CALIFORNIA INTRA-STATE TRAFFIC 1990

 

In this post we are going to study the intrastate airline traffic  in California for the  year 1990 a travel in the past

CALIFORNIA is a state in the Western United States that lies on the Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With almost 30 million residents in 1990 across an area of 423,970 km² , it is the largest state by population, third-largest state by area and the largest state economy in the U.S., with a GDP of approximately $4.3 trillion. Its length is 1220 km and 400km width.

TABLE 1

Total passengers carried on scheduled flights  amounted to  17,446,089 on 388285 flights (average passenger by flights  = 44.9) with an average load factor of 54.1%

5 airlines account for almost 85% of the traffic and will be the subject of a further analysis

The highest load factor was achieved by Northwest Orient (72.5%)  and the lowest by  Midwest Express Airlines (24.2%)

The 5 most important actors are :

 

TABLE 1-1 US AIR

The dominant position of the company is no surprise to use as it the result of the merger, in 1988, of US AIR with  Pacific Southwest Airlines  the largest intrastate carrier at that time. The merger will give US an access to the West Coast it did not have. But, by 1991, US AIR would withdraw completely from the intrastate Californian market  giving Southwest an unbridled access.

Flights were operated by a fleet of Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-400, BAe-146-200 and the MD DC9 Super 80

The best load factor was achieved on the SAN-SFO segment and the lowest on LGB-SFO  that operated briefly from January to May 1990

At  the end of December 24 routes were regularly operated during 1990.

TABLE 1-2 UNITED AIRLINES

The company has a long presence in the West Coast since the early  thirties  and controls 20% of the total market.

With 31.8% market share of its traffic ,  LAX-SFO is its major segment followed by SAN-SFO & ONT-OAK segments,  

SMF-SFO  operated briefly from January to May 1990

 

The majority of flights were operated by a fleet of Boeing 737-300 (128 seats), Boeing 737-200 (108 seats), Boeing 727-100 (107 seats),  Boeing 727-200 (147 seats). UA  deployed he occasional DC8-71, B747, DC10, B757 and B767-200

The company achieved its best load factor on SAN-SFO with 85% followed by  OAK-ONT with 70%.

Two routes were launched in May 1990, BUR-OAK & SFO-SNA

At  the end of December , 15 routes were regularly operated during 1990.

 

 

TABLE 1-3 AMERICAN AIRLINES

The presence of this airline in the third place is due to its merger with  Air California in 1987 but 4 years later AA will divest from the market giving Southwest more opportunities to grow .

LAX-SJC is its major line followed by LAX-SFO and SJC-SNA . AA withdrew from SFO-SJC in July 1990, from LGB-SJC in September 1990 and  SFO-SNA  in October 1990. It  operated briefly  ONT-SBA from January to March 1990 carrying 5,408 passengers with  31.2% load factor, it operated SFO-SMF from January to May  1990 carrying 5,662 passengers with  an abysmal 13.4% load factor and OAK-SMF from June to August 1990 carrying 6,744 passengers with  25.4% load factor.

PSP-SJC was operated on a seasonal basis and LGB-SNA was launched (or-re-launched) in November 1990

Flights were operated by a fleet of Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-200, BAe-146-100 and the MDD DC9 Super 80

At  the end of December , 13 routes were regularly operated during 1990

TABLE 1-4 WestAir Commuter Airlines

WestAir Commuter Airlines (was a U.S.-based regional airline formed when Stol Air  Commuter changed its name in 1978 to WestAir Airlines  it was renamed WestAir Commuter Airlines in 1986. One of the founders was On May 1, 1985 WestAir was one of the first two regional carriers to become a United  Express  air carrier via a code sharing agreement with United Airlines. WestAir was sold to Mesa Air Group in 1992.

The company operates an extensive network in California linking cities with major centres such as San Francisco and Los Angeles as seen from the network ma below.

As an United Express partner, it feeds UA hub in San Francisco with valuable traffic, 52%of its traffic is from/out San Francisco whereas  Los Angeles, a secondary hub , represents 26.1% of the company's traffic (relates only on direct routes between the cities aforementioned)

The company is the only airlines in the top 5 operating a wide range of  propellers aircraft such as EMB-120 Brasilia (30 seats), Shorts 360 (36 seats), BAeJetstream 31 and EMB-110 Bandeirante   (19 seats).The only jet in the company's fleet is the BAe-146-200 (90 seats).

SFO-SNA was  launched in March with relative success and LGB-SJC in October whereas SBA-SAN & LAX-CCR disappeared from the network  in September 1990, together  with SMF-SJC and RDD-SMF in October 1990

Load factors range from 28.6% (MCE-SFO) to a maximum of 54% (OAK-SNA)

TABLE 1-5 SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

Last but not least is SOUTHWEST which operated 4 routes in 1990. The breakthrough will come few months later when American & USAIR will withdrew from the market and the void will be filled by United Airlines and SOUTHWEST

TABLE 2

Traffic by route exceeding 100,000  passengers per year

The bulk of the traffic is carried between San Francisco and Los Angeles with a 20.5% market share and  68.8 passengers per flight . The highest load factor (75.2%) is found on the San Diego-San Francisco  segment, while  Fresno-Los Angeles experiences the lowest (35.1%)

The 15 largest  segments represent 73.7% of the passenger traffic.

Worth noting is the fact that about  60% of the traffic is carried between San Francisco bay area and greater Los Angeles

Below is an analysis of the competition in the 15 segments largest segments

TABLE 3

92.7% of the passengers were carried on jet planes and the reminder in propeller airliner.

67% of  the flights were operated by jet aircraft and the reminding 33% by  propeller airliner

Most popular twinjets  were the Boeing 737 family  with 33.9% of the flights carrying  51.7% of passengers followed by DC9 Super 80 Total with 8.2 % of the flights carrying  10.3% of passengers

By Eddie Maloney from North Las Vegas, USA - AA MAD DOG, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30449921

By JetPix - Gallery page http://www.airliners.net/photo/Southwest-Airlines/Boeing-737-2H4-Adv/0202988/LPhoto http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/8/8/9/0202988.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28606279

By Ken Fielding/https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32285203

By Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland - United Airlines Boeing 737-522; N917UA@LAX;31.07.1995, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26728566

Most popular tri-jet  was  the Boeing 727 family  with 6.5% of the flights carrying  9.8% of passengers

N327AS, a Boeing 727-2A1Adv, on approach to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) .By AlainDurand - http://www.airliners.net/photo/Alaska-Airlines/Boeing-727-2A1-Adv/1103029/L/&sid=4039f38f7b842305e170f85865ec677c, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16680169

Most popular 4-engine jet  was  the BAe RJ 146 family  with 6.5% of the flights carrying  16.2% of passengers

By Richard Silagi - http://www.airliners.net/photo/United-Express-(Westair/British-Aerospace-BAe-146-200A/1284579/L/, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22620304

Most used propeller airline was the BAe Jetstream 31 with 12.1% of the flights carrying  only 2.3% of passengers

British Aerospace Jetstream 31, United Express (WestAir) JP5954376.By Jon Proctor - Gallery page https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/5954376Photo https://cdn.jetphotos.com/full/2/57919_1176131252.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31468466

By JetPix - Gallery page http://www.airliners.net/photo/United-Express-%28Westair/Embraer-EMB-120RT-Brasilia/0205199/LPhoto http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/9/9/1/0205199.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28604563

Wide body aircraft represented only 1.47% of the flights and 3.1% of traffic