American Airlines

[nwoody2001]

a snapshot yes but a very revealing one! great to see at the start of june, both routes are managing the attract customers....

 

[DaveBham]

Well, I'm just back from New York via the AA service. I travelled in Economy, which was full. On both legs of the journey, there were plenty of Americans too - a good sign for route sustainability I'd have thought.
In flight service was pretty good, and it's nice that they don't hard sell you duty free's. They need to sort out the inflight entertainment though - very 1990s. No seat back entertainment, just aisle screens. Doesn't bother me these days as I carry an iPad, but if you don't, the journey could get tedious. Also, no wifi, and there's no plans to retrofit the 757's either. Have never flown on the United service so don't know how this compares.
Coming back, the aisle screens were showing the inflight route to LHR!! That's something they need to fix (although about halfway through they switched it over to say Birmingham).

I was staying in Mid Manhattan, and JFK is a pig to get to - although very fast through immigration compared to EWR. Going out, I got the Air Train, then Long Island Railroad, followed by a subway, and I was in the apartment within 45mins. Heading back yesterday, I got a Cab and it took 1hr 10m!

By contrast, EWR is a straight train in on the New Jersey Transit - although much more expensive in a taxi than JFK due to rules forbidding NYC cabbies from picking up in Newark. For those living on the west side of New York and in New Jersey, this is obviously the much easier airport to use - who wants to cross town to get to JFK? Likewise, who on Long Island or someone heading north of NYC would want to endure the horrendous traffic of NYC to get to EWR?

While I was there, I went down on the train to visit some people at Asbury Park, NJ. To come to the UK, they will either use EWR or PHL - JFK is a bit of a mare for them.

What I'm trying to say in my meandering, jetlagged way, is that I believe that both United and AA services will thrive. They both offer viable services for those wishing to visit NYC, but each offer connectivity to a slightly different catchment area too. They compliment each other nicely.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Good stuff, thanks for the update.

It's great to see that initial loads are looking healthy and if there are plenty of Americans using the service it is a massive positive. Lets hope it does well and we see PHL or ORD in the future.

 

[nwoody2001]

As is being done with the Turkish and Emirates routes, it will be good to see what those BHX passengers are doing and where they are going... I suspect there are a lot of point-to-point passangers, but how many do we recon are transiting to other destinations. I expect the holiday spots would be doing pretty well for both United and AA givens BHXs dire coverage in this field.... Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, Los Angeles.... ?

 

[DaveBham]

Oh just to add, the aircraft used for our return from JFK to BHX had been the incoming flight from DUB-JFK, rather than simply using the same aircraft between BHX and JFK.

 

[CL44]

I can answer the question about IFE on the United flight (albeit from Last Year). Each Economy seat had a screen on the seat back in front which shows all the offerings UA have for entertainment. This includes a good variety of films / tv shows and of course the rolling map option. There is a facility for various audio shows (which was not switched on for either journey). Nor was the famous Channel 9 available (in fact on five flights I took on this trip this was only available on one of the flights). The screen size was adequate for the pitch (nothing worse than too big a screen being right in your face due to the pitch of the seats). I don't know about WIFI on this route (I believe it is something being rolled out on their fleet but cannot say for sure) but I cannot recall seeing anyone using their own equipment back in economy. On the way out the screen being used by one of my daughters went u/s. Not a lot can be done about that but it is amazing how much a free ice cream can sooth away not being able to see the latest Disney offering.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Also posted on the pictures thread.

American Airlines 757 N174AA in the bare metal Oneworld livery.

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Although I like the new livery the old one will always be a classic to me.

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[juliet-fox-9]

DaveBham, UA do have seat back screens.

It will be interesting to see what AA and UA eventually replace their BHX 757s with. My money is on 763s for both.

 

[Hassaan]

Do we know what the loads are like up to this point?

 

[nwoody2001]

we should do with the CAA stats are out for June.... they were due out yesterday so they should me imminent!

 

[Ray Finkle]

7195 pax to JFK in June which I think is around a 66% load factor.

 

[juliet-fox-9]

Are those CAA stats? I went on there a few minutes ago and I couldn't find anything.

 

[nwoody2001]

all up now.... (also posted no the CAA thread)

Regarding AA/UA, I make AA carrying 7,195 pax a LF of 68% assuming all flights operated in June. That’s an increase from a LF of 61% which was recorded in May so things are going in the right direction. In the same time, UA carried 8,052 pax (down 8%) making a LF of 79%. Considering in June 2014, on 8,778 pax travelled direct between BHX and NYC, that fact that 1 year later there are 15,247 pax travelling direct between the 2 cities is great, a 74% growth!!!!

In contrast, whilst a different context, NCL-EWK launched nearly the same day as BHX-JFK. Ok, NCL is only 5x weekly compared to our daily service, but in June, they only carried 4,099 pax which equates to a LF of 55%, that’s 93 pax per flight compared to BHX carrying 120 pax per flight….. food for thought!

 

[Jon Dempsey]

Is there a breakdown anywhere of premium/cattle class as this will provide a more detailed insight into profitability.

 

[Seasider]

Only the airlines have that information.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I look at the seat maps from time to time and although a very crude method it gives a small idea.

Economy is usually all, or very close to being sold out. Main Cabin Extra seems to vary with some days totally full and others only around 50%. Business seems to average around 50% or so, sometimes more sometimes less. Thursdays through to Mondays usually look healthy but Tue and Wed often look light. It also seems to be a fairly common occurrence to have the premium seats booked quite late which will hopefully help with the yields.

Outbound looks to be doing better than inbound at the moment, I'll give tomorrows flights as an example.

BHX-JFK has three seats left in economy and only one left in main cabin extra. Business is just under half.

Inbound there are 5 seats left in economy but main cabin extra is only around a third full. Business is just under half.

As said it's a very crude example as some do not pre book seats when purchasing tickets and there is no way of knowing how many very late sales there are. Of course loads are only a small part of the equation and it's the all important yield that counts.

Still early days yet :good:

 

[Hassaan]

Is the route performing well enough? Why are they dropping down to 5 weekly come the winter (although United do this every year)?

I hope it is as they were very much needed at BHX but they should be looking to fill all classes on the aircraft to a high enough degree.

 

[Hassaan]

I believe they're dropping down to 5x weekly for the winter.

 

[nwoody2001]

4x weekly over December and January I believe... not dissimilar to UA...

 

[Ray Finkle]

I believe they're dropping down to 5x weekly for the winter.

It's perfectly normal to reduce frequency when the demand drops, be thankful we have a year round service as it could have been seasonal :smile: