LKN704

AA has loaded CLT-DUB to resume next year in mid-February - the earliest it has ever resumed. Definitely a route that will likely go year-round once the A321XLRs arrive.

How does your child know what being high looks like? How does your child know they don't have some sort of mental disability? Did a school administrator/teacher tell you that half of the kids in your kid's class were high? Just trying to understanding the logic behind your claims... I'm glad we are at the stage of society where "My kid says half the class can't focus or pay attention at all so those kids all must be high! Blame drug legalization!" Next week we are going to hear about how half the kids in class wore tie dye one day so they must all be LGBT+...must be an inevitable response to gay marriage.

I hate to break it to you but kids were smoking weed in my junior high school in New York in the early 2000s and in my brother's middle school in Mooresville...irrespective of drug policy in either jurisdiction.

Lol, right. If CLT actually cared about this sort of thing they would have built the recent extensions according to LEED certification standards and would undergo LEED's existing buildings O&M program.

I've said this before here but I just want someone to help me understand the hype. I've gone a couple of times to their new store in DC when it first opened...they were sending out pretty good mailers offering discounts like $20 off a $75 purchase. Produce looked the same as Safeway - they might have had a few more "exotic" options (I remember seeing organic star fruit) but that's really the only difference I saw. They had a ton of prepared food and a hot bar that looked nice, but I don't really buy prepared food outside of hummus and the occasional rotisserie chicken. Employees seemed nice, but I don't want supermarket employees saying hi to me or asking if I need help...frankly the less people I have to talk to throughout my day the better. I hated how basically every other general merchandise item was their own brand. I remember they had one brand of canned whole tomatoes, and then a bunch of different varieties of the Wegman's brand. Even the tiny "Soviet" Safeway near my house that is less than 10,000 square feet and the size of a Walgreens has a wider selection of general merchandise. To each their own, I guess...I have a friend from Western NY whose sister got engaged in a Wegmans...the whole family would probably murder me if they saw this post.

I've been in Helsinki for the past two weeks or so for work. Great city that I cannot recommend or emphasize enough with profusely friendly locals. Not a whole lot to do tourism wise (I knocked out everything I wanted to do in three days) but there are some fabulous contemporary art museums, galleries, and design shops. It might be one of my favorites in Europe...there's this homey vibe I have never experienced anywhere else, not even in other Nordic capitals...I hated Stockholm, for example. Anyways, I know you cannot compare transit use/funding/planning in Europe with that of the United States, but Helsinki's commuter rail network is literally the most impressive thing I have ever seen in terms of frequency. I stood on a bridge over the railroad tracks leading to Helsinki Central in the middle of the day (non rush hour) and I counted almost 30 trains entering/leaving the station in less than 5 minutes. In the 10 seconds or so that it took me to take this photo was the only time when the tracks were empty. Another thing I found interesting is they have a U.S.-style late 20th century Metro system in that the Metro is similar to BART, MARTA, etc. in that it isn't designed for trips within the city but rather for trips between the city center and outer ring suburbs...trams are used for trips within the city...but they aren't that necessary. I purchased a multi-day unlimited pass thinking I would be taking transit all the time but I've only ridden transit maybe 10 times or so.

I believe the flights are essentially public charters that are open for scheduled passenger bookings. Viva Aerobus operated into Charlotte pre-pandemic on a similar schedule (once weekly on Sunday) on behalf of Vacation Express. I'm willing to bet a similar arrangement is in place again.

A potential Mt. Mourne station would likely be in a completely different fare zone that would incorporate some type of penalty fare/surcharge to account for Iredell County's non participation in the project. BART does this with trips to/from/within San Mateo County as it isn't a member of the BART Transit District. Granted the usefulness of this is likely minimal as those who would normally board at Mt. Mourne could just drive to Davidson and avoid the fare.

Gossip about the Red Line must be spreading amongst NIMBY hens in Iredell County. My mother just texted me this earlier this evening:

The average income and net worth of people who shop at "luxury" aspirational brands located in shopping malls is exponentially lower than one would expect. People who are actually wealthy either buy minimal brands off the rack and pay to have it tailored (often with a personal tailor) in the case of clothing or fly off to New York, Milan, Paris or Los Angeles to go to a small store you have never heard of that is open "by appointment only."

To better demonstrate this, I created this map on the Great Circle Mapper: Roughly 30 cities lost either air service completely or exited the US/AA system with the wind down/closure of the PIT hub. All of these cities were served entirely with turboprop aircraft at the time of their termination. Once these cities were gone, it made little sense to keep the hub open to chase low yielding connecting traffic that could be served over PHL, CLT, (and to some extent) DCA. CLT doesn't have a similar issue.

I'm sorry, but at this stage the notion that AA would abandon its assets at CLT in a situation similar to PIT is absurd. The Pittsburgh hub was located in an economically depressed area that was over-saturated with unnecessary hubs - see Cleveland and Cincinnati. All three hubs dated from an era when hubs were determined only by geography, rather than local demand. PIT was heavily dependent on turboprop flights to smaller, economically depressed markets. Airlines eventually came to terms that a lot of these smaller stations weren't economically viable (Oil City or Altoona anyone?) and the ones that were viable to serve (say Erie) could easily be served from stronger hubs that weren't in the same geographic region. Once you began to cut those smaller stations (a lot were to EAS markets), it made little sense to continue to feed passengers flying from say Albany to San Diego when you had two other hubs (CLT, PHL) that were in larger, more economically prosperous regions that could easily pick up the traffic. US was going to eventually terminate their Pittsburgh hub operations regardless of whether 9/11 occurred - it simply sped up the process. Mainline flight departures at Pittsburgh actually began to decline several years before 9/11 in the mid 1990s. It's true that Pittsburgh's operating costs were high, but the hub was so well designed that most carriers reclaimed the costs in terms of efficiencies. US/AA can sit here and publicly say that the primary reason for Pittsburgh's closure was its high operating cost, but at the end of the day that simply isn't true.

That's how it works in the United States and Canada. Crews at some foreign carriers overseas typically start/end their work assignment at an airline operations center/HQ/office building located on or adjacent to airport property and then take a shuttle bus directly to the aircraft.

Forget the crowded gate areas. Forget the nasty bathrooms. Forget the fact that you are about to board a cramped AA "Oasis" plane. The worst part about walking through B/C is easily the lack of spatial awareness people have - it's as if some folks have never been out in public before. Also, what is that man leaning on in the right hand side of the photo - a casket?

Ironically even though they took a buzzsaw to their LAX network (dropping over 15 destinations since the pandemic), AA still has more gates than any other carrier at LAX. It's not really a slot situation at JFK either - for years AA had slots at JFK that were unused and AA management publicly admitted that they were forced to give up slots at JFK simply because they were unaware that they possessed them - in short, even when AA had the slots at JFK, they didn't know how to use them effectively. The reality is that markets like LAX and NYC are filled with folks who actually care about the product, and that clientele is simply not AA's target market. As AA management has said publicly time and time again, the schedule is the product, and the company is not prepared to compete in markets where they might have to compete on product. International opportunities are out, markets like El Paso (a city that AA management continuously brings up) are now the cities where AA sees pathways to profitability and marketshare. Things like seatback video entertainment really don't matter to a lot of people, but it does matter when competing in a high yielding market like NYC/WAS/LAX. I can't think of any reason why anyone who lives in NYC would actively choose to fly AA when Delta, JetBlue, and United offer a better product and schedule. It's not for nothing that United is spending billions and billions of dollars to add seatback entertainment to its domestic fleet.

The cuts are a lot less deep than I thought, and aren't too surprising...I am kind of surprised to see them close most of their South American stations. Their intra-west Los Angeles network performed horribly - routes were flying with just a 50 percent load factor. The JetBlue model just doesn't work in California...Virgin America also figured this out. Californians actually prefer the cattle-car, no-frills Southwest-style of flying. It's my understanding that their European network also performs horribly, but the company believes the losses are worthwhile (for now). JetBlue has tried a number things over the years that simply did not work - their former hub/focus city at Washington Dulles comes to mind. They need to focus their assets on their core markets of NYC and Boston - particularly Boston, where their market share has declined since the pandemic. Glad to see Charlotte remains.

I don’t work anywhere close to the electoral process (foreign policy/national security is my claim to fame ) but I do meet people frequently who have experience in the electoral process. It’s extremely unusual for younger millennials and Generation Z to contribute financially/donate to the political process – sans for a “unicorn” candidate in a particular electoral district (Greg Casar in Austin and Katie Porter in California both come to mind). Frankly I don’t feel comfortable enough about conservative politics to comment on it, but I do know that the GOP loves to prop up their younger right-wing cohort and insert them onto the national stage – look at how Charlie Kirk was a keynote speaker during the 2020 RNC. The Democratic establishment/DNC (whom I now refer to as Blue Maga because that’s how they have been acting) are genuinely fearful of their younger left-wing cohorts. Kirk’s counterpart on the left would be someone like a Hasan Piker or Ana Kasparian – you have a greater chance of winning the Mega Millions than seeing the DNC invite either of those two to be keynote speaker at a convention. Hence, I wouldn’t be surprised to see younger conservative contribute more financially to the electoral process, as they feel more valued and are welcomed to the political process. I hear from Progressive-leaning younger millennials and folks from Generation Z from varying demographics and varying geographic locations that they are genuinely unsure how to vote in November 2024. I feel their pain – I am one of them. I’m obviously going to vote for Biden as someone who sees politics firsthand, but it’s easy to understand their frustration, especially if they don’t live in Washington or follow politics. I had an interesting text back and forth with an old classmate who lives in Missouri now – I didn’t even know they cared about politics. This is directly she said: “High profile blue congress members regularly have fundraisers hosted by lobbying firms representing insurance companies. Why keep voting for the same Democrats who are pro-status quo and will block any moves towards universal healthcare? Why vote at all if that is your only option?” All of this makes the “Uncommitted” vote in Michigan so interesting. While it was easy to predict that large number of those votes came from the Arab American community, an even greater percentage per capita came from younger voters around U-M and MSU. Biden has a huge problem with younger voters. It isn’t just Palestine. It isn’t just the environment. It isn’t just student debt. There’s a huge messaging problem and basically zero engagement. It’s almost like he isn’t counting on them to show up for him in November – the irony of that is he cannot win without progressives and younger voters. Some isn’t a messaging problem, but a problem with himself. His policies on some issues are decades old and will not change. For example, a lot of people will say “Vote Biden as Trump is deeply Islamophobic and will be worse on Palestine blah blah blah.” Biden is incredibly chummy with Bibi and broke with both Hillary Clinton’s (when she was then Secretary of State) and Obama’s back numerous times on Israel/Palestine – this is noteworthy as the infamous neoliberal Henry Kissinger a**kissing queen that Clinton is has made disgusting statements over the past couple of months…it’s telling that she is even more moderate on the conflict than Biden…I can only imagine what Biden thinks privately. I don’t think his age is a problem per se with younger voters but rather his cognitive ability. Bernie Sanders is older and with it. Chuck Grassley is almost ten years older and also appears much more with it. Whew - that was a lot. I hope these musings peak your interest!

I agree. Theoretically building swaths of car dependent townhomes (such as those going up in the Westside/Moorehead area) in a city like Charlotte should increase the probability of whether that particular area can support a public transit connection.

North Carolina's y'all-Qaeda is back making national headlines again: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/14/politics/kfile-gop-nominee-north-carolina-public-schools-michele-morrow-executing-democrats/index.html

For years I have been saying that CLT lacks any sort of air service development program - but based on this PDF, I am happy to say I am wrong. https://assets.ctfassets.net/jaw4bomip9l3/1NUhKfrKCtzvuBqGoYsKrY/2ed0e291b7bacd6c3ed9f47aaac993c8/CLT_Affairs_Brochure_2024.pdf The document is relatively new and is really well written. I am hoping this means the City will start being more aggressive into marketing itself to new entrants. Cargo aircraft are still charged landing fees based on maximum gross landing weight (MGLW). I believe it is $0.89 per 1,000 lbs. In the case of Prime Air, the MGLW of a 763 is around 325,000 lbs, so they essentially pay the City $290 for every landing. There is also a parking fee which is $50 for less than three hours and $100 for anything between three and 24 hours. There is likely a fee to use the cargo facility as well.

I didn't realize it still existed. I often wonder who still shops at those 20th century styled skincare/perfume shops L'Occitane comes to mind...regardless of what city or mall I am in, L'Occitane always seems to be empty outside of the employees. The only time I saw a L'Occitane that was full of shoppers was at a mall in Hong Kong near the boundary with the Mainland - Mainland shoppers were stuffing their purchases into large hard-sided suitcases to sell over the border. Crabtree & Evelyn is another store that comes to mind - but I don't think they have brick and mortar stores anymore. I bought my mom this really nice gift set from them maybe 15 or so years ago and she said it smelled like old lady. Aesop and Le Labo are now in, but I can't see them coming to SouthPark. They seem to prefer locations inside mixed-use development in areas with really high constant foot traffic.

I suppose they could re-start a partnership in some way but it wouldn't be as extensive as it was previously given the scrutiny it received from the DOJ. It would likely just be related to frequent flyer benefits - that sort of thing. It would also be primarily focused around NYC - a market where AA is extremely weak compared to DL/UA, but is simply too big to walk away from. As the article you posted reference, AA doesn't even fly NYC to Florida outside of Miami - which a huge market in NYC. They dropped a number of high profile destinations over the past few years - Las Vegas, San Diego, and Seattle all come to mind. Granted, their frequency on those routes from JFK was horrible, but in a market like NYC, you have to be in it to win it. They didn't codeshare to Charlotte before - Charlotte was meaningless to their Northeast Alliance. If they AA/B6 did form a full-fledged codeshare again (which I don't view as likely), DOJ would almost certainly prohibit the two carriers form codesharing on hub-hub routes, just as Alaska is legally prohibited from placing its code on any of AA's CLT-SEA/PDX/LAX/SFO flights.

Thanks for the nice comment, I appreciate it! JetBlue is in pretty poor financial condition at present, and they are due to implement a massive cost savings initiative within the coming months that will include a network realignment. This summer, CLT-BOS drops down to a single daily service on T/W/Sa. Unfortunately, CLT is exactly the kind of market that I expect they may drop as part of the realignment. Other cities that solely saw BOS service (IAD, BWI) have also been closed over the past couple of years. WN only operated CLT-PHX as a pandemic-era service when flying was down overall and PHX was booming. I can't see it coming back. Regarding AC, I remember when they launched RDU-YUL they stated that they would have also liked to launch CLT-YUL as well but didn't have the resources to do both. I could see them launching it at one point - they have really grown the YUL hub over the years and now fly a lot of interesting Francophone destinations (Algiers, Lyon, Toulouse, etc.) exclusively from Montreal. Delta had mainline on CLT-JFK pre-pandemic - I believe at one point the route was mostly operated by 717s. I think the 717s have left NYC and are now solely operated ex ATL/MSP/DTW.

The timing of the Max 10s makes it seem like the conversion is less "American Airlines’ trust in Boeing and its confidence in the 737 MAX family" and more like AA got a good deal on them given the recent news (and entry into service delay for the type) and basically told Boeing that they aren't in a rush for them. It's amazing that the E175, which was introduced into service in 2003, keeps chugging along (albeit with a few PIPs). Say buh-bye to those nice A319s equipped with in-seat video entertainment and plusher Economy seating as part of this announcement. I found it amusing that the press release originally had a typo that said AA had the most in-seat entertainment of any U.S. carrier - they quickly edited that out and changed it to just WiFi...oops! I'm not even sure if you will see more SLC - they pulled their second daily service to SLC this summer.

Here's a tentative schedule of OAL flights this summer: Spirit: 15 daily flights BOS: 1X A320 LAX: 1X A321N (The departure time on this is horrible - leaves CLT at 23:00 Eastern and arrives LAX at 0115 Pacific the next day) FLL: 2X A321, 1X A321N DFW: 1X A320 IAH: 1X A320 EWR: 1X A320, 1X A320N LAS: 1X A320N LGA: 2X A321, 1X A321N ORD: 1X A320 TPA: 1X A320 Frontier: 11 daily flights (most flights aren't daily, BWI/BUF/ORD/TTN are served on different days, but service averages 11 flights/day) MCO: 1X A321 SJU: 1X A321 CVG: 1X A320N DEN: 1X A321 DFW: 1X A320N LGA: 1X A320N BWI: 1X A321 IAH: 1X A320N PHL: 3X A320N AC: 3 daily flights YYZ: 3X E175 UA: 17 daily flights IAD: 1X 737, 3X E175 IAH: 1X 737, 1X A319, 1X E175 ORD: 1X A320, 2X A319 EWR: 3X 7M8, 1X 737, 1X E175 DEN: 2X A319 DL: 34 daily flights DTW: 5X 717 ATL: 9X 717 MSP: 4X 717 SLC: 1X A321 LGA: 5X CR9 JFK: 5X CR9 BOS: 5X E175 SY: 1 flight (operates twice weekly) MSP: 1X 737 B6: 2 daily flights (drops down to one daily on some days) BOS: 2X E190 WN: 9 daily flights BWI: 2X 737 MDW: 3X 737 STL: 1X 737 BNA: 2X 737 DAL: 1X 737 LH: 1 daily flight MUC: 1X A359 Some observations: Delta is larger than Frontier, Spirit, Air Canada, Sun Country, JetBlue, and Lufthansa combined. It's interesting to see how 717 heavy Delta is in CLT is compared to other peer cities. I wouldn't be surprised to see B6 leave Charlotte. Their measly two daily flights on higher-cost E190s cannot be profitable and command a yield, especially when competing against AA/DL/NK. There are rumored to be some station closures coming up, so we'll have to see if CLT is one of them. I'd be shocked if more than half of Frontier's recent additions stick around. Both Frontier and Spirit are adding then dropping route pairs like crazy these days to see what sticks.