Why no American direct flights?

[Daniel Snell]

Well why not? have I missed something here? Why do none of the American carriers fly direct to Orlando? There must be an official reason I am guessing. Surely it would give BA and Virgin a much needed kick up the backside if they had some proper rivals.

I flew with AA (no not the yellow vans doofus the other AA)to New york and was quite happy. We had a nice 777 with 34' pitch lovely, apart from the tv screens broke down on the way, oh and the 2 hour delay sitting on the tarmac at JFK waiting to come home. I mean appart from that I liked them.

[linsan]

I agree, especially from Manchester, as there is only Virgin and you can read the comments about them on another thread!! I am rather large (keep meaning to diet!) but of average height and the seat pitch on charters means my knees are pressed against the seat in front for the whole flight. Goodness knows how you tall people cope? We definitely could do with some good scheduled competition for flights to Orlano especially from Manchester.

[flyrr100]

It's all down to yield. Seat cost per mile.
The avarage cost in and out of Orlando is low. Compared to New York, Chicago, even Miami. Airlines can't afford to fly the cheaper routes. So they leave it to the low cost airlines. Unfortunately the US has no 'long haul' low cost airlines. So Virgin, Monarch etc get the business.
Years ago we had airlines like 'Peoples's Express', and 'Brannif', and 'National' that thought they could afford to fly the low yield routes. Look what happened to them!
The US airline industry is in a mess right now. The guys that used to rule are all in finantial trouble. People like 'Southwest' and 'Air Tran'and 'JetBlue', who are all making money, don't have the equipment to do the long haul stuff.

[Ray&Sarah]

Good to know that AA got the thumbs up from you Daniel as we are flying with them LHR to Miami in October. [msnsmile2]

[Daniel Snell]

Hi Ray & Sarah. Yup must say I thought they where good apart from the couple of points I made in above post. Once you get over the fact that the Stewardesses are old enough to be your Grandmother and wear cardigans its ok!

[Daniel Snell]

And from Jeff the official answer! Thanks Jeff that was really bugging me. Cant belive it came from a Chelsea fan though

[Carla]

Isn't it also something to do with the fact that when they fly international they have to come into one of their own "hubs" or main designated airports?

[stephen williams]

Its cheaper for them to fly everyone to a hub, then out from the hub. Not so many planes needed.

[armagedon]

you will find most american airlines dont fly to loads of destinations from the uk but just to one specific airport which is their main hub and flights to all other cities leave from them, its just more economical. ie continental- newark, delta - atlanta, us air - philadelphia, american/bmi - chicago. i think i have them right no doubt someone can correct if i have any wrong.

mark

[flyrr100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Daniel Snell
And from Jeff the official answer! Thanks Jeff that was really bugging me. Cant belive it came from a Chelsea fan though
[/quote]

I know... can't understand it! Had no problems laerning to read and write!