Ezra From United States, joined Mar 2000, 438 posts, RR: 2 Posted (6 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 295 times:
I recently learned from this forum that US Airways' terminal at LGA is leased from Continental. In the event of a fire-sale or significant restructuring of U, what would become of this terminal. Would it make more sense for CO to re-lease the space to another carrier, or to increase its own LGA service, keeping in mind that any new entrant to a market -- even if it is a major carrier -- can be easily priced out of that market by the established carriers. I guess CO is something of a special case because of its strong NYC presence, but it has fairly minimal LGA opps currently.
ContinentalEWR From United States, joined May 2000, 3737 posts, RR: 13 Reply 1, posted (6 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 237 times:
Continental owns the Terminal because Texas Air Group acquired Eastern Air Lines in the 1980's and the two air lines operated as sister carriers, until Eastern went out of business in January 1991. The original terminal was the home of the Eastern Air Shuttle, which then passed to Donald Trump, before US Air Group leased the shuttle operation, and finally bought it, in 1998. Eastern, then Texas Air, had financed the construction of the existing US Air Terminal, but when Eastern went out of business and CO decided to focus on Newark as its New York base of operations, it leased the terminal to US Airways, which had been operating in the central
Terminal from the "Finger" that is now home to United and United Express.
Continental probably would lease it out to another airline. I could see American abandoning the Central Terminal altogether and moving in, if US Airways went out of business, or perhaps Delta moving from its own terminal and consolidating the Shuttle under one roof.
Continental's operations at LaGuardia are not minimal. It flies to Cleveland and Houston several times a day and Continental Express flies to Madison, WI. Before 9/11, Continental Express also flew LGA-RIC-MCO, and one or two dailies to MCO.
Frequentflier From United States, joined Aug 2000, 422 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (6 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 215 times:
Doesn't Continental Express fly to a lot of upstate destinations from LGA? Also, what would happen to the Marine Air Terminal should Delta take over the current US Air terminal? Would this offer more room for expansion at LGA?
Ezra From United States, joined Mar 2000, 438 posts, RR: 2 Reply 3, posted (6 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 209 times:
Thanks, ContinentalEWR! I was hoping you'd respond. I also appreciate the history of how the terminal came to be controlled by CO.
I didn't mean to suggest that CO's LGA operations were insignificant, only that they don't choose to serve as many destinations from LGA as do Delta and American, (who, I agree, would be the natural inheritors of the US Airways terminal), and therefore probably wouldn't want to take on the entire terminal themselves should US Airways go under or otherwise default.
Between Delta and American, which do you think would be the more interested? I could see Delta jump at the chance to consolidate mainline/express and shuttle in one terminal. But maybe they feel operating from the Marine Air terminal gives them a time-saving and marketing advantage. In my experience the drive-time saved by exiting at the Marine Air exit versus the main LGA exit is negligible at best. However, once on the plane it seems there is a lot less taxiing involved in a departure from Marine Air term. Is this an advantage Delta uses to pad its schedule?
I don't know about American. There are always lots of American jets strewn about the airfield, near their hangar.
Frequentflier From United States, joined Aug 2000, 422 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (6 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 207 times:
I have serious doubts about AA expanding at LGA. They are starting a huge, very ambitious project at JFK, and are probably going to focus on JFK for now.
ContinentalEWR From United States, joined May 2000, 3737 posts, RR: 13 Reply 5, posted (6 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 205 times:
I think AA is already a big player at LGA and will continue to be so, focusing on the top US business markets like DFW, HOU, STL, ORD, MIA, and the like as well as leisure destinations like FLL. I am not sure if it would be DL or AA to move into the US Airways Terminal, although Delta does need a better facility and one where it can consolidate its operations.
CO leased out the terminal because it was in Chapter 11 at the time it was completed.
CO EX has no flights to upstate NY. The plan was to start them to Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and so forth, but I think the plan was scrapped after a lottery system was introduced to better manage LGA's congestion, following the Clinton Administration's decision to suspend the slot restrictions on LGA. LGA traffic has slowed due to the lottery system and the post-9/11 environment.
Twaneedsnohelp From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 6, posted (6 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 146 times:
Interesting that CO owns that US Airways terminal at LGA. I do remember a long time ago, a Continental banner hanging over the building as it was being constructed. That was right after they created their present image, new then of course.
Someone asked about CO to upstate NY from LGA. It's actually CommutAir (Continental Connection) that flies to upstate from LGA. CommutAir serves their upstate base at Albany and also Utica nonstop with Be1900s from LGA.
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