Pelham Aviation by Michael Gutta

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...

ROUTE ANALYSIS: Tampa to San Francisco on United Hits Two Years of Service May 18, 2019 By: Michael Gutta For this edition of the Pelham Aviation blog I’ve decided to look back on the first two years of direct service from Tampa to San Francisco on United Airlines. The airline announced on July 25, 2016 that it would be starting a once daily service connecting the two cities on February 16, 2017. Prior to the direct-flight service kicking off, the airport reported that roughly 600 passengers traveled this route daily, albeit with a connection. According to the Tampa airport this was the largest unserved route in America. With the daily service having begun in February 2017, it recently surpassed two years of daily service by United Airlines. The passenger data reported by the USDOT indicates, to no surprise, that this route has been successful. In fact, United Airlines has announced that beginning on June 6, 2019 the route will be served twice daily, with an evening departure ...

CARRIER ANALYSIS: Copa Airlines at Tampa International Airport May 5, 2019 By: Michael Gutta With my first five blog reports I have reviewed domestic airlines, routes, and fleet changes. For my first investigation of a foreign air carrier, I have chosen to evaluate the service history of Copa Airlines at Tampa International Airport. Copa Airlines is the flag carrier of Panama, with a major connecting hub for Latin America at Tocumen International in Panama City. Copa began service to Tampa International on December 16, 2013, offering four flights weekly each way. For this blog report I decided to look back at the USDOT data all the way back inaugural flight. Unfortunately, the full-year of 2018 international flight numbers will not be published until June 13, so for now this study encompassed 4 years (2014-2017) of data, plus December 2013. Copa Airlines Boeing 737-700 registered as HP-1371 at Tampa International Airport (Michael Gutta). In the first 4 years of ser...

ROUTE ANALYSIS: Tampa Bay to Houston April 19, 2019 By: Michael Gutta Following a trip from Tampa Bay to Houston, I decided to explore the USDOT T100 data available for this sector. I considered all commercial flights between St. Pete-Clearwater (PIE) and Tampa (TPA) to both George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) and William P. Hobby (HOU) during the year 2017, the last full year of published data. For this year, there were no scheduled flights from St. Petersburg-Clearwater (PIE) to the Houston airports. The primary carrier at PIE, Allegiant Air, actually has no presence in the Houston market (either HOU or IAH). I also only looked at commercial passenger carriers, so the cargo numbers reported are only for belly cargo, not scheduled cargo carriers. This study was unsurprisingly dominated by the primary carriers at Hobby (Southwest) and George Bush (United), but I wanted to see who seems to be leading on this route, and how much of a contribution the ULCC carrier Spirit has made ...

ROUTE ANALYSIS: Tampa Bay to Washington DC Metro Area February 24, 2019 By: Michael Gutta After my previous data scrubbing and report about Southwest Airlines’s activities at Tampa International Airport revealed their most popular destination to be Baltimore/Washington International Airport, I decided to look more closely at the Tampa Bay to DC metropolitan area air travel market. For this investigation I considered all commercial flights between any combination of St. Petersburg-Clearwater (PIE) and Tampa (TPA) to Baltimore-Washington (BWI), Washington-National (DCA), and Washington Dulles (IAD) during the year 2017, the last full year of published data. For this year, there actually were no regularly scheduled flights departing St. Petersburg-Clearwater (PIE) to the DC Metro area. I also only looked at commercial passenger carriers, so the cargo numbers reported are only for belly cargo, not scheduled cargo carriers. United B737-800 (N18243) departing runway 19R at TPA ...

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 ...