777-500ER From United States of America, joined Oct 1999, 479 posts, RR: 3 Posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 2602 times:
Alitalia is starting a new 767-300ER operated Milan MXP to Washington DC Dulles IAD flight on March 28th taking over what was once one of United's flagship routes.
Schedule is as follows:
AZ 622 MXP 10.30AM IAD 2.00PM
AZ 623 IAD 5.40PM MXP 8.00AM
Note: AZ 622-623 were the flight codes AZ used to use on the MXP-LAX route now not operated anymore.
Atwingo From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 158 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 2 days 12 hours ago) and read 2537 times:
It wont last long...maybe 6 months. Unfortunately that's how IAD is. Airlines come airlines leave!!!??? Of all the international airlines only BA, AF & LH have been there for a long time. Airlines no longer @ IAD:
Swiss
Air Ukraine
JAL
Trans Brazil
Span Air
Varig
PIA
SABENA (left long before it ceased to exist)
BMI (left and came back... but for how long?)
Not to mention all the destinations that UA no longer serves.
Lhr001 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2492 times:
Don't count Alitalia out! The airline has rebounded steeply over the past few years. The new service to Washington/IAD may prove a cash cow since it is the only route to connect the two nations. Furthermore, Milan is noted for its fashion, industry, and manufacturing. It is Italys number one city for commerce and United found it to be a cash cow when service was started. One of the reasons that United Airlines discontinued was that United suffered from being able to turn the aircraft within a desired amount of time. Milan was the longest international route from Washington served by United Airlnes. United also has been focusing more and more on its codeshare hub cities rather than other destinations.
Alitalia, has a very solid following... Dont look for the airline to suddenly pull out!
BWI - Lack of Connections from Manchester
Swiss - Financialy Un-Stable
Air Ukraine - Financialy Un-Stable
JAL - No Feeding Traffic
Trans Brazil - Poor Marketing
Span Air - Poor Marketing/Leisure Airline
Varig - Pulled out to focus on other U.S. gateways
777-500ER From United States of America, joined Oct 1999, 479 posts, RR: 3 Reply 5, posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 2257 times:
I thought that FCO would have been better being that Rome and DC are two diplomatic capitals of the world.
DCAYOW From United States of America, joined Nov 2003, 582 posts, RR: 3 Reply 6, posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 2174 times:
The list of carriers no longer serving Dulles is only looking at half the picture...Dulles can support service to Milan and Alitalia's hub there will help. Alitalia has more hubbing opportunities at MXP than FCO. Alitalia did this right, they entered AFTER United left unlike Sabena and Swiss when they entered Washington market as competitive knee jerk to United actions.
PIA was using A310s and the routing was via YYZ and FRA hardly a competitive product.
VARIG was routed via ATL (a non-STAR gateway) which made the product just as competitive as routings via MIA. IAD-GRU is now served on UA NONSTOP that is an improvement... VARIG now codeshares on this route.
JAL stupidly entered IAD-NRT shortly after ANA did, one carrier could perform the route at the time NOT TWO, plus JAL came in with inferior product 2x weeky service.
Air Ukraine...was introduced as a prestige route - had nothing to do with inherrent strength of Washington international market. It was IL62 - would you fly on that to IEV?
Spanair's retrenchment was more than just IAD, they closed routes to South America as a result of 9/11 - SAS (a shareholder) wanted them to focus on intra-Europe operations.
SABENA entered to counter United this is a one carrier market.
Transbrasil served Brasilia and I believe Manaus nonstop, not the large city and economic center: Sao Paulo that probably contributed to failure.
bmi is back and waiting for more liberal rights from US-UK. They bought A330s expecting to serve LHR, MAN was ersatz destination because A330s came quicker than bilateral changes. bmi is no longer seasonal op.
Airblue From San Marino, joined May 2001, 1825 posts, RR: 14 Reply 7, posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 2061 times:
The AZ IAD-MXP is not only for US-Italy traffic, but from MXP they offer good connections to east Europe, Mediterranean area, Middle East and also India.
With this scheduled (MXP 10.30am-IAD 2.00pm and back IAD 5.40pm-MXP 8.00am) for eample with only two hours transit you could go to Delhi or Mumbai or Tel Aviv or Athens....
Cjuniel From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 146 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 1957 times:
DCAYOW you read my mind. I am also curious what are "all the destinatins United no longer serves" according to Atwingo. If memory serves me correctly, the only European destination that United has shuttered from IAD was MXP (there may be one or two others but I dont think so). Also, with the exception of JAL and Swiss, all of the other airlines you mentioned are unstable, and also fly to New York JFK only a short air distance away. And for the record, ANA has flown between Narita and Dulles since 1986.
747firstclass From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 9, posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 1906 times:
For the record UA no longer serves MXP,DUS,GLA,ZRH and MAD --all of them were served nonstop from IAD. For the record Ua also served ATH and possibly GVA from CDG briefly back in the late 80s I believe.
Also UA flew ORD-DUS for a while before the route was moved to IAD.
Atwingo From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 158 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 1820 times:
Cjuniel
IAD-MXP
IAD-madrid
IAD-Zurich( I am not sure on this one)
And I forgot to mention Lufthansa to Berlin and to Cologne (w/A310 in 1989).
I am happy to hear that everyone thinks the Alitalia flight will do well. I hope we will get alot more airlines @ IAD in the near future. How about Iberia?
AA777 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 2471 posts, RR: 31 Reply 12, posted (9 years 4 months 2 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 1810 times:
I dont see why it would fail, since UA has been flying IAD-MXP for years! I am very glad to see Alitalia come to IAD
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