March 25, 2006

Another Analogy

Lets say Akron-Canton Airport is flying ten flights per day to a hub. It does not have to be JetBlue to JFK, maybe it is Delta to Atlanta or NorthWest to Detroit. The underlying carrier realizes that they have many passengers from the Youngstown catchment area and advertise heavily in the local Youngstown newspaper.

Now add the fact that the mgmt company running Akron-Canton has taken on the responsibility to run Youngstown's Airport by assuming a decling percentage of the operating losses for three years, while promising the ability to bring flights with their buying power. How difficult would it be for that mgmt company to ask JetBlue, Delta or NorthWest to divert a two of these ten flights to Youngstown.....

As a businessman, I know that it is all about the $$$$$.. If people, who read this blog, do not realize this then I am not doing a very good job. Please, these flights would not be a mission of mercy, but plain and simply--GOOD BUSINESS!! These two flights from Youngstown (or Worcester) would enable the trend-seting carrier the ability to forge a bond that a second or third airline would never be able to enjoy.

For arguements sake, lets assume JetBlue came to ORH and flew two flights per day to JFK, can you imagine the allegiance that this would create to JetBlue for the people in the ORH catchment area? Not only that, how many colleges are in Worcester?? We better not ask YNG, since he never heard of Worcester, but right now Holy Cross (for one) is in the final 8 of the NCAA college hockey championship.... JetBlue could create a lifetime bond with the students at Holy Cross, WPI, Assumption, Becker, Mass School of Pharmacy, Anna Marie, etc.

Now, what if I am completely wrong and Youngstown (or Worcester) does not support the flight?? Send the two flights back to Youngstown (or Worcester). Now, lets just say JetBlue diverted 2 of the JFK shuttles per day for 6 months and at the end we had abysmal load factors?? Well maybe that is what we need to find out once and for all..

I feel that we could support, other airlines would take notice and ORH would be on the road to recovery. If I was wrong ( I would not be happy), but I would agree that a downgrade to a GA airport is the only alternative..

8 comments:

Continue to Spread the Word!!! said...

You keep stressing that those 2 of 10 flights come from the ORH catchment area.

Do you have any proof to support that? Of course it may sound like that, but to fill 80+ seats, on 2 flights, every day.... I don't see why you'd go from a HUB at BOSTON to a 4 gate terminal at Worcester...

just my opinion.

Anonymous said...

it still doesn't make any sense to me...I wouldn't bet a buffalo nickel that we could come close to filling an E190 2 times per day, everyday...I agree with YNG...do you have any proof there is that many people from our area?

Anonymous said...

-B6 is setting the stage for long-term competition with the DL Shuttle. 10x is where they need to be to do that.

-If the ORH people will go to BOS to fly on B6, then why should B6 come to ORH and setup another fixed cost base? Unless they get a significant fare premium it just doesnt make sense for B6 given their rapid departure from a point to point model to a hub & spoke model. This is why there is no H&S carrier at ORH right now.

Bill Randell said...

JetBlue knows where their passengers come from, more then anyone else. They advertise heavily in this catchment area. From my own perspective all the people I know fly either JetBlue out of Boston or SouthWest out of Providence.

Bottom line, the proof would be in a 6 month trial run. Not sure what B6 of DL shuttle means, but there would be no need incur any fixed base costs, other then Swissport. That would be offset by waiving of landing fees.

This is more MassPort using their influence with JetBlue and asking them to fly 2 of 10 JFK shuttle per day for 6 months. If we do not support then we know, once and for all, if we can support an airline.

If you honestly believe that MassPort, our partner, can not get this done then why did we partner with them???

Anonymous said...

"DL Shuttle" is the Delta Shuttle. Its primary point of competition vs. US and B6 is flight frequency. 10x is the minimum B6 should have on the route to be competitve.

Read the other posts and comments again. Your question has been answred a few times. Massport is not very useful here.

Bill Randell said...

Anonymous:

Thanks for the answers... Believe me I realize how unhelpful MassPort is.


I do not believe enough people, however, see it that way

Anonymous said...

i am just a college student, but what you are saying doesnt make a ton of sense, as CAK is run by an Airport Authority i think. Not a mgt company. ..just a thought

Bill Randell said...

My point was that the same authority that runs Boston runs Worcester--MassPort.

I was trying to make an analgoy for YNG, making the assumption that the same mgmt group ran CAK and YNG. It was a hypothetical