still full? I'm a little nervous that there's a fare sale.

[catch22]

are the planes still full? I'm a little nervous that there's a fare sale.

Systemwide Cyber Monday "Week". I just purchased ABQ-SEA-PDX for $97 all in. Amazing deal.

[HOT ROD]

oh freew. (wiping sweat!)

[shawnw]

Dang I wish I had seen that about the deal...