Atlanta Airport - Airline Service & Routes Updates Thread (Dallas: buy, pricing)

[testa50]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

Certainly interesting. I wouldn't mind an additional competitive option to going to Singapore.

2035 might be an aspirational reality. They are not that large of an airline in terms of total passengers.

They do fly to Washington, Newark, and Chicago.

The uphill battle I see, while Atlanta is a prime destination in the US for East Africans, it's a star alliance airline. This is why they fly to United hubs. Atlanta will not offer much of an advantage to their global partner network to keep the route full.

This makes me skeptical of an Atlanta route, unless they grow to be a much larger airline turning Addia Ababa Dole into more of a global hub, similar to the middle east 3.

I see what you're saying, but they're not that far off.

Ethiopian: 12.7 million pax/year, $5 billion USD revenue, 140 airplanes, 127 destinations

Qatar: 18.5 million pax/year, $14 billion USD revenue, 234 airplanes, 173 destinations

Ethiopia has a big domestic network and a lot of its destinations are small airports across Africa with smaller aircraft, thus lower revenue and smaller operation. But it can compete with Qatar and Turkish for connections to the subcontinent, and has the only one-stop connection from ATL to a ton of small African markets.

Basically it has to take the step up to being a true global airline to make a route like ATL work, while it's like 70% of the way there. I don't see it as that much of an uphill battle.

[cwkimbro]

I understand some of your points, but it is much further off than 70%.

Qatar Airways is primarily a long-haul network provider, so it has a better hub and spoke system to attract long-haul customers from as far away as the US going to many other major world destinations.

Qatar's passenger counts pre-pandemic was 32 million passengers/year. The 18 million you cite, includes a large chunk of time from 2021. Ethiopia airlines' 12.7 passengers is their all time high. They have been a quick growing airline, however.

I will welcome them with open arms when the time comes, but I see this being more short-term aspirational.

I would typically recommend trying to attract a Delta flight to Nairobi with Sub-Saharan connections via a Skyteam partner, but it's been a rather stagnant small airline and I'm not sure how much Delta would make on such a long route without more long-range connections to higher priced business cities in Asia, Middle East, and Oceania to get more money flying on the route.

[As Above So Below...]

Originally Posted by testa50

I see what you're saying, but they're not that far off.

Ethiopian: 12.7 million pax/year, $5 billion USD revenue, 140 airplanes, 127 destinations

Qatar: 18.5 million pax/year, $14 billion USD revenue, 234 airplanes, 173 destinations

Ethiopia has a big domestic network and a lot of its destinations are small airports across Africa with smaller aircraft, thus lower revenue and smaller operation. But it can compete with Qatar and Turkish for connections to the subcontinent, and has the only one-stop connection from ATL to a ton of small African markets.

Basically it has to take the step up to being a true global airline to make a route like ATL work, while it's like 70% of the way there. I don't see it as that much of an uphill battle.

There is a reason ADD will never be DOH or DXB: its hot a high.

All westbound flights have to make stops on their way to the US. The air is so thin at ADD that it cant even make the flight from ADD to IAD nonstop. ET flights stop in Dublin before continuing to the US.

As for ET launching Atlanta, it cant be nonstop so what's the point? If DL wasnt flying to West Africa, Id see more of a case. There next destination will be the resumption of Houston but only via Nigeria if its allowed.

[testa50]

To be clear, I'm not saying Ethiopian is 70% of the size of Qatar. I mean 70% of the way to being a "true global airline" (subjective as that is) capable of making a route like ATL work.

I mean, if they're already flying three routes to Star Alliance hubs in the US that United could never make work (and the same in Toronto on a route Air Canada could never make work) plus a 3x weekly flight to JFK with no domestic partner, then they've stepped way beyond the role of national airline serving mainly their own market, and graduated to junior global airline. If they were to grow their existing operation by half, service to Atlanta is definitely possible.

[testa50]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

There is a reason ADD will never be DOH or DXB: its hot a high.

All westbound flights have to make stops on their way to the US. The air is so thin at ADD that it cant even make the flight from ADD to IAD nonstop. ET flights stop in Dublin before continuing to the US.

As for ET launching Atlanta, it cant be nonstop so what's the point? If DL wasnt flying to West Africa, Id see more of a case. There next destination will be the resumption of Houston but only via Nigeria if its allowed.

The hot/high issues are a better argument against it, which is why Ethiopian is trying to build up operations in Nigeria as you point out.

[As Above So Below...]

Originally Posted by testa50

The hot/high issues are a better argument against it, which is why Ethiopian is trying to build up operations in Nigeria as you point out.

Right, that was my point. That's why ET will never be able to compete with QR, TK, and EK.

[urbancuriosity]

If the goal is to connect to East Africa, I wonder if Kenya Airways would fit the bill. They are SkyTeam. They just relaunched service to JFK and they have good connections up and down the East African coast.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by urbancuriosity

If the goal is to connect to East Africa, I wonder if Kenya Airways would fit the bill. They are SkyTeam. They just relaunched service to JFK and they have good connections up and down the East African coast.

Delta had a flight planned to Nairobi nonstop from Atlanta; it was canceled at the last minute. Kenya is an excellent one stop connection to Asia countries.
https://www.ajc.com/business/delta-a...4x0uSxxVEZzoN/

[Atlwarrior]

Will Atlanta benefit from Southwest Airlines' meltdown? They cut a lot of Air Tran flights after the merger, and they also have a lot of gate capacity at ATL on Concourse C to expand.

[Atlwarrior]

Delta was the first carrier to implement the hub and spoke system back in the day. Hence the mammoth Atlanta hub. Couple with Delta IT management. This ranking shows Delta ranked as #1 - most on-time carrier at 84%

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/delt...t_source=email