Virgin America coming to Philadelphia

**dontforget** · 09-07-2012, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by Lakey

Absent a sizeable subsidy, I don't think Delta is going to resume service to ACY. In fact, I'm not sure they would serve ACY even with a subsidy. ACY doesn't fit with their current strategy on the east coast and they've actually made a small increase in frequencies at PHL in the past year. I fly PHL - ATL often and as long as PHL is a US hub, I'm not worried about fare increases regardless of what SW does. I think there's enough demand on that route to keep all three happy at the current reasonable but not incredibly cheap fares anyway.

I don't know a lot about Jet Blue, but given the fact that Newark is already a focus city for them and that they don't do point-to-point flying AFAIK, it's hard for me to see how they be interested in ACY.

I understand the desire for more competition, I just don't see any likely candidates to make a major entry into the market. On a related note, it will be interesting to see how Frontier does does with their TTN - MCO service.

As for Spirit, there's definitely a place in the market for them, but it sure as hell doesn't include me.

I agree about the candidates. But Delta and JetBlue were the only ones that came to mind as viable to stimulate competition. Frontier is heading on track to be more like Allegiant going for a niche (vacation packages, non daily service).

Regarding JetBlue:
EWR/Newark isn't a focus for JetBlue. JetBlue is a minor carrier there but they do have Florida and Boston service out of there. But I agree maybe to some extent JetBlue wants all of NJ and Lehigh Valley to support their small operation at EWR. But I have a hard time fully agreeing with that and think they are so small there and EWR is quite far (over 70 miles) from SJ and outlying areas of Philly. Anyways, CLT and RDU service would be non-conflicting that way.

Regarding Delta:
Delta is at many small airports in the Northeast, including many airports with fewer passenger enplanements/seats than ACY, with connections to DTW or ATL from those airports. They don't service ISP but it's understandable with a large LGA/JFK presence. However, ACY is quite away from that LGA/JFK presence.

ACY is low yield and South Jersey lacks industry. However, there are 2 million residents in the SJ counties (Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean) and ACY is within 1 hour of a drive so it could be used more.

**Lakey** · 09-07-2012, 02:58 PM

Originally Posted by dontforget

I agree about the candidates. But Delta and JetBlue were the only ones that came to mind as viable to stimulate competition. Frontier is heading on track to be more like Allegiant going for a niche (vacation packages, non daily service).

Regarding JetBlue:
EWR/Newark isn't a focus for JetBlue. JetBlue is a minor carrier there but they do have Florida and Boston service out of there. But I agree maybe to some extent JetBlue wants all of NJ and Lehigh Valley to support their small operation at EWR. But I have a hard time fully agreeing with that and think they are so small there and EWR is quite far (over 70 miles) from SJ and outlying areas of Philly. Anyways, CLT and RDU service would be non-conflicting that way.

Regarding Delta:
Delta is at many small airports in the Northeast, including many airports with fewer passenger enplanements/seats than ACY, with connections to DTW or ATL from those airports. They don't service ISP but it's understandable with a large LGA/JFK presence. However, ACY is quite away from that LGA/JFK presence.

ACY is low yield and South Jersey lacks industry. However, there are 2 million residents in the SJ counties (Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean) and ACY is within 1 hour of a drive so it could be used more.

Unlike ACY those airports in the northeast are stations that Delta has a long history of serving and more importantly are also served by US. Since Delta is focused on driving US into the ground on the east coast and US doesn't serve ACY, I don't think Delta is going to see any reason to divert resources to adding ACY service. They have only so many planes and they're using them to add service at LGA and in places like Virginia and North Carolina because that's where they can do the most damage to US. In time cirumstances may change, but for the time being I think the only thing Delta is going to do related to South Jersey is to beef up service a little at PHL.

**dontforget** · 09-08-2012, 10:51 PM

There's no reason for US to service ACY when most of So. NJ could drive to PHL to support the high fare short haul flights it offers directly out of PHL. United won't either as EWR is close for Ocean County. Right now both US and United are in the same alliance (Star Alliance) as well, but indirectly the two are less competitive with each other.

American doesn't fly into many of the smaller airports and it has been the one that was driven to the ground. They don't even fly to Providence anymore like Allentown and others due to higher operating costs and hubs that are farther away.

However there is a 2 million catchment in South Jersey so it should be competitive for other carriers than just Spirit.

One network carrier could fit in. Delta having a DTW hub that is closer should be able to make it work with more dailies to DTW but some still to ATL. If DL also priced it right, not $700 fares one month in advance to ATL.

Spirit has done well at ACY with putting over 2,200 avg. daily seats in May 2012. That exceeds ABE as ABE only had 1,294 split across multiple carriers. ACY has more pax enplanements than even Harrisburg, although the pax enplanement numbers for 2011 include AirTran's numbers.