I think BWG (Bowling Green, KY) could support at least a few dailys to either CVG on DL or ORD on AA. Why? Well Bowling Green itself has a population of 54,000 and is centrally located within an hour of Warren County (101,266), Allen County (20,000), Monroe County (13,000), Barren County (45,000), Metcafe County (10,000), Hart County (20,000), Edmonson County (12,000), Green County (12,000), Butler County (14,000), Logan County (30,000), Simpson County (18,000), Todd County (12,000), Ohio County (25,000) in Kentucky and well within an hour of Robertson County (55,000), Sumner County (135,000), Macon County (21,000), Montgomery County (135,000) in Tennessee. That equals a population of: 689,000 people. Right now the only option for these Residents is a 2 hr drive from Bowling Green to Nashville or Louisville. What do yall think about BWG and other airports?
Bowling Green did have airline service by Eastern Air LInes from 1948 to 1969.
In September 1969, Eastern was allowed to drop services to BWG. Air South took over the services.
I would like to see Livermore (LVK), CA, get airline service. However, it’s doubtful it will because the idiotic politicians in neighboring Pleasanton bow down to the idiotic home owners who bought their houses near the aiport.
LVK has the advantages of being close to several large businesses in Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, and the surrounding areas. There’s also a large population in area. The nearest airport - Oakland - can be a real bear to get to during the rush hours.
I think LVK would be ideal for flights along the west coast and the adjoining states (Nevada, Arizona, and Utah).
Another good airport would be Concord (CCR). CCR was briefly served by PSA and subsequently USAir when they took over PSA. If memory serves me correctly, it was in the 1990’s when CCR had this service. The flights were to Southern California. It would be great to have the service restore and expanded to destinations like those I mentioned for LVK.
The city of Bowling Green and many of the areas you describe is only a half hour from TOL and only a little over an hour to DTW. There is far too much leakage to support anything in the way of commercial service.
In addition the longest runway is only 6500 ft. long and only has ILS in one direction.
Again, Livermore is less than 30 miles from OAK. With the selection of flights at OAK and extensive LCC service, you will see far too much leakage to have any sort of service at LVK. People might not like the traffic, but for a $59 flight to Burbank on Southwest, people will sit in it vs. the $200+ fare you would need to charge for LVK-LAX service on a prop to be profitable.
Concord is a little further, but still not far enough, and many people on the eastern end of CCR’s potential catchment area are too very close to SCK.
My research thesis was on the economics of regional airports.
drdisque: I was talking about Bowling Green, KY not Bowling Green, OH.
How long ago was the thesis done? This is a subject I’m really interested in and would love to be able to discuss it with others.
I was thinking more along the lines of flights for the business person. For them, the difference between $200 and $59 may be more than made up by the hour or so that it can take to get from the Tri-Valley area or Concord area to OAK. I also think, with the right aircraft, the prices could be closer to the full fare currently charged for flights between Northern and Southern California.
The air service at SCK is extremely limited. According to the Stockton Metropolitan Airport web page, they currently have service to LAS 5 times a week and Phoenix-Mesa (IWA) twice a week via Allegiant Air.
With such relatively short distances to the Southern California airports and with the right marketing, I can see DHC-8-400Q being used on the flights from CCR and LVK to Southern California. The time would not be that much longer (just a few minutes) than a jet. A 400Q may also be more acceptable to residents nearby than a jet because it is quieter.
I agree; catchment is a huge issue with regional airports. There is a lot of extra cost for an airline to operate that extra leg (which is usually a large% of connecting traffic). The extra cost for the connecting leg usually costs more then just driving to a bigger airport. Of course, an airline will benefit from a greater reach of passengers and the ability to charge high fares in regional airports (as they usually lack competition).
Looking at Bowling Green, KY, it does look like it has some potential. It is an hour from the closest airport (BNA) and its catchment area is similarly separated from other airports.
I think its best option would be NW/Mesaba Saab service to MEM or US/Piedmont Q100 service to CLT.
However, I’d still be worried about the size of the surrounding area and the problems with the airport remain (only 1 ILS approach).
I think it would be doable with a moderate subsidy, but those are hard to come by these days.
The thesis was done about 3 years ago. It studied the factors that drive demand for regional airport traffic (how much population, income, distance to the nearest airport, etc.) affected passenger traffic. It did not attempt to study costs or establish any sort of threshold for service, but it gave me a lot of insight into what kind of populations and catchment area it takes to support viable air service.
IIRC, there are a number of airports with significant traffic, including KSAN and KDCA, with just 1 ILS. Beyond that, there are a number of airports with lesser amounts of service, such as KBOI, KHRL, and KAMA to name a few, that have a single ILS… so I’m not sure that having only 1 ILS approach is necessarily a limiting constraint. I think one needs to look at the frequency of IMC-related diversions and their associations with specific wind directions in order to determine if additional ILS equipment is desirable at a certain airport.
Who cares if an airport only has ONE ILS??? MSO, which has scheduled service from Horizon, Skywest, Northwest, and United, has only 1 ILS (RY 11).
Please do not forget Chino,CA…just south of the Ontario Airport.
There is a 727 that comes and goes…it is a private aircraft.
Please do not forget Chino,CA…just south of the Ontario Airport.
There is a 727 that comes and goes…it is a private aircraft.
How bout Wilmington, dl (ILM).
ILM has repeatedly had service in the past and couldn’t support it.
The airport is simply too close to PHL.
You’re thinking of ILG, ILM is in North Carolina.
As mentioned by JHEM, it is ILG. Also, the abbreviation for Delaware is DE.
Wilmington does have scheduled airline service. However, it is not passenger service. It is freight service operated by US Check Airlines.
Looking at the ILG page, it appears that Priority Air Charter and Royal Air Freight serve the airport. I’m not 100% sure that these two airlines have regularly scheduled service there.
Airlines that have operated to ILG with passenger services include Skybus, Shuttle America (both as an independent airline and as a United Express and Delta Connection operator), United, Crown Airways (operating as USAir Express), Atlantic Southeast Airlines (operating as Delta Connection), and, if memory serves, Eastern served ILG many, many years ago.
Delaware has the distinction of being the only state without scheduled passenger airline service.
Sadly, most airports in the United States are underserved because of a combination of the hub and spoke system, and airlines outrageous fares in some small cities. And then you have the few cities like Atlanta, that are completely overserved.
combine that with the state of the industry right now, I’m sure we’ll see routes cut, but no questionable or risky routes added.
Also the lack of 19 seat operators now days doesn’t help smaller communties that may be able to do well with a Beech 1900 or J31 etc.
I’d say any airport where airlines have to swap out or sub routes in order to get block time are overserved. Honestly, just cut back a few flights, and maybe things wouldn’t get hit so bad when everything inevitably delays.
ORD, LGA, ATL, are the ones I’m specifically thinking of.