From: stack@saturn.its.uci.edu (Robert Stack)
Subject: Southwest, hubs, and shuttles
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
Reply-To: stack@saturn.its.uci.edu (Robert Stack)
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 14 Oct 92 19:09:07 GMT

I'm gonna tie together two or three articles floating around here...

First, a question about the USAir/Delta BOS/NY/DC shuttles.  If you
show up for a flight just before the check-in deadline, and they have
to pull out another plane just for you (because their first plane is
100% full), do they automatically wheel out a plane for the one
person, or do they try to get a volunteer to take another flight to
avoid spending big bucks to run a plane for one person?

Helen Trillian Rose (hrose@eff.org) asked about flying Southwest from
LAX to Phoenix.  Southwest keeps their costs down mainly by making
very productive use of their aircraft and employees, giving them a
large cost advantage over other airlines.  Having one kind of aircraft
(737s), low debt, and few "frills" helps too.  Southwest can keep
fares down because they have a much higher percentage of full-fare
passengers than most airlines.  They are the only major US airline
making money right now, and they do it with the lowest fares of any of
the other airlines.  Their service is no-frills but very friendly.
But, then, what "frills" do you normally get on a 1-1/2 hour flight
anyway?

Dan D Grove (dgrove@helena.cs.rice.edu) asks about airline
hub-and-spoke systems.  Right now all the major US airlines except
Southwest have a "connecting bank" type of hub-and-spoke network.
Basically, dozens of flights from one direction come in at about the
same time and then all leave about 45 minutes later after everyone's
made their connections.  This is very inefficient from an aircraft-use
standpoint, though, because planes sit on the ground longer at the
connecting city.  Then, because of scheduling flights in banks, many
aircraft end up sitting on the ground at their spoke cities for hours
waiting until it can go back to another connecting bank at a hub.
Connecting banks are a big part of airport congestion and delays
because dozens of aircraft will push in at the same time then leave at
the same time.  When the biggest airports such as Chicago and Dallas
have two airlines doing their connecting banks at the same time, the
congestion is especially bad.

Southwest, on the other hand, doesn't do any connecting banks--their
flights are more or less randomly scheduled through their system, in
an effort to keep planes in the air after 15 minute turnarounds.
Since they don't have dozens of planes coming in then out at the same
time, they tend to be on top of the on-time list.  They also do more
point-to-point service than other airlines (with routes like
Albuquerque to LAX, San Diego, and San Francisco; other airlines
require connections.)

I think that more point-to-point service and hubs without timed
connecting banks (like Southwest has at Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix)
will become popular with some airlines.  American Airlines has already
made some noises about possibly adopting some of Southwest's
strategies.  I don't think American, United, and Delta are likely to
abandon connecting bank hubs, because they rely on these for their
extensive international connections and also because they're not in
severe financial doo-doo.  But I wouldn't be surprised to see USAir,
TWA, and Continental keep their hubs but eliminate the timed
connecting banks over the next few years.

Anyone who's flown Southwest from Dallas to Houston or LAX to Phoenix
has seen the modern day air shuttle.  They've got flights close to
every half hour (every 15 minutes for a short time during the
afternoon rush one one route!) for fares of no more than $79 one way.
They do use reservations, as the Delta/USAir shuttle seating guarantee
makes it too expensive to have planes sitting around for extra people.
Even a rather obscure city pair like Albuquerque to Phoenix gets
service every 90 minutes or so (with unrestricted fares of $54 one
way)--13 flights a day on a route that could hardly be called
air-shuttle popular.

I value low fares, good schedules, and reliable service above all in
air travel--that's why I'm a big fan of Southwest.  (Yeah, I pay my
own airfares; I fly from Southern California to Albuquerque every
month or so.)

..robert
--
Robert Stack / Institute of Transportation Studies, Univ of California-Irvine
               stack@translab.its.uci.edu
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air