05 June 2008

US Airlines get ready to dump capacity on International Routes

The major US airlines - yup that's about all of them have applied to invoke one of those nice little short hand regulatory instruments. This one goes by the name of Dormancy Rights.

Alaska Airways, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, US Airways and United Airlines requested a wavier from the US Department of Transportation on ‘dormancy rights’, permitting them to reduce capacity or suspend operations on international routes over the next two years without losing rights. A blanket wavier means carriers would not be required to apply for individual waivers on each route they wish to cut.

For the non-government brains among us - this means - they can dump a route at will and yet hold onto it for up to 2 years without any advance warning. Neat Trick huh!

United will be among the first.

Cheers

Timothy

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