Things in the Sky

I’ll be brief on this topic, as Cranky Flier really hit the nail on the head this morning.

Basically, US Airways is adding some new regional routes out of LaGuardia on October 31. Some are new, and some, like Harrisburg, are re-starts. A very interesting addition is Washington Dulles. Naturally United flies this route a whole bunch. But US Airways has its partnership with United, and has also built up its own codeshares with foreign carrriers, with Dulles as a connection point.

Interestingly enough, that’s the same day Delta ramps up operations at Washington National with slots that the airline said it had leased to other carriers. US Airways also says the LaGuardia slots for the new flights used to be leased out. Neither airline has specified the other carriers, but I think it’s pretty safe to guess here.

It’s interesting to see that the two carriers are now competing with each other more aggressively, now that the slot swap is stuck in the court system.

As a friend mentioned to me – in a weird way, the airlines are giving the DOT exactly what the regulatory agency was hoping for by denying the slot swap deal – enhanced competition.

Either way – I think US Airways’ move yesterday makes more sense than Delta building up a focus city at DCA. At least US Airways has a large LaGuardia operation they’re working with. At least the station is profitable now – during the airline’s earnings call management said RASM was up 36% year-over-year. LGA had pretty low margins, but it is at least now contributing to the bottom line.