Pelham Aviation by Michael Gutta

Southwest Airlines at Greenville-Spartanburg Intl. Airport November 6, 2019 By: Michael Gutta On November 3, 2019 Southwest Airlines resumed flights from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, a service that was previously discontinued on April 12, 2016. The history of Southwest Airlines at GSP has been relatively short and has already seen highs and lows. Southwest service in South Carolina began on March 13, 2011 with flights from both GSP and Charleston International Airport (CHS). Service from GSP began with 7 daily departures to 5 destinations: Baltimore (BWI, 2x), Chicago-Midway (MDW, 2x), Nashville (BNA), Houston-Hobby (HOU), and Orlando (MCO). Southwest introducing service at GSP was a major boon for the airport and Upstate South Carolina region for reducing prices and keeping flyers from driving to Atlanta or Charlotte for lower fares. Southwest B737-700 N931WN in Lone Star One livery a...

Atlanta to Seoul 5 Year Route Analysis August 19, 2019 By: Michael Gutta In this edition of the Pelham Aviation blog I decided to look at the past 5 years of travel data from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) in Atlanta, Georgia to Incheon International Airport (ICN) in Seoul, South Korea. The inspiration for this post comes after having a connection at ATL and taking off directly past a Korean Air 747-8i parked at gate F1 of the international terminal. I decided to look back at the one-way travel data for this city-pair which has been served by Korean Air, Delta Air Lines, and Asiana Air Lines (cargo only). Per AirwaysMag.com, Korean Air has been flying into Atlanta since June 2002. Delta previously offered service for a brief period and then resumed service on June 3, 2017. Asiana’s seasonal cargo service seems to have ended on this route. I investigated the total market between these two cities, the split between carriers, and finally, the different aircraft ty...

ROUTE ANALYSIS: Atlanta to San Francisco Market Share Surprise? July 29, 2019 By: Michael Gutta In this article from the Pelham Aviation blog I looked not at past travel data but at future schedule numbers for the route from Atlanta to San Francisco. During some searching on Google Flights for potential vacation destinations I was very surprised at the available service between these Delta and United strongholds. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International (ATL) is of course the world’s busiest airport and Delta Air Line’s largest hub. Meanwhile, San Francisco International (SFO) is dominated by United Airlines. When I began my search, I expected to see a somewhat even split of flights for the two US legacy carriers. I also wanted to find out capacity by day of the week, and I wanted to find the largest aircraft on the route. I was quite surprised by the search results, and also found a third airline option for this route. Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-200 N681DA departing ru...

AIRPORT ANALYSIS: Southwest Airlines at Tampa International February 2, 2019 By: Michael Gutta I recently flew on a personal vacation from Tampa, Florida (TPA) to San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) for some fishing and time in the sun. Given that there is no direct flight between this city pair, I chose a connection through Fort Lauderdale (FLL) on Southwest Airlines. This provided 4 segments on Southwest Airlines, and my first flight on a Boeing 737 Max aircraft, as well as my first time traveling through the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. As with a previous trip, I decided to look at my carrier’s operations at TPA using publicly available data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics T-100 data tables. The last full year of published data is from 2017, and as with last time, the 3 areas I wanted to study were: the number of passengers by destination, the load factor by destination, and the aircraft type by departure. In reviewing the available data, I ignored ...