Yawn. Compared to the recent cuts by American, Continental, and United, yesterday’s announcement of additional capacity reductions by US Airways is rather tame. The highlights: the leases on 10 planes won’t be renewed. Also, what is left of the Las Vegas flying gets whacked some more. Shocker there.
More generally, this sort of announcement is what we’re going to see more of from US Airways. Most of their fleet is leased – as in 312 of 356 mainline planes of property at the beginning of the year – with 98 of the leases up for renewal through the end of 2010. US Airways has previously announced that 49 737s will be going away; as for the rest, their 2007 annual report states:
The 45 remaining lease expirations are for Boeing 757, Boeing 767, Airbus A319 and Airbus A320 aircraft, which provides some flexibility to decrease capacity and related aircraft obligations in the event of an industry downturn or an operational need for different aircraft.
I’d expect most if not all of these not to be renewed as they come up, but those decisions don’t have to be made yet.
The next issue: an aircraft delivery deferral. US Airways signed for 60 new narrow-body Airbii last year on top of the 37 they had on order. The planes start showing up soon, with delivery stretching through 2012. US Airways may well have trouble financing that many new planes (plus 15 A330-200 widebodies) and may not need the capacity.
Bonus CLT impact: Today’s announcement also includes that US Airways won’t be leasing two A330-200s from next spring on; the airline does have 15 of the planes on order including six due next year. Still, US having two less A332s does reduce the odds of Charlotte getting an additional flight to Europe.
