To sum it up, new seasonal service to SAN and SEA, and additional service to PHX and SFO. Hopefully these will be successful and stay year round. Also the article "announces" the previously well known growth of Continental Connection at CLE. Hopefully this operation can grow into new markets and add more feed. Any guesses to where?
FlyCMH From United States, joined Jul 1999, 2166 posts, RR: 12 Reply 3, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 443 times:
Be thankful for what you have.
At least Continental is taking the proactive step of increasing service at their Cleveland hub despite warnings of a possible pull-out. It looks as though Continental truly cares about their investment in CLE. The same could not be said concerning America West and Columbus. Instead of investing in their operations in CMH, they decided to pull out. While the expansion in CLE is with Beech 1900s and 737s, it's definitely nothing to put down. Hopefully Continental's efforts will be successful.
Brakes released, steering in-op, you are clear to push.
777gk From United States, joined Jun 2000, 1625 posts, RR: 34 Reply 4, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 11 hours ago) and read 388 times:
Continental has been in negotiations with the Cleveland Airport authority, and from the rumblings that I have heard, certain classes of landing fees have been renegotiated to more favorable rates.
In addition, the City of Cleveland has urged Continental to experiment with new markets to popular business destinations, to lure passengers back and expand the CLE customer base. These new flights represent these efforts and should be reassuring to Clevelanders to know that Continental is still committed to the market.
While ERJ's may have been the aircraft that saved Cleveland, they also have contributed to its decline. Third-tier cities such as Flint, Youngstown, Erie, and Fort Wayne, previously served with the B1900D equipment, could not support 37+ seats per flight, and therefore were cut. What was not anticipated was the large dropoff in transfer traffic that these small cities delivered, and this loss affected loads throughout the CLE-based network. The Commutair linkup gives us the feed we need to make the hub work, cheaper operating costs, connections to smaller cities (making CLE a viable alternative to CVG, DTW, ORD, etc.), and meanwhile allows ExpressJet to stay all-jet and leaves CO to focus on our own mainline operations. I see good things for CLE in the future, just on a little bit of a smaller scale than the other huge hubs operating not far away.
CLEfan From United States, joined Nov 2001, 296 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 358 times:
The Commutair operations in CLE really interest me, especially in future markets. Will the B1900's be flying off to new places like State College, PA and Huntington, WV, or will they stick with where they are at now. If anyone has any rumors about the future of Commutair in CLE, I would be very interested.
The mainline growth is terrific and hopefully continues. People have been asking for SAN for a while. Hopefully, CO can put mainline back on ORD and DCA in the near future, and adding destinations like PDX and SLC.
Hopefully, if the landing fee negotiations rumor are true, CO might give CLE what they have been dreaming of and what will most likely ensure profitability on the CLE-LGW flight, a 767-200.
PSU.DTW.SCE From United States, joined Jan 2002, 4490 posts, RR: 20 Reply 6, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 339 times:
I doubt we'll see Commutair here in State College (SCE). Right now they are trying to restore service to markets that were previously abandoned by COEx from CLE. Commutair really isn't expansion, its restoration of previously cut service. How large will Commutair grow? That depends on how willing people are going to be to support service on the 19 seaters. If the fares are right they will, otherwise it will only be supported by the business traveler who operates on a tight schedule.
Comair was interested in starting service on CVG-SCE with CRJ's. Officials were meeting with airport management late last year. This was to be the first scheduled jet service into SCE. Back then I heard it was a given that they were going to start service by summer 2003. Lately, there has been no mention of it from anyone. Word from our station manager is that they've postponed it because they had other markets to pursue "bigger fish to fry," demand was weak, and they were waiting to see the outcome of the whole NW/CO/DL codeshare. Since Mesaba (Northwest Airlink) already serves the market from DTW, they are waiting to see what happens with the link-up. They also said they don't know if the yields will support an RJ in here. Its bad enough to break even with a prop lately.
CLEfan From United States, joined Nov 2001, 296 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 320 times:
Correct me if I am wrong, but by the end of the year Commutair will be back in all the cities COEX left. I am asking the question about the future plans of Commutair in CLE after they restore all the service.
Also, does anyone have any idea about how loads have been since Commutair started service in CLE?
Ncflyer From United States, joined Sep 2000, 371 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 292 times:
Well this is good news, nothing terribly new for CLE (there used to be flights to SAN, there were 2 flights to SFO not too long ago, the seasonal SEA service was announced long ago), but at least it's being packaged nicely. I'm not thrilled with the veiled threat in the press release "you better fly us or else", doesnt' strike me as terribly professional, but so be it. I do think those little feeder flights could really help CLE out quite a bit, esp. given the pullback of USAir in PIT.
One thing I don't understand: how can a hub trying to compete against larger brethren in the midwest, compete when it only offers 1 or 2 flights a day to major markets such as SEA and SFO and DEN, or four flights to BOS?. That's hardly a convenient schedule to choose from compared to DTW or CVG. I don't think CO has ever given CLE the scale to really be competitive-- as USAir shows in CLT or Delta in CVG, it's not all about O/D passengers, it's also about choices for folks making connections. I think hubs need to be fairly large to be successful and offer good choice to consumers.
ContinentalEWR From United States, joined May 2000, 3739 posts, RR: 13 Reply 9, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 8 hours ago) and read 244 times:
None of the West Coast routes are new. Continental has operated flights on a seasonal basis to Seattle from Cleveland before, usually with a 737-500. Also, San Diego saw service before, and the San Francisco flight is an increase on what already exists. It's definitely good news for CLE. The airport needs more direct flights to the West and this helps CO's competitive position a lot vis a vis CVG, PIT, and even DTW and ORD.
With these additions, plus the regional flights, CO will have 240 daily dep. out of Cleveland, still significantly below the all time high of 270 in 1999 but still, quite impressive, given the carrier's size.
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