American Airlines

[Jerry]

Whilst English Regional airports are starting to suffer with the US legacy carriers, meanwhile up in Scotland they appear to be expanding ?? Any reason for this, is it the Norweigan effect maybe ??

I think they see Scotland as a separate market. When Americans view the British isles they see Scotland, England and Ireland. They don't recognise Wales as separate.

 

[Jerry]

Whilst English Regional airports are starting to suffer with the US legacy carriers, meanwhile up in Scotland they appear to be expanding ?? Any reason for this, is it the Norweigan effect maybe ??

I think they see Scotland as a separate market. When Americans view the British isles they see Scotland, England and Ireland. They don't recognise Wales as separate.

 

[groobs]

ORD downgrade to B752 from early June to early July. Continues to struggle.

Aye, I'm that way in June, MAN-PHL out, ORD-MAN back, just checked and yup a 752.

 

[Dobbo]

Whilst English Regional airports are starting to suffer with the US legacy carriers, meanwhile up in Scotland they appear to be expanding ?? Any reason for this, is it the Norweigan effect maybe ??

I'd hazard a guess that the inbound (ie US originating) traffic is larger for Scotland and it's had a boost from the exchange rate.

 

[Aceshigh]

Visit Britain has changed its spots recently but still has a lot to answer for in terms of promoting the North over London. You can see this every time a celeb appears on a talk show

"Great to be in London "

As opposed to Britain or the UK....

Entrenched views that will take some shifting!

Simply hanging on to any type of AA service will be a Godsend !

 

[michael]

as some sort of minor comparison a friend of mine recently visited us travelling Washington Dulles to Manchester via Dublin using Aer Lingus. She said the B757 from Dulles to Dublin (which I think is daily) was no more than 50% full and she had 3 seats to herself. Can't report on her return leg as I haven't spoken with her since

 

[ethanegcc]

American offering great paid-for business class fares out of Oklahoma and other US destinations to Manchester for under $1199 round-trip.

 

[Land23R]

Doesn't tomorrow see the return of ORD with a B767?

Looking at the seat plan, it looks pretty busy and the PHL is not bad either. But instead of just showing a blue sign for seats still available and an 'X' for seats unavailable, AA now show on some seats the seat numbers e.g
15 A, 15 B. It's not clear to me whether those seats are taken or still available. If someone else checks, can they shed any light on the significance? Looking where the seats are situated, I'm hoping they are taken as it obviously means a higher load.

 

[ethanegcc]

I believe it does begin again tomorrow, as well as the JFK service. Delta's 767 also starts so it's all go!

In other news, AA have stated they want their flying from ORD to be all 787 - this year CDG, DUB and the four LHR flights will all receive 787s - it's nice to know we are valued.

 

[ethanegcc]

AA still showing 5-6 weekly 763 right up to 8th Jan.

 

[Land23R]

News and comment about AA and uncertainty about their commitment to Manchester has been rather depressing recently, so here's some more cheerful observations on apparent loads.

I've been pleasantly surprised earlier in the week that loads to ORD and PHL based on seat plans have been better than I was expecting. As the school Easter holidays start, today's look remarkably encouraging.

JFK. Wasn't showing on their web site last night or this morning. Was it cancelled, I thought? No, arrived and was on the departures board. Only conclusion I came to was the flight was full, so not a flight option for available tickets.

PHL. Seat plan only showed 5 empty seats (out of 252), of which 4 up front.

ORD. 9 seats available all in J class, which unfortunately is the old config. of 5 rows of 2-2-2, rather than the updated version of 7 rows of 1-2-1.

It would be nice if those sort of loads could be maintained throughout the summer but who knows.

 

[Dobbo]

It is going to be interesting to see how this pans out and as we know it is more than just a numbers game.

In the post Brexit £/$ rate, there is the added variable of what currency the seat is paid in which will affect a route's bottom line (US routes even more so).

So far, tentatively, it has held up okay.

 

[Land23R]

I just checked out fares on ORD departing Wed. 5 April, returning Thurs 13 April. for non stop flights on Kayak. Cheapest was booking through BA at £743 with AA at £758.

Didn't strike me as particularly cheap even allowing for Easter coming up.

 

[Dobbo]

Trouble is I have no idea what was a good price last year. Aircraft, fuel etc are priced in $. If we assume the ticket price is the same in £ as last year that's a 20% (ish) hit on revenue right out of profit. Obviously if most passengers buy tickets in $ this is not a problem.

I agree it seems pricey compared to the prices charged by EK, CX, SQ etc but there are still loads of headwinds against the service's continued success.

 

[Land23R]

I agree that £758 at $1.25 is worth less to AA than it would have been at $1.45 last year.
Against just the service continuing at all is the first hurdle I imagine.

 

[Dobbo]

For sure. Having more things priced in £ was one of the rationale for BA jumping on ORD. Not sure if Level has/will over take this but we are clearly in hang on mode for TALT services at the moment!

 

[ethanegcc]

I am flying with American in just under a week. 1st flight (regrettably) MAN-LHR-PHL and inbound is just PHL-MAN. Looking at the seat maps for my flight, I can see the following:

LHR-PHL (AA A330-300) Overall Capacity (Economy): 263 Seats Taken: 141

PHL-MAN (AA A330-200) Overall Capacity (Economy): 236 Seats Taken: 176

So the inbound Manchester flight seems much busier than the LHR flight and that one has more capacity! Obviously there is more to consider than just seats taken but this is promising.

 

[Aceshigh]

I noticed BA are increasing Lax from LHR to 3 a day from 2.

Just an interesting fact to throw into the UK USA market.

 

[Land23R]

If your 236 economy seats is right Ethan, then I've been slightly wrong with some LFs. Not too significant but I had it as 232 economy and 20 Business although I've not rechecked recently.
Decent load for MAN though. Days of travel can make a difference of course.

 

[ethanegcc]

I think we've both got it wrong to be honest! Business is correct at 20, according to seatguru, economy has 226 and 'Main Cabin Extra' (which is really only extra legroom) has 12, so actually 'Economy' is probably more like 238. It's confusing, although as long as we are around that point we should only be marginally wrong.