NEWS: Ted is Growing

Ted, the low fare spawn of United Airlines, will be growing soon. United will be converting 9 A320 from its "mainline" fleet to Ted bringing their total aircraft to 56. There are lots of statements in the press release from United about how pleased they are with Ted's performance but zero information on whether or not Ted is carrying its own weight financially speaking. Regardless, these aircraft are being added to the Ted fleet to bolster service out their hubs in Denver, Washington Dulles and Chicago to markets in Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean.

In my opinion United is looking to add some capacity to Ted so it can keep pressure on their competition, both low fare carriers and majors. It may also help them take advantage of opportunities where US Airways scales back operations. My continuing question is regarding the purpose of Ted...is it a low fare hammer used by United to bludgeon competition out of markets or serious airline to be spun off eventually (perhaps even the future look of the "new" United).