EMB170 wrote:DL will be happy to funnel the US-BLR traffic via the daily AF connection or the 4 weekly KL connections for ST members.
They will lose that battle from SEA because:
SEA-BLR 7,019 nm
SEA-CDG-BLR 8,587 nm (+22.3%) + connection time
Don't want to throw cold water on AA's parade, but...
Two routes from SEA (LHR and BLR) do not an international gateway make. Does AA serve BLR from any of its existing hubs, like ORD or LAX? If not, then these routes, while bold adds, seem like non-sequiturs to me. Clearly AA believes it can feed these flights with AS's connecting traffic, but the question remains, if all of AS's connecting traffic wasn't enough to sufficiently feed DL's international flights, what makes AA think they'll be more successful? And with fewer destinations to choose from?[/quote]
I am really scratching my head on SEA BLR. There are so many one stop options
1) BA via LHR
2) LH via FRA
3) DL via CDG/AMS
4) EK via DXB
5) JAL via NRT
So, i really don't know, let's see. Is this a case of "we have tried all possible US India non stop city pairs on the drawing board and this has the best chance of working so let's give it a shot" OR "we have everything covered and we are certain this is going to work" ? Because, speaking of connections; if AS thinks it will connect people from rest of the major West coast hubs (SAN, LAX, SFO, SJC) then they are mistaken as folks would rather take the 1 hop on the other carriers i just mentioned than transit through the nightmare SEA is (remember the return journey involves the customs/immigration mess and the strong possibility of missed connections). So, let's see, unless like someone stated they have something going with Amazon, MSFT etc.
corporate contracts.
One would have thought AA would have done DFW/JFK/PHL/ORD - India because of the connections on the US side. Yeah, i know they tried to make ORD work, so JFK/DFW would have been more logical choices (not sure of 789 has the legs to do DFW-India non stop).
As a side note; the US carriers are definitely giving the ME3 a run for their money for sure. That combined with Australia-Europe non stops on the horizon Mr Clark, Mr Al Bakr & My Tony Douglas must be shitting in their pants.
This is of course provided oil stays at 58~ a barrell. But if oil hits the roof at say 150$ a barrell it's a whole different story and the 3 guys i mentioned will be smiling with glee & the US India non stops will disappear faster than they appeared.