(the two of us) , Whenifhow, and LasVegasDave.
Posted on 02/01/2014 7:24:31 PM PST by Las Vegas Dave
CLEVELAND, Ohio – United Airlines confirmed Saturday that departures from Cleveland will be cut by about 60 percent due to unprofitable operations in the city.
Northeast Ohio Media Group spoke with several travelers to get their feelings on what the cutbacks will mean. Here’s what they had to say:
Omar Garcia of Cleveland uses United to fly to Puerto Rico. It’s what he’s flown since he came to America five years ago from Bayamon, Puerto Rico. It’s the same airline his mother, brothers, sisters and their families used to move to America.
He was at the airport Saturday to pick up another sister who was flying direct from the island.
“I fly United because it’s the cheapest flight I can find,” he said. < snip >
Bammy’s fault.
> It’s the same airline his mother, brothers, sisters and their families used to move to America.
Must be a lot of jobs in Cleveland. The pay must also be good enough to move to Cleveland in Winter from the tropics.
Illegals must not be inconvenienced with a layover.
Seems kind of a dumb question. As if nobody can guess.
Similar to when the bubble-headed bleach blonde stuck the microphone in the face of the guy being carried to the ambulance on a stretcher: “How do you feel, Mr. Jones?”
Media types are not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
In 1950, Cleveland had almost a million folks inside the city limits, over 90%the vast majority of whom were white. Now they are under 400,000 and still dropping. And it’s about a third white.
I once spent a year in Cleveland. I think it was on a Sunday.
Puerto Ricans are U.S. Citizens.
Cleveland not quite as bad but similar to Detroit has been in decline for decades. United is just cacthing up with reality.
United has an agreement with Ohio/Cleveland to keep CLE flight levels at 90% of Pre-UA/CO merger levels through Jan 2015, but the penalty for pulling out a year early is only $20 Mil.
The writing for CLE has been on the wall for a long time. A declining market between two other major company hubs, O’Hare and Newark, its fate will be the same as Memphis, Cinci. St. Louis, and Pittsburgh.
Lots of empty airport space in the Midwest these days. And $100 oil means that any market unable to support at least 4 flights at 80-100 seats each, on Origin/destination traffic only, is going to get cut eventually.
I sat in at meetings in the Mid-90’s in which Brian Bedford, and Michael Boyd predicted exactly what is happening today. A good part of this, (but by no means all of it), is due to the Clinton-era “Aviation Safety Act” that destroyed the regional airline business.
The new Fed Duty Hours imperial edict is a big part of this, as well.:
From: JeffSmisek
Sent: Saturday, February 01, 2014 4:39:31 PM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Subject: United to Reduce Flying from Cleveland
Dear Cleveland co-worker:
I want to let you know that we have made the difficult decision to substantially reduce our flying from Cleveland. We will make this reduction in stages beginning in April.
I wanted you to know this information before the press found out, but unfortunately they found out earlier than we planned. I apologize for this getting in the press before we were able to tell you directly.
Our hub in Cleveland hasn’t been profitable for over a decade, and has generated tens of millions of dollars of annual losses in recent years. We simply cannot continue to bear these losses.
No city has been more supportive of its hub carrier, and no group of employees has been more dedicated to providing great service, but the demand for hub-level connecting flying through Cleveland simply isn’t there. Ultimately, we can’t create demand, but we do have a responsibility to react to it. We must make the right business decisions, even when those decisions are painful, so we can continue to compete effectively and invest appropriately in our business.
While our decision to reduce our flying was driven by our continued losses in Cleveland,
********* the timing of the flight reductions has been accelerated by industry-wide effects of new federal regulations that impact us and our regional partner flying.********
Those new regulations have caused mainline airlines to hire regional pilots, while simultaneously significantly reducing the pool of new pilots from which regional carriers themselves can hire. Although this is an industry issue, it directly affects us and requires us to reduce our regional partner flying, as several of our regional partners are beginning to have difficulty flying their schedules due to reduced new pilot availability. We need to reduce that flying in our most unprofitable markets, which unfortunately are out of Cleveland.
As a result, we will be reducing our average daily departures from Cleveland by around 60%. We expect to be able to keep almost all of our mainline departures (reducing only one of our 26 peak day mainline departures), but will need to reduce our regional departures from Cleveland by over 70%. Together, this will reduce our capacity (available seat miles) out of Cleveland by around 36%. We will make these reductions in roughly one-third increments in each of early April, May and June.
When the schedule reductions are fully implemented in June, we plan to offer 72 peak-day flights from Cleveland, and serve 20 destinations from Cleveland on a non-stop basis, including to all our hubs, and to key business markets like LGA, DCA and BOS. We will also serve from Cleveland on a non-stop basis key leisure markets, like FLL, MCO, TPA and RSW. Importantly, our new schedule out of Cleveland will cover 58% of the current Cleveland-originating domestic passenger demand on a non-stop basis, and will permit Cleveland residents to fly to almost every one of the destinations they fly to today, by connecting over one or more of our other hubs.
We expect to be able to keep our pilot and flight attendant bases in Cleveland, because we anticipate being able to keep substantially all of our mainline departures from Cleveland. We also expect to be able to keep all of our current technical operations in Cleveland, because we anticipate having the opportunity to work on the mainline aircraft. However, since we handle our regional partners’ flying above and below the wing in Cleveland, we will be forced to reduce staffing in airport operations and in catering because of the significant reduction in regional partner flying. We currently expect a reduction in force affecting up to 430 airport operations positions and approximately 40 catering personnel in Cleveland. Those reductions in force will likely begin in June. Each employee will be receiving detailed information relating to these reductions in the coming weeks. Affected airport operations employees may have system displacement options or other opportunities to maintain employment with United, and we will work with the IAM leadership to explore other programs that may mitigate the impact of these reductions on IAM-represented airport employees.
While we cannot change the outcome, we will take every action we can to implement these reductions in a manner that upholds our culture. Throughout this difficult process, we are committed to treating our people with the same level of openness, dignity and respect that our Cleveland co-workers have shown our customers and each other over the years. Our HR team is working hard to support you, and will be providing you with answers and assistance over the coming weeks and months.
I regret that we will be forced to reduce staffing in Cleveland, but we have no choice, given the level of continued losses we have suffered in Cleveland, the pressure that the new federal regulations have placed on our regional partners, and our reduction in regional flying. I know that these changes will be difficult for many of you, and this outcome is not what any of us wanted.
Sincerely,
Jeff
In the late 2000s my worked pushed me on a United flight for that reason, I emailed them from my hotel room to tell them I would never do that again.
I love the way they squeeze the seats together then offer some OK seats for $30 to $50 more per leg, cramping passengers in tiny spaces.
I flew the rest of my work flights on SouthWest and really appreciated it. Same with personal trips, a few $$$ is not worth that misery.
I would think the increased hassle of going through airport security might cause people to drive (or take Megabus) rather than fly.
Not really...
The “Bus crowd” started flying when the fares hit rock-bottom in the mid-80’s, and due to the fare increases, has largely gone back to cars and busses.
What TSA has changed is is the “hassle time”.
3-4 hours driving time was the standard for flying over driving in the mid-90’s, while today it is around 6 hrs.
Cleveland was one fantastic city.
Destroyed by mass migration from the south.
Looks like it’s time for “HASTILY MADE CLEVELAND TOURISM VIDEO #3”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM
Nutters select Liberal crowds because they are not armed.
Note to Liberals such as Maher: “Country folk” like guns and often are armed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.