American Airlines to try rolling hubs By Dan Reed, USA TODAY American Airlines, which lost $2.8 billion in 18 months, next week will announce the first big steps in an evolving plan to become profitable again. Company officials declined to discuss the details of the changes, expected to be announced on Tuesday. But one change telegraphed by American executives is the expansion of the "rolling hub" concept the airline has tested at its Chicago hub to reduce delays and increase efficiency. Another is likely to be the phase-out of 74 Fokker 100 jets, the smallest of its 833 planes. American is expected to extend the rolling hub concept to its huge Dallas/Fort Worth airport hub and its smaller St. Louis hub. In traditional hubs, banks of 20 to 50 planes arrive and depart within a few minutes of each other. American generated a more steady stream of arrivals and departures by "de-peaking" its Chicago hub, erasing inefficiencies tied to drastic swings in ground activity there. A rolling hub also increases the hours planes can be flown each day, freeing them to seek more revenue elsewhere. While aircraft ground time at the hub doesn't change much, planes can depart "spoke" airports as quickly as they can be reloaded. In a traditional hub-and-spoke operation, planes sometimes remain at spokes for long periods, timing their return to the hub to be a part of a bank of arriving flights. The changes at Chicago netted American extra flying time equal to having three more big jets and two regional jets. For travelers, the rolling hub concept means some could see their time on the ground between flights grow. A few could actually see their connect times reduced. But American officials believe most will see little change. The change, though, does entail significant risk for the airline. Travelers historically have chosen airline flights based on total travel times. Peaked hubs were created to produce shorter elapsed times. American's change might cause competitors to promote their shorter elapsed times and connecting times, says an industry official close to American. But management believes the savings outweighs any possible loss in revenue and market share. Retiring the Fokker 100s has long been under consideration. Equipped with 87 seats, they are expensive to operate relative both to larger planes like the Boeing 737 and to smaller regional jets, that can be used on the routes now served by Fokker 100s. The number of job cuts is unknown. But executives hope attrition will mean fewer layoffs. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (TnT Medical Assn.) http://www.tntmedical.com/ (Trinidad & Tobago Medical Association) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************