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American Airlines to end all O.C.-Bay Area flights
August 12th, 2009, 3:04 pm · 32 Comments · posted by Mary Ann Milbourn
American Airlines, which had been planning to cut five flights a day from John Wayne Airport to the Bay Area , now says it will end all service to San Francisco and San Jose on Nov 19.
Tim Smith, an American spokesman, said the decision is part of a system-wide reduction in capacity that will take place in two phases.
On Aug. 25, three American Eagle flights from John Wayne to San Francisco and two to San Jose will be discontinued.
American will cancel its remaining service — five flights to San Jose and two to San Francisco — on Nov. 19, Smith said.
“We had good traffic (to the Bay Area) but it was not always profitable traffic,” Smith said. Service from John Wayne to Dallas/Ft. Worth and Chicago will continue, he said.
Jenny Wedge, a John Wayne spokeswoman, said the airport was notified last week about American’s plans to eliminate service to the Bay Area. She noted the airport currently has 46 flights a day to Bay Area airports, includingOakland Airport, which American doesn’t serve. The American cuts will leave John Wayne with 34 flights a day.
“I think we do have sufficient service to that area,” she said.
She said American Eagle is considered commuter service so the airport will have to see if there are other commuter carriers interested in picking up the slots American Eagle will be giving up.
Wedge noted Virgin America just began service to San Francisco from John Wayne in April . Southwest jumped in to match that service in May.
“When Virgin America came on board, it got us back to level ground,” Wedge said. “But we will see a decline in passenger levels in November.”
Air Canada was supposed to start John Wayne’s first international service this summer, but has yet to follow through. Wedge said one or two other airlines have expressed interest.
American’s decision to drop service between John Wayne and San Jose is a major turnaround from the dot-com days of the late ’90s when its so-called “nerd birds” were packed with people flying between the two tech hubs.
San Jose Airport spokesman David Vossbrink suggested to the San Jose Mercury-News that American may have fallen victim to fierce competition from Southwest Airlines.
Vossbrink noted Southwest also flies seven times a day to John Wayne from San Jose and that Southwest’s planes carry about three times as many passengers as American Eagle’s.
In other Virgin America news, the airline is launching direct flights from SFO to Ft. Lauderdale, but spokeswoman Abby Lunardini says the airline has no plans to offer direct service out of John Wayne.
Register Travel Editor Gary Warner contributed to this report.
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Virgin America was the straw that broke the camels back. I love flying Virgin America, and have a flight booked up to San Fran with them out of John Wayne for early December for a museums and Christmas shopping trip.
Good riddance to American Airlines and their stodgy old planes with crummy service. Hello to Virgin America with their sleek planes and stellar service from attractive staff that can actually fit into their fashionable uniforms, unlike the highly tenured crabby women in oversized navy blue muu-muu’s on American.
The legacy carriers like American are really showing their age.
You think American’s tenured crabby women can get end-of-life counseling in THEIR health plan?
Troy - What does a flight attendant’s weight have to do with anything.
What a ridiculous post. I’m kind of embarrassed for you.
A fat slob on a plane is a safety and security risk in addition to being offensive to look at. You must resemble one yourself not to understand the problem. You should be embarassed for YOURSELF for treating such a serious social issue as a ‘preference’. You’re a classic example of normalized deviance where no matter how disgusting a person looks, smells, behaves, etc., it’ simply ‘OK’. The sane among us choose to be surrounded by things and people which please us.
Reina- Agreed with your comments. For me, I pick SouthWest to get to SFO…it’s cheap and decent service. I don’t need fluff for an hour flight. Give me a seat on the plane that cost me $50 or less and I’m good.
After reading about American Airlines’ concern about their engine failure issues, I’m not sure I mind them ending their SNA service. I’d much rather fly another carrier who has confidence in their engine mechanics.
What’s the deal with Air Canada? I thought they were supposed to begin flights at John Wayne this month. Did they pull out of the deal? You can’t imagine how convenient for me it would be if they were at JW. Then again I guess the airport can’t cater to my individual needs.
Bullet train is goina do ‘em all in!
I agree, but until 2050 there is a lot of money to be made still.
Bullet Train may never happen with our state finance and attempts to retard the process (atherton and menlo!), and if anything it will reduce the amount of local traffic which would expand our ability to attract more international flights! Currently 38% of flights from the bay are destined to the Los Angeles area airports… think of how many more international connections a reduction in that local traffic would allow us without really increasing our net flight traffic.
I think local airlines should partner with the bullet train and cross-advertise.
reina20 - Appearance is extremely important in any aspect of life, especially in business world. Airlines are known for their uniforms, color schemes, services, etc…
If AA has nothing left to represent itself then the appearance of the flight attendant is extremely important.
There are people out there that don’t care about their appearance. Those people tend to look and smell horrible. Being overweight makes a typical uniform stretched and possibly ripped. It also shows rolls of fat when you walk.
But private business do care about their appearance because it’s a part of business. It’s good for advertisement, marketing, and trust.
who cares about the flight attendants. just get me the cheapest fare.
Two notes:
Yes, we know the photo on the story and blog is of a MD-80 (fka DC-9, later known as Boeing 717) and the flights being cut are of the smaller commuter jets. It’s just the photo we have available at this moment.
About the AA service: A major draw of the American service was the ability to avoid LAX on longer trips flown by AA. You could fly to SF and then transfer without lugging your checked bags to a flight to London or Tokyo.
Gary…
At 6:55 Wednesday night the photo on the blog shows the vertical stabilizer of something OTHER than a DC-9/MD-80/B-717. Those three aircraft have “T-tails” and the photo looks more like a B-737 or maybe a B-757.
I know, big deal.
What I could never figure out is why United never used a slot and SNA to fly their 757 to Honolulu. I heard that all of Aloha’s flights had good passenger loads.
If AA can’t make money on this route, how can the government think that it can?
Amtrak loses money every year.
A bullet train will lose it faster.
They’ve dropped the nerd bird flights between Austin and San Jose, too.
I’m surprised (well, maybe not) to hear that there are still people who think we are back in the Fifties or Sixties, with airlines basing their marketing on perky, short-skirted stewardesses who offer “coffee, tea, or me?” service to well-dressed businessmen.
You guys must hate it when Chad and Steve are the FAs on your flights.
Josh, honey, I’m Gay. But that still doesn’t make me like the crabby women in size 18 muu-muu’s on American Airlines. I’ll take a young, perky stewardess in a sleek Virgin America uniform any day, even though I don’t want to sleep with her. Appearance of stewardesses means a great deal to many people, my Gay self included.
And as long as Chad and Steve are hotties, they will work just fine too. Coffee, Tea, or Steve?
That is the best comeback I have ever seen!!
Troy, you rock!
Thanks!
It amazes me how some people still think the only people who care about personal appearance are chauvenist pigs “stuck in the 1950’s”.
You don’t have to be straight to know when service staff are crabby and cow-like in appearance. A pleasant and attractive appearance is stil very relevant in the 21st century, regardless of sexual preference.
I guess I’d rather have the crabby women than Chad handling things up front while Steve takes care of the rear.
sounds like Josh just woke up from a wet dream with Chad and Steve…:))
I hate domestic flights. FAs are boring. I also have discovered that a large number of them are former cheerleaders.
International flights are wonderful. The FAs are still wonderful.
Very true. Most domestic airlines in this country are mediocre at best, and dismal at worst. And their staff reflect those lowered expectations, right down to their oversized and relaxed-waist polyester uniforms.
I’ve flown Japan Airlines, and it’s wonderful, with their stewardesses like perfect Barbie Dolls. Air Berlin is also very good, and Virgin Atlantic has great service and great looking cabin and airport staff.
Virgin America isn’t as good as most foreign airlines, but for a domestic USA airline it’s about as good as it gets and is leaps and bounds better than the crabby cows on American, USAir, United, and most domestic airlines. I’m a patriotic guy, but this country has some really crummy airlines with an American flag pasted on the side of the plane. Most Americans who don’t travel overseas have no idea how pathetic our domestic airlines really are.
Gator Dad: I was referring to the tail on the main story page in Travel (www.ocregister.com/travel). That has a MD-80 shot. Then it clicks to the blog and yes, that looks like a 757 tail. Anyway…
When Aloha went bankrupt there were some talks about new OC-Honolulu service. At the time, the buzz was that the main contender seemed to be US Airways, which had 757ER equipment that could make the trip with larger passenger loads and also meet the airport’s noise standards. The 737s that Aloha used meant that capacity maxed out in the summer at a lower revenue per flight number than most major airlines would like. Even Aloha was looking at larger alternative sto the 737s.
Hawaiian Airlines was once No. 2 on the John Wayne waiting list, but when their number came up, Aloha was gone and they opted not to start new service.
What a shame. In February 2008, I flew on the first non-stop from OC to Kauai. By April, they were gone.
– Gary Warner, Travel Editor
It’s a 737.
The airline biz is insane, at best. Even Bob Crandall, former head of American and the alleged creator of crazy fare system, said it’s a fun place to work but a lousy business model.
I found it strange that a Hawaiian based airline, Aloha, was the only airline with non-stop flights between SNA and Reno. I know it’s not a huge market, but Aloha to Reno seemed a tad strange. Just like the only airline to fly non-stop from Honolulu to Sydney, Australia, is Hawaiian! At least the last time I checked.
The final “believe it or don’t” event was the TWA {rest in peace} trick of taking off from SNA for St. Louis with a very light load of fuel. This allowed them to put more passengers on board and still meet the noise limits then in effect. They would fly to Ontario, take on extra fuel and continue to St. Louis. The flight was shown as non-stop from SNA to St. Louis.
Nothing an airline does is a surprise any more! As soon as the loads build back up between Orange County and the Bay area, airlines with slots will move in to take up the slack… it’s only the old supply-demand thing.
I don’t know about all the cases, but the OC-Reno flight was because Aloha did not have rights to park all their aircraft overnight at John Wayne Airport. So they would fly on to Reno for the night, pick up a little extra revenue, and come back to SNA. The problem was that in the winter, there could be major weather delays out of Reno and it would put their scheduled flights to the islands in jeopardy.
I got stuck in Reno in November because of fog in OC. We arrived about three hours late and in the middle of the noon-time jam at John Wayne. Aloha finally parked the airplane at the north end of the general aviation hangars and we walked to the terminal. Ah! The joys of flying. :>)
This has been a long time coming. Southwest showed they could give fair prices, reliable service, and roomy aircraft (so you could carry on a bag). You could see the erosion of AA in both airports — pretty soon they’ll be gone at SJC as well. I wrote to Don Carty about 18 months ago telling him they needed to step up their game. I got back a message saying their. marketing people knew what they were doing. They used to literally own this corridor, and now they’re gone.
Those commuter jets suck! I’m not even 6 feet tall but I can’t stand straight up in the cabin isle. The AA flight attendants were always horrible. They don’t have a sense of being there to service the passengers, instead they think they are there to keep an eye on you.
“We had good traffic (to the Bay Area) but it was not always profitable traffic”
Ie: Soutwest kicks our arce. I look forward to trying Virgin.