And US Airways was taken over by America West Airlines prior to that where they also assumed the name of the company they aquired.
CMStPnP CSSHEGEWISCH The success of Southwest Airlines and other discount carriers who stuck to their business plan shows that Crandall wasn't too far off the mark. Southwest and other discount carriers have a niche in short trips. Even if they were willing to buy larger planes, I have my doubts Southwest could compete against a major transatlantic or trans pacific carrier. Precisely because airline travelers expect more than Southwest is willing to provide long distance. The long distance vs short distance business models appear to be different to me in the airline industry.......I could be mistaken on that of course. Just seems to me there are not a lot of no frills airlines in the over 10 hour nonstop trip category.
CSSHEGEWISCH The success of Southwest Airlines and other discount carriers who stuck to their business plan shows that Crandall wasn't too far off the mark.
Southwest and other discount carriers have a niche in short trips. Even if they were willing to buy larger planes, I have my doubts Southwest could compete against a major transatlantic or trans pacific carrier. Precisely because airline travelers expect more than Southwest is willing to provide long distance. The long distance vs short distance business models appear to be different to me in the airline industry.......I could be mistaken on that of course. Just seems to me there are not a lot of no frills airlines in the over 10 hour nonstop trip category.
Guess again. Freddie Laker's Skytrain proved in the 1970s that were was demand for long distance low cost travel. Unfortunately for Skytrain, the recessions of the early 1980s and interest rates, combined with predatory pricing and seasonal demand led to Skytrain ending service in 1982.
Given the recent growth in civil aviation and culture changes, it is probable that low cost long haul airlines are not that far off in the future. The key is to set customer expectations up front. Southwest will be the first of the new generation airlines to go long haul when they get their Hawaii service up and running. Don't underestimate airlines like Southwest or Spirit. American Airlines tried to put obstacles in Southwest's path. Southwest got around those and grew due to the relations that the management at that time had with the employees. They grew and eventually ate American's lunch, too.
Bob Crandall might have known the business, but he was WAY off the mark when it came to effective management. Had he treated his employees better, maybe the real American Airlines would still be with us. His antagonistic relations with the airline employees destroyed American from the inside out and drove plenty of his former customers into the arms of Southwest or other carriers.
What really made the difference for Southwest in the early days was the relationship between management and the employees. Management gave the employees a stake and say in how the airline was run from the very beginning. That's why employee satisfaction is as high as it is with Southwest employees and why the airline allowed A & E to feature it on "Airline" for several seasons.
CMStPnP Southwest and other discount carriers have a niche in short trips. Even if they were willing to buy larger planes, I have my doubts Southwest could compete against a major transatlantic or trans pacific carrier.
Southwest and other discount carriers have a niche in short trips. Even if they were willing to buy larger planes, I have my doubts Southwest could compete against a major transatlantic or trans pacific carrier.
Southwest is becoming less of a price delta (excuse the pun). Carriers like Spirit have started to erode the super low fare folks. That is until the realize there are enough aditional fees for things like seatbelts ;).
DA/AA/UA now closely match SWA fares on similar routes by adding a basic fare class, but when they are the only direct route watch out!!
BackshopSouthwest Airlines has a "niche"? That's like saying the Grand Canyon is a ravine. Southwest flies more domestic passengers than Delta and United and is only slightly less than American. Frequent travelers want perks like meals, legroom and free bags,
The Grand Canyon is a ravine when compared with the rest of the land area of the United States, it is only appears as a canyon when your close to the rim or within a few hundred miles of it.
Most importantly, frequent travelers want to get home on a nonstop vs tour the country flight. Very few frequent business traveler opt for the tour the country option. Some do, to accumulate miles. Southwest flies a large "niche" of passengers who would not otherwise fly if it were not for the cheap Southwest fare. I would say a large chunk of Southwest passengers would drive if they could not get the low Southwest fares vs travel on another carrier.
Backshopbut for the once or twice a year traveler (to paraphrase realtors), the three most important things are low prices, low prices and low prices. People will even take 1 or 2 connections if it will save them $20 over a nonstop, direct flight.
So that would be a class (or called a niche) of passenger not ALL passengers. Some business passengers (like myself) would rather get home than tour the country to save a few bucks of money that isn't even my money in the first place. Further your also forgetting Southwest does not fly to O'Hare nor does it fly to DFW both are large international airports with overseas flights. Try an interline to either using Southwest and watch what happens. Shuttle cars between airports via highly unpredictable traffic is not really an option either.
awalker1829Freddie Laker's Skytrain
Similar history to the privately run Auto-Train but throw in the discount rental car agreements with major airlines as well as two derailments that wrecked a lot of cars and weakened the company financially. Auto-Train really did not prove much of anything because like Skytrain it's business history proved it's business model was unsustainable.
In overall passenger miles, international numbers aren't that important. Most Americans never fly international, unless it's to Mexico or the Caribbean. Southwest may not fly into ORD or DFW, but Spirit and Frontier do.As far as driving vs. flying, the road trip is a thing of the past unless it's less than 300 miles. You very rarely see out-of-state plates anymore (other than adjoining states) and most of the time, they're rental cars.
BackshopIn overall passenger miles, international numbers aren't that important. Most Americans never fly international, unless it's to Mexico or the Caribbean. Southwest may not fly into ORD or DFW, but Spirit and Frontier do.As far as driving vs. flying, the road trip is a thing of the past unless it's less than 300 miles. You very rarely see out-of-state plates anymore (other than adjoining states) and most of the time, they're rental cars.
Obviously you don't have I-95 time - Out of state plates seem to outnumber in state plates no matter which state you are in.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Obviously you don't have I-95 time - Out of state plates seem to outnumber in state plates no matter which state you are in.
Isn't that because most of the residents in the NE register their cars in Florida because of the taxes?
rdamon BaltACD Obviously you don't have I-95 time - Out of state plates seem to outnumber in state plates no matter which state you are in. Isn't that because most of the residents in the NE register their cars in Florida because of the taxes?
Not from the number of out of state and out of country plates that are seen when you are in Florida.
That is for sure!!!
It seems the MI tags outnumber the GA on the ATL highways during the spring and fall migrations.
Backshop In overall passenger miles, international numbers aren't that important. Most Americans never fly international, unless it's to Mexico or the Caribbean. Southwest may not fly into ORD or DFW, but Spirit and Frontier do.As far as driving vs. flying, the road trip is a thing of the past unless it's less than 300 miles. You very rarely see out-of-state plates anymore (other than adjoining states) and most of the time, they're rental cars.
I don't know how that can possibly true over 39 million people drove to reach their vacation destinations during 4th of July Holiday 2018, only 8 million flew, which was what 23% of those driving. I've personally observed people rent cars locally for a holiday and drive long distances even though they own their own cars. Also, in larger states like Texas, 300 miles is nothing as far as driving to a destination. I've also seen folks drive South from Southern MN to KC to fly out of KC's airport as part of their vacation travel. Lot of that going on in rural areas to get cheaper air fares as well.
Even with all the airline capacity we have now in the United States the flights sell out long before demand is met on peak travel periods. So some people drive as an alternative for waiting too long. Others drive because for a family it is cheaper than flying, etc. I think it is unrealistic to say they all fit within a 300 mile radius of their homes.
BaltACDObviously you don't have I-95 time - Out of state plates seem to outnumber in state plates no matter which state you are in.
Thats true it depends largely on the freeway your on if it is cross country interstate route or not. Same with the airport your using to fly out of. So flying out of Milwaukee, WI.......almost all the plates are from Wisconsin. Fly out of Cedar Rapids, IA or even KC, MO and the license plates are more varied in the parking lot. I'm a majority Southwest flyer now only because I fly one the DAL to MCI leg a lot now and Love field is closer to my home. However, I am really surprised in KC talking to folks from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, etc that drove into KC airport to get cheap Southwest fares. I would really be curious how many Southwest passengers are from the city of flight origin vs driving from a long ways away to get cheap tickets. It would be really telling if Southwest provided that stat publicly.
And on that subject would be also equally curious to see how many Amtrak thruway bus connection passengers feed into Amtrak's National LD Train network.....I'll bet is is a larger chunk than most of us realize.
Amazing! someone has realized that the new menus on the Lake Shore and Capitol are not popular and more decent meals are now available!
From the Amtrak site: https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/meals-dining/meal-choices-and-menus-at-a-glance.html
Look at the menus for the two trains!
Johnny
DeggestyAmazing! someone has realized that the new menus on the Lake Shore and Capitol are not popular and more decent meals are now available! From the Amtrak site: https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/meals-dining/meal-choices-and-menus-at-a-glance.html Look at the menus for the two trains!
The Alfredo and Provencial are hot meals. They are cooked in a special fast convection oven that was installed in the dining car of each train. The oven can cook 24 meals per cooking cycle. They are not done yet experimenting with the hot or cold choice selections on either train. They allegedly yanked the microwave and the convection oven went in it's place, you can google "commercial fast convection oven" and see the oven is not much larger than the microwave it replaced.
They are exploring an order your meal in advance before you board the train system as well as wireless seat reservation app that will probably sit somewhere on the mobile Amtrak app on cell phones. I don't know how they do all that without wi-fi on the long distance cars........so maybe that is comming as well.
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