United vs. Southwest at Denver: The Fight Has Begun

United, the largest airline at Denver International, has started bombarding the city with ads touting its service over Southwest's - the same day that the latter started service from the city with 13 daily flights to 3 cities. In comparison, United has over 400 daily flights to dozens of cities.

And United is keen on holding onto its dominant position. Soon it will have TV, radio, and online ads highlighting the features that Southwest lacks: assigned seats, Economy Plus (economy with more legroom) and first class.

"We want to show our Denver customers how United is different and better than our newest competitor," said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.

The first ad appeared today and is, in my opinion, hilarious. It shows a confused traveler looking at a sign with twisted arrows. "With Southwest, you are kinda, sorta free to move about a few places in the country nonstop," it says, a direct play on Southwest's slogan.

Although the ads would seem pretty serious because they're aimed directly at a single airline, I bet they'll work, since United is dominant in Denver - more routes, better service. In defense, however, Southwest has launched a campaign of its own announcing its low fares.

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Independence Air To Shut Down

"Today is a sad day for Independence Air," proclaimed the company's website. "Today we must announce that we will be ceasing scheduled service operations this Thursday evening, January 5. The financial pressures in the industry have prevailed. We have run out of time." Some excerpts:

It has been an amazing 18 months. We set out to challenge the status quo and to re-set your expectations about air travel. We set out to introduce you to lower fares and a new level of service delivered by employees who care. Currently ranked #2 in customer satisfaction among all US airlines, we are proud that we did indeed earn your respect and loyalty. We are proud that we built a brand so universally praised by over 8 million customers. We are proud of the mark we have made.

Customers with reservations whose trips are completed between now and Thursday evening should expect the same great service for which we have become known.

Additionally, we are seeking bankruptcy court approval to automatically provide refunds to customers holding reservations on flights occurring after our shutdown of operations on January 5th. No refunds will be offered for free tickets or vouchers.

Today is a sad day for Independence Air. Today is a sad day for our customers who have gotten used to tender loving service and paying less for air travel. We will miss serving you. Thank you for your vigorous support.

"We offer our sincere thanks to the over eight million customers who have flown with us since the launch of Independence Air, and to the communities across America that we have served," said CEO Kerry Skeen. “And most importantly, we thank our extraordinary employees for creating an airline brand that has been so universally praised by our customers. Our people have demonstrated that they are capable of operating an airline that quickly rose to the top of the rankings in every major independent survey of airline quality and customer satisfaction. And while this is a profoundly sad day for all of us, we could not be more proud of our employees and everything they have accomplished.”

Well, it's sad to see Independence Air go. Yet other airlines - particularly United - are most likely breathing a sigh of relief. In its year and a half of existence, it lowered fares dramatically out of its Washington Dulles hub - which it shares with former partner United. And its demise is not totally unpredictable.

Ever since 1989, Atlantic Coast Airlines had a steady contract with United and Delta, flying small jets under the United Express/Delta Connection banner from Dulles (IAD) and later, for United at Chicago-O'Hare (ORD). But after United filed for bankruptcy in 2002, ACA decided to declare its independence and leave its partners. It started flying as Independence Air in July 2004.

But it isn't possible to be charging those low fares while flying expensive aircraft like those CRJs. The Indy Air business model was flawed from day 1, and its mangagement was too, perhaps, for making the switch. Of course, United did want to re-negotiate its contract with ACA while in bankruptcy, and perhaps ACA should have agreed to a lower paying contract. But that's all over - and the sixteen year carrier is coming to an end.

United will be watching this carefully, and they will most likely try to prevent this - another carrier attacking its Dulles hub - again. It's already going to bid for Indy Air assets - probably its gates - and we'll find out the results of the auction tomorrow. But with AirTran and jetBlue also eyeing Dulles, it had better watch out too.

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Indy Air Update

Found this online. It's a picture of the aforementioned Independence Air letter: (if it's too small to read or not showing up properly, click here: http://forums.aca-lounge.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=54407)

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Independence Air Furlough Message

A flight attendant with Independence Air for three years posted this letter on a forum at Airliners.net. This letter seems to be the one that was mailed out to quite a few people:

December 23, 2005

RE : Furlough

Dear Flight Attendant ######:

As you know, FLYi, Inc, the holding company for Independence Air, has been actively engaged in securing investors in, or purchasers of, the Company as it attempts to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the United States bankruptcy Code.

The Company expects that is it is unable to secure significant external investment or a sale of all or substantially all of its operations before January 7, 2006, it will permanently cease all operations and separate all employees at all locations sometime during the period January 7-21, 2006.

In accordance with Section 16.A.4 of the collective bargaining agreement between the Company and AFA covering flight attendants, this letter shall constitute notice that you will be furloughed effective January 7, 2006. The Company retains the right to amend or rescind this notice of furlough.

Sincerely,
Jeff Rodgers
Vice President, Employee Services

This does make me sad. First off, I don't know why managment over at FlyI can't wait a few days to send this out. There's no sense in wrecking someone's Christmas, if they celebrate it. You can call 866-465-9309 and hear some message that FlyI's recorded.

Secondly, it also shows that you should not buy tickets on Independence Air, since they're planning already to go belly up in the next few weeks.

I wish the flight attendant who got this letter - and the rest, too - the best of luck in finding a better job.

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Asian Rivalry Is Good News for Boeing

A long-standing rivalry between two major airlines - Austrailia's QANTAS and Singapore Airlines - is heating up in a big way - in a way that can only benefit airplane manufacturer Boeing.

Singapore might order the Boeing 777-200LR, quite a few 787 Dreamliners and up to six 747 Advanced freighters, according to the Wall Street Journal. Singapore would order a total of 80 planes, and had a bunch of 777-300ERs on order as well.

Also the word on the street is that Russian airline Aeroflot will buy 22 Boeing aircraft worth $2.5 billion. The order would be made up of those 787 Dreamliners. Looks like a good way for Boeing to close out a great year for them.

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DOT Says No To Delta, Northwest and Overseas Carriers

The US Department of Transportation said the other day that Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines can't coordinate prices and schedules with their European partners.

For quite some time, Delta has been allies with Air France, but this wasn't as strong as Northwest's seudo-marriage to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. So when all four found themselves in the same airline alliance - SkyTeam - and when Air France merged with KLM, things got a bit trickier.

The ruling still allows Northwest to sell seats on Air France and Alitalia, another airline in SkyTeam.

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United Bids For Part of Indy Air

First off, I'm not dead - I haven't posted here for a while because I've been very busy. They sure pack in the schoolwork the week before vacation.

I am currently in Spokane, Washington - a great city. I flew out from Boston two days ago, on United Airlines. Economy Plus both legs - it was via O'Hare - and pretty good service too, all things considered. Nice thing about Economy+ is that it gives me just the right amount of leg room.

Plus the second leg of the flight the captain enabled Channel 9 on the audio, which allows you to listen to what the pilots are listening to (the ATC chatter). It's enabled by the pilot - at his/her discretion, and I didn't get it on the BOS-ORD leg. But we had a bumpy flight over North Dakota and Montana, and we could hear the pilots always asking ATC for a different altitude. Here's an actual exchange:

PILOTS: Uh, Salt Lake Center, this is United 1711. Moderate chop up here at 28 [thousand feet]. Got anything smoother?
ATC: Sure. United 1197, descend and maintain flight level 2-6-0.
PILOTS: We sure complain a lot, don't we?
ATC: No, it's your job.

The landing at Geiger Field was great.

Speaking of United, reports are in that two days ago it wants to participate in a possible auction of Independence Air's assets. If it did happen, the auction would be on the third of January. This is the first time UAL has publicly expressed interest, even though it's no secret they wanted Atlantic Coast (iAir's former name) back again. From 1989 to last year, ACA provided flights to UAL as one of the United Express carriers. But after United went for Chapter 11 and wanted to renegotiate its contract, ACA declared its independece - har har - and went its own way.

And they've been regretting it ever since. Rumors are rampant that the airline will fold after the holiday travel season (read: the first few weeks of January) and sell its self off. Mesa Airlines, another regional carrier that does 'express' work for the big boys, is also interested in Indy Air.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. . .

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