More airlines committed to IAH!

[MikeyAusmus]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

It does not appear you have worked for a company that has been acquired by a larger company, and if you have, your attitude does not sound professional in a business sense. I've been through that and I felt the same way initially, but in the end you cannot change things, you now work for one company and have to let go of the past and accept whatever changes the new owners make, they own the company now.

Using your logic, if you inherited millions of dollars from your parents, then you would not deserve to use, or spend it because you did not earn it. Think of it that way. United owns everything Continental did including intellectual property, they have every right to claim what they do.

For the record, I'm no fan of United either, I preferred the old Continental myself.

If I inherited millions from my parents, I couldn't take credit for all the good things they did and their accomplishments in order to get me that money!!

[BCEagles01]

Originally Posted by JimBaker488

So you are saying it's not Houston's geography (as a Latin American gateway), nor it's heavy Hispanic population, but it's the concentration of the Oil & Gas industry and the industrys employees in Houston metro that makes IAH the hub with the highest yields in the United network ? Even better yields than the Wall Street crowd produces with flights in and out of NY/Newark ?
So if IAH still has slightly more flights out of IAH than ORD, doesn't United's total passenger volume at
ORD exceed comparable numbers at IAH ?
And if LA is truly a hub and not just a "focus" airport, why couldn't United build up Latin American service
there, perhaps even at the expense of IAH ?
And finally what are your thoughts about international service at Hobby, particularly as it effects Uniteds
Latin American operations at IAH ? My own thoughts are that it's fine if Southwest would wants to offer service from Houston to the Moon or Mars, just so they do it from IAH.

Justme02 ouldn't have said it better regarding LA. Lots of competition and no much connecttion. You have Delta,American and a host of international carriers in LA. LA is a focus city for American. Delta has tried on and off for years to build up LA. Before we merged with United I think LA was their 3 or 4th biggest hub. Chicago. If there is a hub that may go...it would be sCO hub CLE.

As far as international service at Hobby. Hey good for them. There is room at IAH,but it is what it is. It will be a pain eventually with the shortage of customs agents,but the city has 3 years to figure it out. We ourselves since the merger have added capacity to Latin America. Upgrading Houston-Lima almost from the start. From a 189-seat 757 to a 200+ seat 767-300 using legacy United Aircraft. We have Houston-Frankfurt and Houston-Lagos. My personal feeling is that it was great way to cut people you were already probably going to cut and make Southwest the goat.

Southwest has their work cut out for them. They're going to have to certify some of their fleet for ETOPS operations. They JUST took delivery of their first 737-800 recently. If they are indeed going fly HOU-Bogota, Cancun,Panama City, Managua,Salvador,Mexico City,etc. I'd order more of the larger aircraft. 300/500/700's will do it,but some of those destinations are going to require at least an 800. It's not just us. As big as we are to Mexico and Central America from Houston. American Airlines is still the big dog in Latin America. Delta is climbing fast there as well.

[JimBaker488]

Originally Posted by BCEagles01

Justme02 ouldn't have said it better regarding LA. Lots of competition and no much connecttion. You have Delta,American and a host of international carriers in LA. LA is a focus city for American. Delta has tried on and off for years to build up LA. Before we merged with United I think LA was their 3 or 4th biggest hub. Chicago. If there is a hub that may go...it would be sCO hub CLE.

Justme02 has lots of knowledge and insight into the industry. I think he works as an aviation-industry analyst ? I always look forward to his comments.
He says that the Tokyo and Rio routes are both in the black, but what was the problem with Paris ? Apparently everything out of IAH isn't successful ?

Originally Posted by BCEagles01

As far as international service at Hobby. Hey good for them. There is room at IAH,but it is what it is. It will be a pain eventually with the shortage of customs agents,but the city has 3 years to figure it out. We ourselves since the merger have added capacity to Latin America. Upgrading Houston-Lima almost from the start. From a 189-seat 757 to a 200+ seat 767-300 using legacy United Aircraft. We have Houston-Frankfurt and Houston-Lagos. My personal feeling is that it was great way to cut people you were already probably going to cut and make Southwest the goat.

Southwest has their work cut out for them. They're going to have to certify some of their fleet for ETOPS operations. They JUST took delivery of their first 737-800 recently. If they are indeed going fly HOU-Bogota, Cancun,Panama City, Managua,Salvador,Mexico City,etc. I'd order more of the larger aircraft. 300/500/700's will do it,but some of those destinations are going to require at least an 800. It's not just us. As big as we are to Mexico and Central America from Houston. American Airlines is still the big dog in Latin America. Delta is climbing fast there as well.

When I was back in Houston during the holidays I ran into somebody with Uniteds IT/Computer Center (formerly a Continental employee) who said that United is retaining their IT/Computer Info center in Houston, actiually downtown where the old Continental headquarters were. So it sounds like except for the actual headquarters operation much of the combined carriers operations will be in Houston, either downtown or at IAH ? Like also a lot of maintenance as there was a story in the Chronicle the other day which said
united would do maintenance work on the 787s at Bush.
Who has more employees, Houston or Chicago ?

[BCEagles01]

Originally Posted by JimBaker488

Justme02 has lots of knowledge and insight into the industry. I think he works as an aviation-industry analyst ? I always look forward to his comments.
He says that the Tokyo and Rio routes are both in the black, but what was the problem with Paris ? Apparently everything out of IAH isn't successful ?

When I was back in Houston during the holidays I ran into somebody with Uniteds IT/Computer Center (formerly a Continental employee) who said that United is retaining their IT/Computer Info center in Houston, actiually downtown where the old Continental headquarters were. So it sounds like except for the actual headquarters operation much of the combined carriers operations will be in Houston, either downtown or at IAH ? Like also a lot of maintenance as there was a story in the Chronicle the other day which said
united would do maintenance work on the 787s at Bush.
Who has more employees, Houston or Chicago ?

Air France has the Petroleum Club along with KLM. I'm sure there must be someone on this board who either uses it,or knows someone who uses it. It geared and aimed directly at Oil and Gas professionals. Once they get you to Paris and Amsterdam they can get to you many places in Afica/Middle East we don't fly to. While we were putting people in seats, it's sad to admit,but the euro carriers have it all over many US carriers in service. I'm hopeful with this merger we can change that on our part. We do have Lagos now, which connects two huge energy centers.

As far as IT. Yes. We still have a decent size IT op going on downtown. Externally and internally we've been hiring in Chicago at the Wacker and downtown here. I was sad to see the ops center go,but about 417 people moved up to the new Operations control center in Chicago.

Yes...we're still a very sizable employer here. About 17,000 I think ? With corporate ORD may have more employees. IAH will be seeing maintenance work on the 787. It will be a 787 pilot base. And I do expect to see some expansion in the future. As we have just ordered about 150 planes ( more than likely to replace the United Airbuses,of which I'm no fan.)

Much of the combined carriers corporate operation will be in Chicago. The combined carriers largest hub and largest airport operation will be Houston. Most flights as of now. Pilot and FA bases. Major maintenance work. We just added a simulator here in Houston at the sim buliding on JFK Blvd. for training on the 787. I think a cuople hundred pilots have gone through already on training for that aircraft. We'll be housing thousands of spare parts for the 787 here. Houston will very much be a major operation for the new United. IMO we could use another new terminal outright. Terminal E is very much fully utilized.

We presently operate out of every single terminal at Bush. Probably 6-7 gates at Terminal A. All of Terminal B. All of Terminal C. From 3-4 gates at Terminal D on regionals, D 1-3. A gate or two in the mornings in the upper D's. And all of E.

Unlike Chicago whom United also hubs with AA, Houston is an absolute fortress hub in every sense of the word.

[lockmat]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

'Sounds like someone got dumped recently, or had a bad experience at some point in their life.

Hookthebrotherup, I tried DMing you but it would not allow me. Are you still fielding questions about gaining Mexican Citezenship? I only have one.

[JimBaker488]

United’s moves provide a lesson in hub economics. In the hub system, you bring in passengers to connect. The more passengers you have, the more flights and destinations you can offer. Little margin for error exists because, too often, the last one or two passengers on an airplane provide the margin between a profit and a loss. Eliminate a passenger here and a passenger there, and pretty soon your hub has less critical mass in a world where hubs compete to build critical mass.

Houston will likely drop from its position as the country’s third busiest single-airline hub to the fourth busiest. Numbers fluctuate, but in the second quarter, United averaged 611 Houston departures a day. US Airways currently offers 650 daily departures in Charlotte.

Southwest Hobby international flights will begin in 2015, but United says it is losing money now on some flights and no longer has a reason to sustain service in the hope of future profits.
United Cutbacks in Houston Offer Lesson in Hub Economics - Forbes

[MIBS98]

Jim, do you often back losers?

Let's cut through all of the BS here and get at the heart of what United is really saying. They are saying: "We can't compete. Our product is inferior and our prices are higher". What else could they possibly be saying if they are acknowledging that Southwest adding international service makes it impossible for them to see future profitability in currently unprofitable routes.

If United had a competitive product, they wouldn't worry about what Southwest is doing because they'd go into it with an attitude of "we are going to kick their arse". They know they don't however, so their only viable option was to try and keep Southwest out.

There is a sports analogy here: as the season moves on and you near the trade deadline, is it the 1st place team that starts dumping its players via trade or the last place team? Well, here you have United sitting in 1st place in Houston but acting like a last place team because that is what they are with any real competition.

We don't stand for protectionism overseas. Why would we stand for protectionism at home. United can whine and cry all they want, they can throw a tantrum and try and undo what has been done. Alternatively, they can take the far more professional route. They can take the winners route. Put a product out there that can compete with Southwest. If they can't, then they probably are not long for this world anyway - bankruptcy will come back calling on their doorstep again someday.