Hand Solo,
Well I was also surprised when the US Govt requested 33 or 36 roundtrip slots. That may be a little bit too many. But, you have to give the other US entrants a chance to compete. Look how many slots at JFK BA and VS have--(Ofcourse JFK. .slots are primarily used between 4pm and 11pm for the business traveler) BA has flights in the summer time from JFK to Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, and London (LHR and LGW). All of them. .leave during that 4pm to 11pm window.
Anyways... This is what I think is fair for the US. .Airlines (And I believe SQ also wanted to fly from LHR to ORD or JFK...I don't know)
Northwest: 2 flts a day to Detroit. . 1 flt a day to MSP (These are there. . 2 largest bases and they may also want a MEM. . flt---and they do not have a presence in JFK. . or EWR----they also may want a BOS flt)
Delta: 3 flts to JFK. . 1 flt to BOS. . 2 flts to ATL. . 2 flts to CVG. . They have a large base in JFK and to . . compete with BA/VS/AA/UA/CO they need atleast . . 3 flts a day for the businessman. They also. . have a large presence in BOS, and large bases . . in CVG and ATL. BA does compete on the ATL . . route, but not CVG.
Continental: 3 flts to EWR. . 2 flts to IAH. . 1 flt to CLE. . They also need 3 flts to compete to. . New York for the business traveler. IAH and. . CLE also need service.
USAir: 2 flts to PHL. . 1 flt to CLT. . 1 Flt to PIT. . 1 flt to BOS. . They need atleast 2 flts to PHL for . . That same NYC-PHL area, and they also need. . flts to their other hubs, including BOS . . which they have a large presence. BA flies. . 2 daily flts from LHR to PHL. BWI seems to . . be losing presence for USAir.
Well, I have changed the number to 22 flights for the US entrants, and one more for Singapore. .to fly to ORD to compete with AA and BA. I think that would be fair, and remember---not all of the cities would be in direct competition to BA---like. .Pittsburg, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. BA flies to Den and PHX---and no one competes. (Yes, they are currently from LGW----but the way BA keeps moving flts from LGW to LHR when shrinking it's inter-Europe flts---it's only a matter of time)
As far as the "space" issue----I am sure engineers. .can figure out something.
Oh yeah, I am sure VS would like some more slots--. .but that is between BA and VS---we're talking about a US/UK bilateral. Let us in please.
. .Thanks. Donkey Duke <img src="cool.gif" border="0"> <img src="cool.gif" border="0">