As anyone who follows the US airline industry knows, Delta is the most profitable US carrier, United is the second most profitable US carrier, and everyone else is quite a ways behind.
Continue reading: Will United Overtake Delta? CEO Scott Kirby Gives Strategic Answer
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As long as the ‘Big Three’ U.S. carriers continue to concern themselves with the business of each other, they will never compete with the upper echelons of the world class airlines.
Respectfully, you're wrong here AeroB13a, for two reasons:
1. The Big Three US airlines (and especially Delta and United) have radically improved their longhaul premium cabins compared to a decade ago, and are leading the pack on things like the race to fleetwide hi-speed Wifi.
2. The "upper echelons of the world class airlines" have nearly all degraded their longhaul premium cabin experiences since the pandemic, and in some cases have also fallen behind the US3 on hard product. Sure, the QSuites are nice...when your flight has them, and QR doesn't really care about the maddening lack of consistency.
I'm not sure why anyone would think Newark is a better hub than [literally anywhere] but I agree with him on one point: Focus on your own company, and so what if you're a close #2 some quarters?
a good take by Ben and also the kind of response that Kirby and UA needs to take.
UA needs to do what every other airline and company does - just do what is best for UA and be competitive but stop comparing everything to UA.
Analysts didn't ask DL about how DL has benefitted from EWR's capacity cuts because DL execs have repeatedly refused to make comparative statements about DL vs. the industry. DL execs frequently say that they do what is in DL's best interests which is all any company needs to say.
UA will do well and will continue to manage what it has well.
Ben is also right that it is wrong to believe that AA can't fix what has been wrong - and AA is undoubtedly also benefitting strongly from UA's EWR reductions and the shift in traffic from EWR to LGA and JFK.
and I still believe that WN could easily blow the big 3 dominance of the international markets out of the water with a conversion of a piece of their massive MAX order book to 787s - which Boeing would absolutely love to do - and have far more impact than AS will ever hope to have in international markets.
do you think Delta can get the closest out of the US big 3 to QR/SQ/JL/NH with their new Delta One product that's coming on the a350-1000's? rumor is that a new suite is coming and Delta is in the process of planning a significant overhaul to the soft product
In theory, Newark "should" work as well or better than LGA/JFK because it is not slot and/or perimeter-restricted, much as with IAD vs. DCA. So United should be able to optimize both connections and O&D traffic at EWR to provide a good and user-friendly experience. It also has the same rail link to Penn Station as JFK does, and there is generally a large catchment area west of the Hudson River where it is functionally impossible to drive to JFK/LGA at most hours that EWR should "own".
In reality, we know EWR has a lot of problems, both within and outside of UA's control.
Hello HeathrowGuy, with regard to your assumption that I might be wrong in what I have posted above. Your view is interesting and might have some validity, however, it is my opinion that all three U.S. airlines have far to much ground to make up before they can actually compete.
1. WiFi upgrades will not make a sufficient impact to make much of a difference as almost all airlines are carrying out improvements.
2. I do not tend to agree with you that the top airlines have “Degraded” their products sufficiently, nor, have the US3 improved substantially enough to catch up anytime soon.
3. The US3 have a real mountain to clime in the area of front line customer services.
4. The US3 place far too much emphasis upon brand loyalty and points dependency.
Of course only Time will tell if you or I have misjudged the situation. Interesting times ahead.
It's located in the most densely populated state in the US, and is just miles away from the largest city in the country. I know NJ is always (irrationally) hated on, but United knows what they're doing. They even capture travelers as far south as Trenton/Princeton
Just a quick note. You mention that EWR is not as slot congested in comparison to JFK. As someone who has done schedule planning for Intl. airlines over the 15 years, that is not entirely true.
You are right that EWR is less constrained from a runway slot perspective (handled by the FAA) however EWR is far more terminal constrained (slots haded out by the local terminal operators). Slots in the US are not just allocated based on runway availability, but terminal capacity too and they are allocated separately.
Over the last few years I have had a much harder time obtaining slots for my airline at EWR than I have at JFK!
@HeathrowGuy
I take your arguments on board, and agree that the US Big 3 airlines have improved considerably. But such is the higher standards in both hard and soft products for ME and Asian carriers that the best the U.S. airlines can offer will still fall short of their aforementioned rivals. My experience has consistently been that a 'bad day' - relatively speaking - on a ME and Asian carrier (e.g. Qatar or Singapore) is still better than a 'good day' on either United, Delta and American. Crucially, the biggest downfall for U.S. carriers remains their generally lacklustre cabin crew. I put it to you that even if United or Delta or American had the best hard product, they would still be staffed by surly matrons. And that would be the memory retained by pax.
@dx, almost all of what you write is spot on but:
"It also has the same rail link to Penn Station as JFK does"
Well no, and this is why the perception of EWR to most NYC residents continues to suffer. If the LIRR tubes under the East River fail, I can take the LIRR to Atlantic Terminal or Hunterspoint or Woodside, et al, and find my way home using subway/bus. If the solitary ancient tube of NJT fails under the Hudson, I am stuck trying to figure out NJT buses to PABT or how to get to the PATH (surprisingly difficult, as my better half recently figured out, only a couple miles from Newark).
EWR still makes a lot of sense for about half of the NYC metro area but it will always be in Jersey and come with incumbent beliefs/realities.
I hope Delta and United continue to push each other. That's probably the best thing the US industry and for consumers. Better to be racing to the top for once than to the bottom.
To Ben's point about Kirby being a competitive guy, I'd be more concerned what happens if he finally "wins"? United continuing to be a close second might be a good thing.
Mason - it (aka Lil Tim) puts the lotion in the basket, or it gets the hose again
LOL that´s gold ! Even though it´s annoying, it´s fascinating to see the pathological mental response that Tim has to the mention of either UA or DL.
It's laughable to think that the US 3 are anywhere close to the best airlines in the world.
They went through an extreme phase of cutting on product and people, and although they may have reversed a small bit of this, they're still way down and fly mostly understaffed for any level of service that is anything more than the most basic one ("we are here for your safety - don't even think about getting any real service") and their food is generally dreadful, often served on dog food dishes with wines served in water glasses (when it's not served in awful plastic, like before departure).
"The US3 have a real mountain to clime in the area of front line customer services."
In the air yes. On the ground, it's the exact opposite. Most of the Asian carriers often have check-in and boarding processes that are downright comical in their incompetence, with tech assistance that's often about a decade behind what's (consistently) offered in the US.
"The US3 place far too much emphasis upon brand loyalty and points dependency."
Which is a big part of why they're consistently among the most profitable on the planet, as of late.
At the end of the day, they'll always value making money, more than getting to the top of a subjective list of "best."
Soft product at US3 is their Achilles heel. Apologies to those professionals who show up to work and give their best and make long haul flights somewhat pleasant. Sadly you are outnumbered by the soft quitters who joined airlines apparently to get cheap travel. On a flight a couple of weeks ago on DL from AMS to BOS in business class the purser just rattled off what she was obliged to read. Her personal interaction with me on the whole flight was limited to “Hello, I have you down for the chicken.” Service and food downright awful. The US3 seem incapable of plating food in a palatable manner or serving it at an appropriate temperature…it is either near frozen or heated into a tasteless mess. Who cares what celebrity chef you partnered with and what sommelier you supposedly consulted with if you are going to serve it as dog food and wastewater
They both claim to be focused on brand loyalty, and yet are both pushing business unbundling. If brand loyalty was really the "winning formula" then surely United would be better served by trying to poach DL premium pax by not unbundling.
If forced to go to US (ugh) and on any of the US airlines, my simple solution is to get a bottle of Evian pre boarding and refuse any 'food' on board. Avoids the inevitable disappointment with their slob and limits the service interactions with such surly staff.
UA knew what they were doing when they overscheduled EWR for decades and then did it even when one of EWR's 2 primary runways was going to be OTS.
The place, not surprisingly, melted down and UA execs tar and feathered the FAA and DOT even though the Port Authority announced the construction plans months in advance.
the FAA and DOT were tired of being trashed on a nightly basis by Scott Kirby so they imposed far more dramatic and longer lasting cuts to EWR capacity than was necessary to compete the runway construction.
but UA execs know what they were doing, right?