Airline Cuts

[Richard at Remax]

Its crazy but USA today came out a few weeks ago that shows average daily seats coming in and out of the airport. I was surprised that places like birmingham and omaha had thousands of more seats per day than here. Just found it wierd.

Also, I know im just being picky but does anyone think they should change the name to Will Rogers International rather than World? I just think it sounds better. But thats just me.

[OKCTalker]

How many international flights fly into and out of Will Rogers?

[Luke]

Its crazy but USA today came out a few weeks ago that shows average daily seats coming in and out of the airport. I was surprised that places like birmingham and omaha had thousands of more seats per day than here. Just found it wierd.

I don't know why, but my guess is that between Tulsa, DFW and even Wichita, more non-stop or direct flights can be found for a big enough difference in cost that it's worth the drive from OKC.

[venture]

Seinfeld...
I would say EWR is safe for now, but the yeilds need to come up a bit. Still, almost 19 cents per miles compared to 15 cents for the CLE trips...there is much higher yeilding traffic on that route.

BG918...
They dumped/are dumping Tulsa from their network (Frontier), so that may help OKC some. They are going back to the Dash 8s for the fall, so the costs will drop a bit using those instead of the Airbus aircraft. I love Frontier's product over anyone else flying from WRWA right now. I would say the biggest threat to Frontier right now is not United, but Southwest. People still blindly follow them, even though their fares are far from the lowest sometimes (they recently released that they have eliminated their fare caps of $299 one way that they've had for ever). If people don't use Frontier, or jump away from them now that Southwest flies the route...then they'll pack up and leave.

Worthy Cook...
Omaha and Birmingham have been that way for years. Omaha also has the catchment area that is much larger than OKC. Birmingham has a decent sized Southwest presense, and get a lot of traffic from Atlanta that chooses not to use Delta or AirTran. If Dallas didn't have Southwest at Love Field, OKC would be sucking a ton of people from that area.

OKCTalker...
Currently...4 weeks international flights leave WRWA. Two of them go to Cancun, the other two to Puerto Vallarta. Also, "International" in an airport designation means that the airport has a customs facility available for either cargo or passengers...or at lease the ability to facilitate those type of flights. When looking up the airport... AirNav: KOKC - Will Rogers World Airport ... it states that KOKC is a customs landing rights airport, and can freely use "international" in the name if they so wish. Many smaller airports than OKC use the International name...one for marketing, and two because they have done everything needed to have customs on the grounds.

Luke...
I would be interested in seeing a leakage report from the airports department to see how much actually leaves the area. With a major hub south in Dallas, that usually can cause a ton of leakage - but the fact it is a 3 hour drive helps. The worst city I know with hub leakage is Toledo, OH to Detroit. The cities are about 50 miles apart, and even with a metro area of around 660,000 people in TOL...they can only muster 8 flights a day and a few weekly flights on Allegiant. They also did a study and it shows that over 90% of the local travelers, make the hour drive north to Detroit Metro to fly. So the draw and power of tons of nonstop flights from large hubs is a huge issue for any city that is with in driving distance. Wichita I would say would pull people thanks to AirTran being there...Tulsa, I would say doesn't have much if any impact. The schedules are stacked almost identically to OKC...except for some larger aircraft on the American flights. But to that you can thank the mainenance base for as it makes it easy for them to rotate aircraft through that way.

[HOT ROD]

WN also flies to Den now, that will help keep United under control and I'd think Frontier will survive.

On your last point, venture - wouldn't it make sense for Alaska Airlines to offer pax service from Seattle to OKC (to say Miami or DC or someother place in the east?) because OKC is Alaska's major maintenance facility?

Right now, they are just flying empty planes. Using the Tulsa analogy, even if the plane wasnt full - you'd still get 'something' out of it. and last I checked/saw, the SEA-OKC route is quite healthy and Im sure could support a daily nonstop (or at least a couple times weekly). And would give current owner United some much needed competition.

How can we get the airport staff to realize and capitalize on these creative ideas????

[venture]

I always thought SEA-OKC was a given on AS...but apparently they don't agree. I don't think they would do a tag flight to another city - even though it would be nice.

[HOT ROD]

Venture, i suggested the tag just in case SEA-OKC wouldn't be profitable alone or if Alaska wanted to service a 'new' market on the east - say Miami, yet still exercize a need' of sorts via OKC. The plane could be listed as a 1 stop or plane change in OKC, a few times a week.

Anyways, just trying to be creative - something I wish the airport management would do.