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stlgph

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 02:39:05 am


Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

Obviously if the routes aren't in operation, there is probably a reason for it, but there are still a few routes that seem to be skipped from Indianapolis that do surprise me.


--United Airlines to San Francisco or Los Angeles

United has never, as far as I can remember, had service from Indy to San Francisco, but now with ATA definitely gone and Northwest sitting idle, it just seems with their push to expand their name brand presence and push the Star Alliance connections, that United would consider initiating nonstop service into San Francisco, and perhaps follow that up with service into Los Angeles, especially since it seems Southwest is axing the route. The flights into both cities would feed United's remarkably rather large operation from each, as well as feed into some of more of the international flights and not just limiting the connections to Chicago.


--American into Los Angeles
Echoing almost the same sentiments as above, American has a pretty large operation out of Los Angeles, albeit not as big as United, and I am surprised there never was an M80 flight or two that was added to provide a feed into American's LAX operations. After all, they make it work out of Austin, Denver, and even Las Vegas, etc. However, it seems the Trans States as AA Connection flight times allow for a convenient feed into the AA STL departures to the west coast cities, including Los Angeles of course.


--America West/US Airways to Las Vegas

With Las Vegas being one of the top destinations from Indianapolis and now that ATA has pulled out out of the city, it seems like a great route for the new airline to pick up. America West has never been extremely gung ho on pushing their product nonstop from the midwest into Las Vegas but now with the merger into US Airways and the name/following the airline already has in Indianapolis, it just seems like it would be a route addition the airline might want to consider.


--Air Tran to Baltimore

Despite only having been operating from Indianapolis for under a year, the Indy station is one of the fastest and most successful start ups in recent history of pretty much any airline coming into a new city. I am surprised that there isn't at least one flight into Baltimore as of now just to capture additional traffic into the BoWash metro area and to connect into markets in the northeast. I think it'd be an opportunity the airline could profit on.


--Southwest to Houston Hobby

The airline switched its daily nonstop service into New Orleans into nonstops to Houston, but since pulled the route. I am quite surprised the Houston nonstop didn't stay considering there is a high amount of business traffic into Houston and south Texas. But again, it seems that Southwest and Indianapolis continue their 'hidden issues' as service from Indianapolis on Southwest skews ever more and more with the next schedule release. At any rate perhaps Continental Airlines will seize the Texas traffic and we'll see a few Express Jet frequencies added or perhaps a few more mainline Continental jets into the airport in the future. I'd personally fly Continental over Southwest anyway.


--US Airways point to point service to Florida

Despite their efforts to save money and cut costs here and there, I am surprised they did pull their point to point nonstop service into Orlando and Tampa. I imagine the reason for the pull was because the yields simply were not high enough because of the low fares forced onto the routes by ATA. Even so, there is still plenty of traffic along the routes and they could have perhaps thrown some Express RJ's on to the routes which might have fared the airline better.

Indy

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 05:35:41 am

Indy
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Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

I think the battle next year will be between Northwest and AirTran. US Airways has far too many route issues to deal with because of the merger for me to even begin to guess what they are doing. United and American are unlikely to change. They probably have the most steady schedules at IND. And I think your review of Southwest are pretty accurate. They have issues of some sort with IND. I think Continental is pretty stable in their routes like United and American. Just keep an eye out for the NW/FL battle.

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stlgph

Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 06:07:49 pm


Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

I don't look for too much of a 'battle.' I think both airlines have operations where there is demand for both carriers to stay in business and run a healthy schedule. It's when a carrier such as American starts to Los Angeles or perhaps Eagle starting services to La Guardia, or United beginning San Francisco or Los Angeles, that's when you might start to see some reaction from the other carriers, particularly Northwest. I think AirTran for right now seems to be avoiding expanding from Indianapolis to the west coast...but that of course could change. Minute changes such as Continental beefing up mainline, etc., that won't phase anybody too much.

Indy

Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 05:46:21 pm

Indy
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Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

If what I heard is true NW will be expanding to the west coast. I don't really see much changing in the next month or two. Not until after the holiday travel period. Perhaps adjustments won't be made until after spring break when its safer to adjust fleets.

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stlgph

Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 01:43:49 am


Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

If NWA is going to be -the- airline at IND, it'd be nice to see them expand to more cities, offer more routes, keep fares in check, etc., and maintain such service as Phoenix, Dallas, and Austin, etc.

However, another wicked side of me would love to see NWA fail and ATA come back full speed ahead. Since that probably won't happen, it's nice to see Indianapolis at least have one major carrier, and perhaps a second strong one...pointing at Air Tran, of course.

Of course I'd be all for United starting service to Los Angeles and San Francisco, or American, or whomever. It's nice to know every so often, as we saw with Frontier starting service to Cancun, that other airlines are paying attention to this fine city.

Indy

Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 03:52:10 am

Indy
Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

stlgph wrote:

If NWA is going to be -the- airline at IND, it'd be nice to see them expand to more cities, offer more routes, keep fares in check, etc., and maintain such service as Phoenix, Dallas, and Austin, etc.


I understand them dropping the Texas cities like they did. But dropping Phoenix puzzles me. I thought maybe they were selling the flights too cheap until I checked their prices from IND-PHX via a hub and realized they were charging as little as they did for the nonstop flight and in some cases less. The IND-PHX flights were just about always full. Don't know if it was the victim of equipment shortages as a result of the strike.

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stlgph

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 12:06:50 am


Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

were the Texas loads low? i thought those routes were doing fine.

Indy

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 10:37:53 pm

Indy
Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Don't know about Austin but I heard DFW did really bad.

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