You might remember a couple of weeks ago United announced an agreement with Trans States Airlines to start flying as an United Express carrier out of O'Hare and Washington Dulles. Atlantic Coast Airlines, the current UE partner who happens to fly out of both airports, is floating the idea of walking away from United and transforming itself as a low cost carrier, apparently focusing on markets too small to attract Southwest. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51336-2003Jul26?language=printer One thing that perplexes me: >Atlantic's costs were about 18 cents per available seat mile in the first >quarter of this year. Skeen said that should drop to 15 or 16 cents per >available seat mile. 15 or 16 cents an ASM is still expensive, isn't it? It might be less expensive than regional carriers, but it seems expensive compared to the three carriers I think of as "low cost": Southwest, JetBlue, and AirTran. Would anybody like to compare the range and capacity of ACA's CRJ-200s and AirTran's 717-200s? Southwest isn't likely to compete directly with ACA on short, thin routes, but if ACA remains based at Dulles (and why wouldn't they?), AirTran at ATL is an obvious competitor for the Mid-Atlantic/Carolinas market. Both are constrained to remain mostly east of the Mississippi until AirTran gets their 737-700s and ACA gets something with longer legs. JetBlue is the obvious competitor for the terrain north of Dulles, but I'm not sure how well they can serve short thin routes with their A320s. Then again, they can easily grow with longer routes than ACA can think about. I'm also trying to figure out if ACA would branch into new markets or just pursue more money out of the markets they now serve as United Express - markets in which Trans States will soon be a competitor as the new United Express. Thoughts? Nick