Originally Posted by
venture79
Ooops...I missed this thread, my bad.
About the United service. This is actually being flown by Trans States Airlines as "At-Risk" flying. Meaning...TSA is funding the entire thing, UA just happens to be code-sharing the routes and selling them as United Express. TSA is trying a new focus city operation out of San Antonio (SAT) and doing some more point-to-point out of New Orleans (MSY). Will this work? I think it will get a decent amount of local traffic.
The MSY market is still soft. Southwest has halted a lot of service there and JetBlue haulted a pre-Katrina expansion. This could just be a move to prevent these guys from getting in there. SAT will steal passengers that normally use AA or Southwest on the runs. Should do decent on the routes...but we'll see.
This is the type of flying to expect over the next several years. Airlines have a glut of high cost RJs with no where to put them, so they are going to try point-to-point routes.
We'll see how things progress. Definitely a lot of potential still available for RJs out of OKC. This will be a fast changing year in aviation with Northwest and Delta continuing down the Chapter 11 road, with labor relations getting really ugly at Northwest. Southwest will start having costs increase, and US Airways will continue to integrate the operations of America West. The America West livery will be completely gone by the end of 2006, with the repainting of the old US Airways fleet to be done next year.
Fun times ahead.
As far as the local WRWA website. Does it shock anyone?
Also the new airport director...don't worry too much. I've seen people come from running non-commercial airports into airports in the ranking of small hub or medium hub (OKC)...and be very successful. Patience.
I was wondering when you would chime in.
Interesting data about the TSA/United Express service... irrespective of its long-term viability, it seems like the airport should be doing more cheerleading. This is an easy way for them to look good. Heck, in Dallas, the announcement that Spirit Airlines was going to add
one flight per day to Ft. Lauderdale triggered self-congratulatory P.R. by the DFW Airport Board, followed by stories in both the Dallas Morning News and Star-Telegram.
It would only take 5 minutes to update the website with this info.
Oh, thanks for the words of advice on the new Airport Director. Hopefully, it will all work out for the best.
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