He didnt mean literally no intl flying, just so little intl flying that it's like not having one, which is true. Airways has what....25 total wide bodies.
CLT is busy because it is a hub for Airways. No surprise there. Doesn't mean it's strategically important to any other airline. In the minute chance that Airways ties up with AMR, I think CLT would become the next PIT because of MIA.
Horton's comments are arguably excessive, but not far from the truth.
Horton said USAir didn't fly internationally. He said it. He owns it. It's not a true statement and frankly it makes me wonder what else he doesn't know.
Are you saying that only wide bodies can fly internationally? If you check I believe you will find that most international flying is
not on wide bodies.
The problem with AA is that they forget history. Many people in this industry do not like AA simply because of the culture that they have exhibited in the past. This kind of statement is a prime example of that culture.
AA tried to put together a major hub in Raleigh and failed. AA tried to put together another hub in Nashville and failed. The reason they attempted these hubs was because they were trying to grab that east coast business and route their passengers through a hub somewhere in the middle. It didn't work for them because US already had the domestic traffic locked up on the east coast and AA could not pick off that traffic.
MIA is not in the middle of the east coast and does not work as an efficient hub for domestic traffic. It's great for Latin America. But going from Birmingham through MIA to get to NYC doesn't quite cut it.
AA's traffic has decreased 9% in 2010 while other airlines have been growing at about 7% per year. (that's a -17% loss of passengers for American)
American is in trouble on it's domestic passenger feed and US can solve that problem for them. American has proven that they can not grow domestic traffic on their own and they can't raise ticket prices. If they don't do something drastic to grow traffic they will did a slow and painful death just like many have before them.
On top of all of this, while most every other airline made record profits over the last 2 years, AA lost money. Obviously their business plan is not working. And the one they have lined up is not looking so hot either. AA can not reduce costs and turn this into a profitable airline. AA needs a lot more passengers than they currently have to return to profitability.
By the way CLT is more strategic that you might think. When the old management from Airways tried to kill the CLT hub to prove that everything revolves around PIT it didn't work because PIT is not in the center of the east coast. At one time they took some many flights out of CLT and had PIT as their largest hub for political reasons. In the end, economics came into play, new management showed up and CLT is the largest hub for US (and still growing) and PIT is no longer a hub and is down to less than 70 flights a day last time I checked. PIT is not strategic. But CLT sure is.
Joe
