United Airlines has fired back at the American Airlines lawsuit which seeks to block Chicago from redistributing gates away from American and to United. United’s message came in the form of a letter to employees from airline President Brett Hart, first reported by Live and Let’s Fly.
American Airlines filed a lawsuit to block the City from moving forward with this gate reallocation process and prevent United from being awarded the gates we earned. We unequivocally reject American’s efforts to block the City’s process. In fact, we plan to take steps to protect our interests and utilize these new gates to benefit our customers.
Then he proceeds to unleash his inner Sean Connery from The Untouchables describing “the Chicago Way.”
It’s clear that American has been neglecting Chicago for years and this meritless attempt to stop the City’s process from moving forward is merely a last-ditch effort to compensate for American’s well-documented lack of investment in their customers, O’Hare airport and the Chicago community.
The memo makes two basic points:
- United has been investing in Chicago, while American has neglected Chicago and grown elsewhere
- United offers disproportionately more flights relative to its gates, while American is underutilizing theirs.
Those points are correct as far as they go. But I’d suggest a few other things are relevant.
- The memo ignores the legal basis of American’s lawsuit which is actually quite strong, that Chicago O’Hare gates shouldn’t be redistributed yet based on the terminal lease that’s been signed. And Hart is a lawyer by training, a former corporate general counsel, and used to oversee United’s legal operation.
- United operates 52% of flights at O’Hare and enabling them to grow at the expense of competitors is probably a bad thing for the local market. Competition is good for consumers, and helps keeps fares down.
- American has added significant growth in its schedule since last year’s numbers that United is citing. United is wrong to imply that American is underutilizing the gates that it has based on what is currently in the schedule. In fact, if the gate reallocation goes through, American will have to curtail its flying plans next summer.
United clearly wants to block American Airlines, take its gates, and lock out competition. They want to lock out competition from American in particular given the special competitiveness CEO Scott Kirby has against his old employer (which let him go, anointing Robert Isom as Doug Parker’s successor instead).
3..2..1.. Blast off! Why not? Let it rip, United. Fight! Fight! Fight! Competition is good for consumers.
Residing about 4 miles away, I am not anxious for Kirby to have his dream of a fortress at ORD like Delta has at ATL. Having said that, I have flown 2 itineraries split between UA and AA in the last 2 months. I cannot speak to “investment” and such, but was plain as day to me both times which airline is running a tighter and more customer-focused operation at ORD. It isn’t AA.
ORD should take a cue from society today, ignore the courts, forcibly deport AA from those gates whether they have a right to or not and do whatever the hell they want. And when the court tells them to fix their mistake they can flip their middle finger at the courts and tell them that United won’t return the gates.
That’s how we do it America these days, isn’t it?
United: We stole those new gates fair and square!
*Munches on popcorn*
Whoever “wins” please invest in a better airport experience please!
“The real winner of this memo is Delta.” Tim Dunn
This isn’t a popularity contest, it’s a lawsuit, to be decided in a court of law. On that basis, American wins hands down, and Brett Hart’s letter will be seen as just propaganda.
In UA’s defense, they don’t have any fortress hubs like the ones in ATL, DTW, DFW, CLT, etc, especially when taking metro areas and competing city airports into account.
The new gates in ORD would still leave them facing AA as a big competitor, along with WN at MDW
roberto,
I am the winner since I have figured out how to live rent free in so many people’s heads, including yours, rent and contract free.
AA, OTOH, does have a contract and as TexasTJ says, contracts are legal documents that get to be reviewed by courts of law.
If UA is so sure they will win, then they don’t need to engage in a propaganda contest.
If AA loses, then they seriously miscalculated their long-term network strategy and it could be costly in the Midwest, where, btw, Delta is the largest airline thanks to its dual hub DTW/MSP strategy which connects many Midwest cities to both of those hubs and often also ATL plus other hubs.
and UA DOES have fortress hubs, Mark. They get more local market revenue from their hubs than AA or DL’s hubs and UA’s hubs ranked largest to smallest next to DL’s hubs generate more revenue. In fact, UA’s problem is that they have not developed their network outside of their hubs.
and UA’s problem is that they will spend more far money building terminals to handle their domestic growth than DL will. A couple days ago, that might have been true compared to AA as well but the expanded DFW Terminal F will cost a pretty penny.
@Tim Dunn — Winner winner chicken dinner, sir. I’ll spare a few extra neurons for you in case @roberto can’t hold his own place down for ya. Bah! Good analysis, by the way.
@TexasTJ — Weird things can still happen. Once the lawsuits start flying, I’ve often found that things become less, not more, predictable. There could be interesting settlements, too. Time will tell.
@L737 — Where’s @Matt these days? I was hoping to see, ‘for a premium, non-turf-war experience, please consider Delta’ (at O’Hare Terminal 5).
United wants to be the new Castro? Seize AA property and distribute it to others?
Can United take Southwest gates next?