How do airlines determine flight routes?

RyanB

RyanB

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May or may not be a question for this board, but I’m sure someone will have some knowledge on it.

How do airlines determine their routes? For example, for several months we’ll get Skywest to fly the routes between Delta hubs and then Endeavor will get the routes and then Expressjet will get them.

Between here and Charlotte, we used to have Air Wisconsin fly the route, than it changed to PSA and now it’s Piedmont. Seems like they go in cycles? Why is that? Is there some type of contract between codeshare carriers to fly the route for a certain period of time before they change partners?
 
You're looking at it from the wrong perspective--who flies a particular route.

Airlines are looking at it from the perspective of their entire network. They are asking how to deploy their assets (airplanes) in a manner that produces the best return. Demand isn't static, though, nor is their available assets, so there are constant changes.

Using AA as an example... Air Wisconsin no longer flies in the AA/AE network. Piedmont was all Dash-8 aircraft a few years ago and is now all E-145 and growing. PSA is continuing to add airplanes. As the Air Wisconsin flying was transitioned to Piedmont and PSA there were changes even if the airplane type and market demand did not change.

For any airplane, on any route, the question the airline asks is if that is the most profitable place to deploy that asset. As the answer changes, so do the flight schedules.
 
Ryanb said:
May or may not be a question for this board, but I’m sure someone will have some knowledge on it.

How do airlines determine their routes? For example, for several months we’ll get Skywest to fly the routes between Delta hubs and then Endeavor will get the routes and then Expressjet will get them.

Between here and Charlotte, we used to have Air Wisconsin fly the route, than it changed to PSA and now it’s Piedmont. Seems like they go in cycles? Why is that? Is there some type of contract between codeshare carriers to fly the route for a certain period of time before they change partners?
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For a certain American carrier it's which pilot group management wants to beat down today. If they are ****ed at one regional or want to punish one regional feed they switch flying to another carrier.
 
unsafervguy said:
For a certain American carrier it's which pilot group management wants to beat down today. If they are ****ed at one regional or want to punish one regional feed they switch flying to another carrier.
Click to expand...
I thought that was every Major airline in the us. The only ones that don’t engage in such tactics are the ones that don’t have regional partners.
 
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