09/09/10, 22:22:58 EDT

  e-mail this article

AA, Northwest go tit-for-tat in budding airline rivalry

usatoday.com

American subsidiary American Eagle plans to start nonstop service between New York LaGuardia and Memphis, a move that appears to play into what could be part of a building tit-for-tat battle with rival Northwest.

Memphis, of course, is a hub for Northwest. The spotlight swung to the airlines after AA announced plans to fly between LaGuardia and Minneapolis/St. Paul, also a hub for NWA.

Northwest, known for vigorously defending its turf, initially responded by announcing nonstop flights between Dallas/Fort Worth and LaGuardia. DFW is AA's biggest hub and LaGuardia is a focus city for AA. For NWA, however, neither airport is a key cog in its route network, meaning it would be unlikely to have connecting passengers on that route and could likely only turn a profit on it based on local demand.

NWA eventually pulled back from that apparently retaliatory response, but TheStreet.com writes that did not "represent a softening in Northwest's commitment to protect its hubs against incursions. Now, instead of operating three daily Dallas flights (from LaGuardia, NWA) will use the LaGuardia slots to operate daily flights on three American Eagle routes, starting Nov. 4." Those routes are from LaGuardia to Des Moines; Flint, Mich.; and Madison, Wis. AA's American Eagle already flies from LaGuardia to Des Moines and Madison, and has plans to start flying to Flint on Nov. 4, according to TheStreet.com. Also in recent years, NWA has added what appeared at the time to be retaliatory new routes against other rivals, including Frontier, AirTran and now-defunct Independence Air.

For its part, however, AA downplays any possible rivaly with NWA in announcing its LaGuardia-Memphis route. In an email to Today in the Sky, AA spokesman Tim Wagner says "I think that's a common misperception when airlines start competing flights. We don't 'target' new routes at other airlines. We start routes based on demand from our customers in a market." Indeed, AA's LaGuardia-Memphis route does not appear to be inconsistent with its previous route strategy at LaGuardia. "As we seek to become New York's airline of choice, we are trying to make sure we have a comprehensive network for our customers. Especially important is keeping and winning corporate accounts, and to do that we have to make sure there aren't empty spots in that network," Wagner says.

As for AA's new Memphis-LaGuardia service, American Eagle will fly two daily round-trip flights using 35-seat Embraer 135 regional jets beginning Dec. 13. "Memphis is the Home of the Blues and the Birthplace of Rock 'n' Roll -- a Southern city rich in history and full of hospitality," Chuck Imhof, AA's vice president of passenger sales for greater New York, says in a press release announcing the service. "New Yorkers will love the nightlife that Memphis has to offer."

 Printable Version  | published Sep 18, 2007