Darrell From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 236 posts, RR: 0 Posted (7 years 12 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 1744 times:
I live in Portland, OR and work in Charleston, SC. I fly back and forth between CHS and PDX every six weeks or so. I Usually fly Delta, since its easy to go from CHS to ATL to PDX. The problem is that its almost impossible to get a ticket unless I buy it at least 3 weeks in advance. I've made 12 round trips in the past 18 months, all but 3 of those were on Delta. I've never, not even once, been on an ATL-PDX flight that was not 100 percent full. Same goes from PDX-ATL. On 3 occasions, I had to buy my ticket on short notice and was not able to fly Delta because it was 100 percent booked up. Once, I flew Indy from CHS-IAD-LAS, then had to switch in LAS to an Alaska flight to get to PDX. Once I had to drive 5 hours to ATL and fly Frontier ATL-DEN-PDX (this flight was also 100 percent full) and once I had to drive 3 hours to Charlotte and fly USAir to IAD, then switch to a UA codeshare flight into PDX. On all 12 of these round trips, regardless of what airline I was using, every flight to PDX has been full!! So here is my question: Why doesn't Delta use a larger aircraft on every flight to PDX? Why doesn't Delta increase the number of flights into PDX? Why don't more airlines fly cross country into PDX when the demand is obviously there? In all fairness, I have not used Continental or Northwest to fly CHS-PDX, but I have looked into both of them, and they were also full on the dates I wanted to fly them. With all this talk about empty aircraft, I'm lucky to even be able to get a seat to PDX! Someone please explain...
Squirrel83 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (7 years 12 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 1736 times:
Quoting Darrell (Thread starter): Why don't more airlines fly cross country into PDX when the demand is obviously there? In all fairness, I have not used Continental or Northwest to fly CHS-PDX, but I have looked into both of them, and they were also full on the dates I wanted to fly them. With all this talk about empty aircraft, I'm lucky to even be able to get a seat to PDX!
With SEA being so close and having more of a INTL market connections ect. . Although I have wondered the same thing for many years, after they finished the new terminals . . But another issue could very well be landing fees or airport fees, and WN, AS, QX have quite the market there as well.
SuperDash From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 563 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (7 years 12 months 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 1703 times:
Considering the fact that Delta's system load factor is over 80% and that's not even close to break-even, I certainly wouldn't add flights. In fact all of the major carriers and JetBlue all have break-even load factors over 80% (some likely over 100%). Only Southwest has a break-even down in the 60's. I am not sure if you fly on peak days, but loads may be lighter on other days or on the return flight of the plane, making the market load factor much lower than the 100% you state. Even if the plane is full it may be carrying 20 non-paying employees to give it the appearance of full. The point is, just to have a chance to break-even or make a single dollar, the flight has to be full. PDX does have service to almost every hub in the country. If an airline can make a buck flying to a new point, certainly PDX will get a new flight. PDX already has gotten service to Santa Barbara, Chicago Midway, NYC-Kennedy plus added frequencies in other markets like Ontario, Burbank, Las Vegas and Phoenix in the past year. Just to name a couple. Book early, book often.
KDTWFlyer From United States of America, joined Jun 2004, 807 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (7 years 12 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 1654 times:
I was looking at NW's website for PDX-CHS on several dates in June and they all had seats available. The route would be PDX-DTW-CHS with DTW-CHS being a CRJ. Airfare prices are a little high though.
StevenUhl777 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (7 years 12 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 1635 times:
Quoting Squirrel83 (Reply 1): You could try B6 now that they fly to PDX . . .
But if he's in Charleston, why would he fly up to JFK first, and then to PDX? That's a waste of time.
I don't know...here's an idea: call the airline you fly on most frequently, and tell them your situation. Perhaps they might have a workable solution for you.
Flashmeister From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 2863 posts, RR: 7 Reply 5, posted (7 years 12 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 1625 times:
DL is planning on increasing capacity to PDX this summer. Check the schedules at delta.com.
DAL767400ER From Germany, joined Feb 2005, 5721 posts, RR: 50 Reply 6, posted (7 years 12 months 2 days ago) and read 1585 times:
They sure do, though many routes require more capacity in summer due to demand. But anyway, DL will go from 1 762/757/738 each to 1 763, 1 757 and 2 738s, adding 219 seats from ATL. Better chances to still get on a flight .
PDXtriple7 From United States of America, joined Dec 2004, 695 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (7 years 12 months 2 days ago) and read 1550 times:
Quoting DAL767400ER (Reply 6): 1 763, 1 757 and 2 738s, adding 219 seats from ATL. Better chances to still get on a flight .
I just checked DL's schedule about an hour ago, and it showed both a 763 and 762 to ATL for July 30th, in addition to 1 738 and 1 757. During the winter, they weren't sending any widebodies to PDX.
Darrell From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 236 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (7 years 12 months 21 hours ago) and read 1421 times:
Thanks for the information!! 219 more seats from ATL will help alot. By the way, I wouldn't mind flying JetBlue, but they don't fly into CHS. I would also use Indy, but they don't fly to PDX.
RDUDDJI From Lesotho, joined Jun 2004, 1315 posts, RR: 3 Reply 10, posted (7 years 12 months 18 hours ago) and read 1312 times:
Quoting Iowaman (Reply 9): Hopefully with the new west coast service PDX will get Indy service eventually, which will also lower fares.
Indy won't be adding any new A319 service for the rest of this calender year, they have defered delivery of the rest of their A319's until next year I believe (save for 815BR which is being delivered tonight XFW-KEF-BGR-IAD).
Sometimes we don't realize the good times when we're in them
HPRamper From United States of America, joined May 2005, 3665 posts, RR: 8 Reply 11, posted (7 years 12 months 18 hours ago) and read 1285 times:
I checked HP's schedule for tomorrow, five flights leave from Atlanta every day for Phoenix (one via LAS) and all but the more inconvenient LAS flight are overbooked...some with a few openings in first class but that is all...and that one flight only has one seat available. So yes, booking early seems to be the only way to go. I would think that if HP could spare a 757 or two for that market, they would also fill up.
As for Delta using larger aircraft to fly into PDX, most flights between ATL and PDX are 767 with occasional 757s. I don't see any 747 flights happening and the only thing they could do would be to add another flight.
HPRamper From United States of America, joined May 2005, 3665 posts, RR: 8 Reply 13, posted (7 years 12 months 6 hours ago) and read 1195 times:
Ah so it's just the morning and night ops that use the big boys. The only time I'm around so it's all I see, most of the 738s I see are headed to CVG.
I'm sure PDX is not the only market that is like this with Delta, and I don't see how Delta has any more 767s to spare. However, maybe it is time for DL to take another look at load factors market-specific and decide what they are going to do.
HP in PDX has been seeing some flight changes to save money, a few days ago one of the four RON aircraft was cancelled (the A319) and the first flight out - which almost never fills - was a 737 instead. Much more economical. This was also the day of the week we have no cargo so a 737 was great.
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