ExpressJet Load Factors from WRWA

[venture]

Latest info covers the quarter ending in September, so these are a couple months old. The initial percentage is overall load factor in the market between OKC and that city on XJet. Below the city name I'll throw in some other data including the initial starting months to give perspective.

Albuquerque - 48.8%
April was 17.5%, May 28.8%
OKC is in the middle of the pack for ABQ flights, Tulsa is the weakest at 39.1% and Sacramento strongest at 63.6%. Don't see any changes coming here.

Austin - 35.0%
April was 20.0%, May 16.5%
OKC is in the bottom here followed by Tulsa at 27.1% then Corpus at 12.5%. Would expect them to give it a bit more, but then if it doesn't rebound I can see them pulling this route.

Ontario/LA - 59.0%
April was 10.9%, May 28.3%
This route is doing well considering the competition in the market now to LA. Tulsa is around 51% for comparrison.

San Diego - 48.9%
May 29.4%
A little weak, but hopefully it gets better. Tulsa is last at 39.8% and Fresno on top at almost 75%.

San Antonio - 35.6%
May 15.7%
Weak market. OKC and Tulsa are the bottom feeders here, TUL is at 25%. Expect this one to get the ax before long.

Sacramento - 58.8%
May 26.7%
Descent here...top 3 behind Tuscon and ABQ. Tulsa is at 47%. Expect this to hold on as well.

Overall they are doing well in non-traditional Southwest market. I would expect Southwest and American still own the traffic to San Antonio and Austin. I would like to see them add in New Orleans and a Florida destination this coming year. Would also like to see if they can make any headway into the Northeast. I know they are trying to not piss off Continental as much as possible, but the direct air service market is hard to ignore.

[Kerry]

So once they start pulling the Tulsa routes do you see any of the flights in OKC getting some of that business?

[venture]

I would think OKC may see 1-3 percentage point bump...the Cali flights maybe a little more than that. Really though, people are just too married to Southwest or American and are refusing to take the nonstop service. Use it or lose it...so they'll likely lose it.

[jbrown84]

I have a friend who is more married to single airline (American in this case) than anyone I know. But we will be flying to LA in March on XJet.

[Kerry]

I have a friend who is more married to single airline (American in this case) than anyone I know. But we will be flying to LA in March on XJet.

I admit that I am married to Delta because of the frequent flier program. I don't always fly on Delta but the whole time I am on another airline I keep thinking about the miles I am losing. Is this what my life has come to? Passing up the best option so I can get another 1000 miles closer to a free ticket that really doesn't do me any good unless I buy three additional tickets for my wife and kids.

[BDP]

Personally, I'm married to non-stop flights. I use southwest's frequent flier program because it's easy and they actually have non-stops to some of my frequent destinations, but no way I am using southwest over another carrier that offers a non-stop. Cutting my travel time in half or more is worth a lot more than I'd save by getting a couple of extra points on a southwest flight that's going to stop one or more times on the way to my destination. Now I am sure that if I flew every week for business it would be different, but I fly maybe once a month for business and personal reasons combined, and I haven't found a frequent flier program good enough to make me give up non-stops when they're available on another airline.

[soonerj]

I am a loyal American Airlines customer, racking up thousands of frequent flyer miles a year with the company, but I must say there is an appeal to ExpressJet. The direct flights, the CHEAP flights and the onboard satellite radio and FOOD is definitely a draw. I've flown them to San Diego and had few bad things to say about the company. I intend to use the service again in 2008.

I will say I, too, would enjoy a New Orleans flight. I previously flew the OKC to New Orleans nonstop via United before it was taken away. The flight down was wonderful, but they cancelled the return flight because only four people had booked seats on it. Hopefully, if ExpressJet did a New Orleans flight, it's numbers would be high enough to keep it going back to the Big Easy!

[jbrown84]

I'm with you. I'd pay more for a non-stop flight. I hate layovers. I hate when it takes an entire day of your vacation just to get somewhere because you have a freaking 90-minute layover in Atlanta or Salt Lake and then have to board another plane, wait for it to taxi out, take off, land, taxi in, deboard....

[venture]

When I lived in Ohio I was married to USAir (now US Airways)...and of course they were now here to be found in Oklahoma until the merger with America West. Then I shacked up with Delta...but really the times I want the travel, the reward tickets can't be used. I have enough miles sitting there with them for a couple trips. Of course it was also nice to get the class upgrades once hitting Medallion status, but there is hardly any first class service left (for Delta it will all be gone soon in OKC).

Recently...I've been looking at quality of service in addition to fares and nonstops. I'm one who gets bored and impatient on a long flight, so inflight entertainment is pretty important. Took Frontier a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Yeah my layover in Denver was pretty long, but the free Wi-Fi helped pass the time. The crew was great and the DirecTV and PPV movies definitely were nice.

[lpecan]

Couple comments. First, I'm married to continental. I've got platinum status and thats pretty nice. That said, I would never fly continental where I could fly direct. I probably spend 10 minutes every day trying to tell people about XJet because I'm really scared of losing it (And I am really hoping to add a JAX or MSY flight)

I'm a little confused about load factors. The higher number, the better... right? Yet you say OKC is at the bottom for OKC-AUS, but then you list two smaller numbers. I'm confused.

I wonder if anyone has stats on the total number of final destinations out of OKC. IE, how many people end up in PHL, ORD, GEG etc after all their connections. I've flown the Austin flight three times now, and I guess people would just rather drive. I don't imagine anyone is connecting on that flight... that hardly seems worth it. Yet that seems to be XJet's plan here (with the exception of the Cali flights which are doing better) They are presenting themselves as an alternative to driving, rather than operating as a point to point service between common routes.

[venture]

I guess what I was getting at, we are in the bottom group - when I list a couple other low cities. Higher number is definitely better. When you get to around 80-85% that is usually an indicator when an airline is overbooking and starting to turn away people.

I will work up the actual O&D stats for cities out of OKC. Not sure what the latest quarter is the DOT has out. Once I get them, I'll clean it up and post it here. I want to go back through and do a comparrison since the nonstops started to see the impact on certain markets. It will also be interesting to see how market share has changed as well.

I think XJet is hoping to get people away from the one-stop service through Dallas when it comes to AUS and SAT. Their flights are also based soley on O&D...no connecting at all. I would love to see them head inito Midway and become a viable alternative to Southwest there. Ever since Southwest got involved in the affairs at ATA, options have totally vanished. I use to enjoy flying ATA, even though the seats were crampt...but the fairs amazing.