I'm an asshole. Fly me.

The passenger capacity of MSY is half what it was before Katrina.

This is an outrage! Why haven't the airstrips been refurbished? Why aren't the terminals in order? Why haven't the staff been deployed?

Oh, sorry, it's not New Orleans fault. It's the motherfucking we're greedier than the fucking oil companies and we got bailed out after 9/11 fuck off and die New Orleans airlines.

Every week during the school year, I have to fly from MSY to Chicago. Every week I have to make at least one trip into New Orleans and one trip out. And every time since January, the planes have been packed to the gills. Not another person could be crowbarred in, no matter how much WD-40 the airlines applied to us.

Oh, and we're paying more, too. A lot more.

Before K, there was occasionally space on the planes! No shit! "Before Katrina, Perry said, airlines that flew into New Orleans did so with planes only 70 percent full, and now they are 90 percent full on average."

Now, the airlines (henceforth part ot them) use the smallest friggin commuter planes they possibly can to shoehorn as many as they possibly can into and out of New Orleans.

Note: the Embraer planes used by United Express are actually roomy and comfortable, unlike everything used by Delta and American. Delta does use some Embraer planes, but not many.

They could simply up the size of the planes! But fuck no! Why show any kind of fucking commitment to New Orleans at all?

Well, Southwest, always a renegade (and an airline that did not get a 9/11 bailout), is fairly committed to New Orleans, and now has direct flights to Chicago. They were the biggest NOLA airline pre-K, and they're the biggest now, although at 42% of pre-K flights. 17 cities pre-K, 10 now. They say they want to increase load, but listen to this politician-business-speak: "We'd love to grow in New Orleans. We'd love to be bigger than we were in New Orleans," Berg said. "Our desire is there, but it will be conservative growth."

As a polyglot, let me translate that for you: "When we're at 95% capacity, we'll add more flights, one by one. Right now, you poor bastards are lucky we still fly there at all. Oh, and we're a discount airline in every market except New Orleans. Fuck you."

So who are the good guys now? Continental is close to 100% of pre-K capacity and American (with whom I will never again fly, if I can help it) is around 89% to destinations from New Orleans (they only fly to 5 destinations from NOLA now, before it was 6...so figure around 70% overall).

Who are the bad guys? One big ass word: Delta. As God is my witness, I will try to never fly Delta again. Less than 48%. Fucking fucks.

BTW, it was MY TAX MONEY that bailed these fuckmooks out after 9/11. Now who is getting screwed?

Comments

[dangerblond]

It's too bad Jet Blue doesn't fly to Chicago. My non-stop flights to and from NY were great. Very roomy seats and not too expensive. I can't hate American. That's where I met Tadpole.

[Lisa]

The flights in/out of NOLA are just ridiculous. It's hard to even find a flight sometimes and the prices are such a deterrant to anyone wanting to come down and spend some tourist dollars. it would cost me less to fly to England than NOLA for some of the dates I checked.

[Laurie Bee]

I live in Las Vegas. I am from New Orleans. My cousin emailed me yesterday and said,"I thought it was cheap to go to Las Vegas." Not anymore.....and not from New Orleans. Still trying to get us back after K; too much money for all of us to go. Glad to know what's going on with the airlines. I've been wondering. And missing my hometown like you wouldn't believe.

[Sophmom]

You may or may not know that, once upon a time, until I chose to stay home to take care of my first child who had special needs, I worked for MississippiRiverLand Airlines (not its real name). I loved it but it was very different then. I'm glad I didn't spend my whole life in their service only to find their promise of a pension one day was just a joke. Your anti-airline rant is appreciated but, Ashley, you leave out one important thing. These pricks quit flying out of MSY on Saturday, August 27th, 2005 at 1:00 in the afternoon (a/k/a 1300 hours), stranding thousands of folks at the airport, many of them families evacuating amidst freshman move in weekend at both Tulane and Loyola. I was screaming at the television at the top of my lungs at the time and it still enrages me.

There are just too many things to be mad about to keep track of. *sigh*

[Will]

Your problem with Southwest is...what, exactly?

They were back on line to NOLA first.
They have consistently added flights as the existing flights become routinely full.
Their prices are consistently competitive with or less than the competition.

They're not a nonprofit. They do what makes economic sense and try to do the right thing when they can (remember, they reunited a LOT of familes by flying people out of NOLA for free after the storm). That's why they didn't need a 9/11 bailout.

Anyway, like most of our other probelms, reduced airport traffic is yet another symptom of HAVING NO FUCKING PLAN. Where is the plan? Where is no-balls Nagin? That motherfucker has CHECKED OUT on us. Why did he even want to be mayer? Just to prove that he could get elected?

[ashley]

All: New Orleans is not on any discounts by any airline. Why? Because they're not treating it as a tourist destination, they're treating it as a business destination, so they're keeping the rates high, and the capacity at 90% plus.

Sophmom: Here, http://ashleymorris.typepad.com/ashley_morris_the_blog/2005/12/first_let_me_te.html , I chronicle my experience being on the last AA plane (AFAIK) out of MSY. Yeah, it was a zoo, I was on standby, and if it were not for most of the passengers being stuck in I-10 traffic, I would have ridden out the storm in a hotel in NOLA.

Will: my problem is that they have NOT consistently added flights. It took them 7 months to add their direct Chicago flight, which was always full pre-K. They need to commit to New Orleans, which means adding flights.

Did you read the article? That 90% plus rate is for every airline. If anybody adds flights, they will fill up. The demand is there, but the supply is not.

[Sophmom]

Interesting post. Great story. I didn't know a lot of that. I said it then and I say it now: Shame on them. Shame on Delta and shame on American and shame on United (although it does sound like United treated you well on the back side). They could have kept shuttling folks out until mid-day Sunday with only relatively minor risk of have a precious airplane stranded there. I'm glad you got out. It must have been awful watching from so far away.

And it's called "load factor". I don't know what it is now, but it was 60% when I worked at DAL. It was only the passengers over the 60% line who contributed to profit. I'm sure that hasn't improved.

Although it's not discounted like a vacation destination, the fares ATL-MSY fares are pretty good because AirTran flies it, providing competition on the route. The real value, though, is Amtrak. My son who lives there takes the train all the time, and my son who still lives here takes it to visit him. It's unbelievably cheap and way cool, if you have the time. Of course, Amtrak cancelled that Saturday too, if I recall correctly.

[ashley]

Amtrak? Wow. Who'd a thunk it was a bargain? I looked into it for NO-Chicago, but man, it leaves at night and takes about 24 hours. Just could not fit a weekly commute.

Yes, "load factor". I was thinking fill factor, which is what determines node fill density in B* trees for database sequential indices. Sometimes my geekiness oozes out of my pores, and I apologize for that.

[Mominem]

I fly Airtran all the time.

There is currently a sale at some pretty good prices ($79 to Atlanta or Chicago).

[Graittema]

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