What airport has failed to keep airlines, and or routes (losing them)?
I know KDLH has had 2 tries with american to KORD, 1 with United to O’hare, once with KDTW and on their second chance.
And now it just got midwest airlines to MILWAKUE.
Dozens of airports have failed to keep airline service. The following are just a few that had airline service but no longer do.
McCall, Coeur d’Alene (Idaho)
Ukiah, Concord, Salinas (California)
Winnemucca, Hawthorne, Tonopah (Nevada)
Kanab (Utah)
Bogalusa (Louisiana)
Kaanapli (Hawaii - actually, this private airport was closed)
Worcester, MA (KORH) has had commercial flights a number of different times. Currently they are without service.
…SCK. We will see if they hold AAY.
Yes, they are losing much commerical services, hut they just got a new FBO so they already got the Allegiant route to Las Vegas, and there are much more cross country stop overs and diversions due to the new FBO, which is really good. They also swa an increase in GA aircraft.
YMX montreal’s 2nd airport the extra traffic never materialized, and due to its closer proximity to downtown Montreal, all scheduled air services have now returned to Dorval/Trudeau, while Mirabel has ceased passenger operations and can be considered a colossal failure.
“White Elephant”.
I did the trip to Mirabel once or twice. Driving close to an hour was not fun, knowing I could have flown out of Dorval and saved time.
The idea was to put international, charter and cargo services at Mirabel and leave domestic routes with Dorval. But, the pain of the extra travel time turned out to be its downfall. Thus, CYUL ’ P.E.T. ’ has revamped and renovated and has most PAX services into the Montreal area.
Though I will stand corrected, I think Mirabel was conceived as a way to show that the Federal Government was spending money in Quebec at a time when the Seperatist movement was gaining strength in the 1970’s. Americans would call this pork barrel politics.
The big victims in all this were the family farms that were expropreated for the project.
Frogive me for not having an example at this very moment, but Myrtle Beach (KMYR) seems to have a lot of “service shuffling,” with airlines announcing new service, and then cancelling or downgrading other service. It was actually the “hub” of Hooters Air (all four a/c), and we know how profitable that turned out to be. Myrtle Beach is a tourist destination, but it’s VERY seasonal. I was there about 10 years ago for the week between Christmas and New Years, and it was D-E-A-D. I think some airlines may have thought it was the next Miami Beach in the past, only to realize that it’s on a much more limited scale than the Florida resort destinations.
What about the Dade Collier Training And Transition Airport (Miami)? Wasn’t this suppose to be the replacement airport for Miami? No airline service there and I can’t believe they have a 10,000+ feet long runway just so students can practice touch-and-goes.
I flew over that field a few weeks ago, it was interesting enough to look for more information about it. It is really in the middle of no where. I’ve read that it was originally built for the Boeing 2707 but when that project was cancelled, the airport had already been built. It was used for years as an airliner practice area, before simulators became the standard. More info here.
BTW, that airfields-freeman website is very interesting, it has information about many “little known and unused airfields”. Lots of those airports are now housing developments and shopping centers. They have examples of those fields on old aviation charts and maps. I found out that a pilot friend of mine lives on the site of an old airport that closed down somewhere around 1967. Interesting.
www.airfields-freeman.com
I saw this in the USA Today last week. Read it at the hotel as I was on an overnight in St. Louis. A little bad luck for the city.
I was at STL last week and it was like a ghost town. That American flight should have diverted to STL. http://discussions.flightaware.com//viewtopic.php?t=2809 They could have deplaned in 90 seconds with all the empty gates and jetways.
When I was learning to fly I did 10 touch and goes at MWH 13,500’ runway. Obviously I could have done more but as a student I didn’t want to show off since it was roughly midnight.
10 touch and goes, in one pass? that’s called a porpoise!
No discussion of failed airports would be complete without a mention of Amon Carter Field in Ft. Worth, later known as Greater Southwest International (GSW). This was Ft. Worth’s commercial airport from the early 1950s until 1972. Despite being a great facility with good service by AA, BN, CO, DL, EA, TT, and others, it lacked the support of Dallas-area residents, who preferred the convenience of using Love Field in Dallas. When the cities of Dallas and Ft. Worth opened DFW Airport in 1974, the FAA decomissioned GSW altogether, and the terminal and most of the hangars were demolished. The terminal had an elaborate mosaic tile floor, chandeliers, and murals detailed in gold.
I once had a flight from Houston (Hobby) to Denver with intermediate stops at both Dallas (Love) and Ft. Worth (Greater Southwest). This was around 1969 before the opening of DFW. The DAL/GSW segment was the shortest flight leg I’ve ever flown.
Trenton-Mercer County Airport (TTN) in New Jersey. I grew up just a few minutes away and have seen a litany of major airlines and start-ups come and go over the years.
With a location halfway between NYC and Philadelphia, free parking, and easy access to the NJ Turnpike and major business complexes around Princeton, you would think they could keep regular air service.
Last I heard they just had Pan Am service to the Boston area.
Northwest serves DHL, I also think they have a maintenance facility there.
I think its an aweful shame to see how KDAB (Daytona) is going. I haven’t flown in nor out of this airport, but within a few miles of it. It is a real shame that this location went from a booming airport to a ghost town. It is great to see that Airtran has began service to this airport, though. Just thought I’d post my thoughts about this matter.
Anyone have any news about this airport? Maybe some additional airline(s) starting service?
Gary-Chicago (GYY). It has, for so long, tried to become Chicago’s Third Airport, but it always falls short. Every now and then, a small low fare airline will operate out of Gary; there may even be one there now. I know Hooters was operating out of Gary for a while. Unfortunately, it is not a very good location, and it has always failed to retain airline service. It’s towered; but frankly, I think untowered Lansing (where I fly out of) a few miles southwest of Gary gets more traffic.