Copyright 2000 The Buffalo News
The Buffalo News
August 17, 2000, Thursday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL, Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 1276 words
HEADLINE:
MERGER'S SPINOFF MAY REDUCE FLIGHTS TO D.C.; FARES NOT;
LIKELY TO DROP
BYLINE: PATRICK LAKAMP; News Staff Reporter
BODY:
A spinoff airline being created by
the planned merger of United Airlines and US Airways said it
intends to maintain jet service between Buffalo and Washington, D.C., but added
that it is too early to speculate on fares or the number of available seats to
Washington's Reagan National Airport.
Depending on the aircraft that the
new spinoff carrier uses, it is possible the number of seats could be reduced.
If the federal government does not oppose the merger in court, local air
travelers should expect fewer flights to Dulles International Airport outside
Washington, the only airport now receiving nonstop flights out of Buffalo from
both United and US Airways, analysts said.
US Airways flies turboprops
from Buffalo Niagara International Airport to Dulles three times a day. United
flies between the two airports seven times a day. The merged airline may not
need all these flights, analysts said.
What's more, the prospect for
lower fares to either airport seems remote.
The federal government is
reviewing the proposed merger, announced May 24, which would allow United,
already the world's largest airline, to benefit from US Airways' dominance in
the Northeast.
To quell antitrust worries, US Airways has offered to
sell its valuable takeoff and landing slots at Reagan National Airport to the
spinoff carrier -DC Air -- founded by Black Entertainment Television President
and US Airways board member Robert L. Johnson.
Not all of the details
have been settled, so it's not clear what the merger and spinoff airline would
mean for air service between Buffalo and Washington.
DC Air spokesman
Michael Lewellen said Johnson has not cast the spinoff airline as a low-cost,
no-frills carrier.
"We have said DC Air will be a competitive airline,"
Lewellen said.
The new carrier would maintain the three daily jet
flights to Reagan National that US Airways now offers, Lewellen said.
But a leading aviation analyst is skeptical that DC Air would help
Buffalo travelers or even survive on its own without United.
"DC Air is
a sham," said Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd Group, a Colorado aviation
research and consulting firm. "To spin off those valuable slots to an insider is
a scam. That's not going to help Buffalo."
United is spinning off US
Airways assets at Reagan National, but not to a true competitor, Boyd said.
The result, analysts said, is that United would still exercise influence
over operations and fares to Reagan National and not face a strong competitor.
DC Air has said it would not rely heavily on United.
DC Air's
fleet would include eight turboprop planes, 10 Boeing 737 airplanes and 19
regional jets.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer and others on Capitol Hill are
trying to find ways to make some of the Reagan National slots available to
low-cost carriers or win a commitment from DC Air for lower fares.
The
merger comes as Atlantic Coast Airlines, based at Dulles and operating under the
United Express banner, is considering replacing its 19- and 29-seat turboprops
with 50-seat regional jets on its Buffalo-to-Dulles route.
Niagara
Frontier Transportation Authority officials, who recently met with Atlantic
Coast executives, called it a "strong possibility" that the change could happen
this fall.
The airline might use the regional jets on three or four of
its seven daily flights to Dulles, said Lawrence M. Meckler, the NFTA's
executive director.
"We are continuing to expand our regional jet fleet
rapidly, and Buffalo remains a market we continue to look at," said Atlantic
Coast spokesman Rick DeLisi.
"Travelers don't like the prop planes, they
want the jets," said Bonnie Rademacher, vice president of Carlson Wagonlit
Travel in Cheektowaga. "The smaller planes are noisy and bouncy, with short
headroom and limited space."
The Canadair Regional Jet used by
Atlantic Coast is considered one of the fastest and most quiet aircraft
available today. The
regional jet's cruising speed of 530 mph is almost
double the 19-seat turboprop's 282-mph speed.
"Our plan is to move
toward a jet-dominated fleet in the next couple of years," DeLisi said. "It's
not so much a matter of which city is good for regional jets, but what the order
will be."
That indicates the merger will not have a role in bringing
more jet flights to Buffalo for flights to Dulles, Boyd said.
"If United
tries to paint this (merger) as a way you'll get jets, all they're promising you
is something you'll eventually get anyway," Boyd said. "And they'll chop the
fare from exorbitant to very expensive."
Switching to regional jets
would not affect the fare, DeLisi said.
So far, local aviation officials
have not found a way to reduce the average $ 320 round-trip fare between
Washington and Buffalo. That fare is more expensive than the average cost of
flying to New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Tampa, but less than to Philadelphia,
Boston and Dallas.
Overall, about 212 people a day fly to Washington on
one of the three airlines with nonstop flights.
United offers seven
nonstop, turboprop flights a day from Buffalo to Dulles. US Airways, the
dominant carrier in Buffalo, offers three daily turboprop flights to Dulles,
three jet flights to Reagan National and five turboprop flights to
Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
The U.S. Department of
Transportation recently permitted eight carriers to add low-cost flights to
Reagan National from Chicago, Phoenix, Denver and Des Moines, Iowa, among other
cities.
A law signed by President Clinton in April allowed the agency to
approve a dozen new routes to the busy Washington airport, whose number of
departures and arrivals has been limited to control traffic and noise.
But Buffalo has not benefited from the new measure. Seven of the
selected carriers do not fly into Buffalo, and the one that does, Midway
Airlines, plans a flight between Raleigh, N.C., and Reagan National.
Local government leaders have found the most effective way to lower
fares out of Buffalo is to recruit competitor airlines for certain routes, such
as JetBlue Airways for the New York route and Vanguard Airlines to Chicago.
Other airlines' fares to these cities dropped after the low-cost airlines
launched service.
So far, Schumer has held off from taking a position on
the proposed United-US Airways merger.
Schumer said he has met with
executives from United and US Airways, and plans to meet with U.S. Justice
Department officials next month.
Schumer wants to know if DC Air can be
a low-cost airline, and if the airline would continue to fly between Buffalo and
Washington.
"I'm going to give them a chance to show me they can produce
for our area," Schumer said. "If DC Air could be the JetBlue for National
Airport, God bless them. Otherwise, I'll oppose it."
When Southwest
Airlines launches service here Oct. 8, fares to Baltimore will fall.
A
one-week advance purchase fare between Buffalo and Baltimore-Washington
International Airport will cost $ 44 each way. The most expensive one-way fare
will be $ 65, far below current fares.
But for many business travelers,
Southwest's cheap flights to BWI will not solve air service problems to
Washington because they simply cannot afford the extra time and nuisance of
flying to BWI, said Rademacher of Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
Reagan
National Airport is located about 41/2 miles south of Washington, just across
the Potomac River from the Capitol.
From Washington, BWI is about 30
miles, or 38 minutes driving time. And traffic congestion often increases the
driving time.
"Southwest is not the whole answer, it's part of the
answer," Schumer said.
LOAD-DATE: August 21, 2000
