oldmako

They'll find new PI's. Most likely the quality of training will fall.

I agree, why move it? It's a cadillac facility that only needs some sprucing up. It's been neglected since Tilton showed up. I remember when they used to tout that the facility turned a profit! Much like the heavy maintenance we used to do for other airlines in IND and SFO. Imagine that.

threeighteen

Well if it makes a profit, that's a very bad thing as that makes it even more sell-able. And it's sellable, management will sell it and use the proceeds to give themselves a bonus.

Ever notice how failing corporations always sell off their most profitable divisions?

Moving the TK doesn't seem smart. There isn't any other hub in the system that isn't in a total ****hole besides DEN.

hopeSales

This is from your position in management? Wouldn't your boys in the Puzzle Place chose IAH for a training center if Wx was the only criteria?

ChrisJT6

Seems that UCHs deal w Denver that was negotiated while SWA was working the City of Houston has been forgotten:

United lease savings in Denver approved - 5/4/2012 - Flight Global

Seems pretty savvy and in the Denver base that they want badly. Much easier to route pax east and west through Denver than Houston.

flybynuts

I totally agree. However the criteria was based on othe factors besides weather. Howard, and others, really like HQ and training center in same place. Delta and AA are like this too for comparison. The Mayor of Denver really wants TK land an would give us discount land by the airport but the decision makers don't seem impressed. The weather of late has hurt our revenue a lot so I expect some big decisions to possibly be delayed for a while. That 2B cost cutting may help actually.

If it was up to me I would have picked SoCal!

oldmako

SoCal....OK.

I would have picked a hedonism resort somewhere in the Caribbean. The whole time zone thing and all....you know.

Coach67

Yeah ... unlike the EWR ground grews that were throwing snowballs and playing in the snow while the customers were wating in the cold jet way for their strollers and bags. what a bunch of losers!

APC225

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- United Airlines' decision to drop its hub at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and eliminate many regional flights leaves the airport with a potentially useless concourse that the city built in the 1990s at the insistence of United’s predecessor, Continental Airlines.

United, which merged with Continental in 2010, is obligated by its lease to continue paying on the outstanding debt for the $110 million Concourse D, the city’s Director of Port Control Ricky Smith said in an interview Tuesday. The airline will pay $1,112,482 per month until 2027, regardless of its flight activity.

The majority of airport debt, except for Concourse D, is paid by passenger facility charges -– a $4.50 fee on each ticket sold, Smith said. He said he is confident that the current debt obligation for the entire airport will be paid off in 15 years, despite the cutbacks by United.

But United’s lease agreement also grants the airline exclusive use of gates on Concourse D –- a facility specifically designed to accommodate the regional jet departures that United announced last week would be reduced by 73 percent in the coming months.

Fifteen years after the airport built the concourse to cater to Continental’s projection that the future of the industry hinged on regional jet service, city officials are uncertain about what to do with the 16-gate facility once it’s virtually vacant.

“Fifteen years ago, the entire industry thought that regional jets were the wave of the future,” Smith said. “We thought that the skies would be littered with those things. The idea that a terminal would be built to accommodate that kind of activity was a reasonable proposition. Now we are victims of change in a dynamic industry. … The future of Concourse D is still to be determined.”

oldmako

$1,112,483 / month X 156 months is 1.735 Billion dollars.

You read that right.

And when they stand in front of you wringing their hands with tears on their cheeks, "our future is in jeopardy, our costs are too high, we can't compete"....you be sure and vote yes. Now grab that hat and get back to work. Think about that the next time you're in the terminal and expensing your missing yet contractually entitled crew meal.

As far as the future of Concourse D, I vote world class bowling extravaganza or perhaps relocating the R&R hall of fame.

APC225

They are! They are! Just classic. Majors brought it on themselves. Playing one regional carrier against the other for ever-declining labor costs and now the game's up. Too bad it wasn't a game and it trashed the lives of thousands of pilots and families. Now that the deregulation that started 35 years ago is finally down to three big carriers that everyone predicted and they're making 800-pound gorilla market-based decisions to cut secondary cities out of the market, watch the politicians get all up-in-indignant-arms about cutting out middle America and demand airlines serve them, too. Reregulation!