Quote Originally Posted by adaniel View Post
I really don't get the hate for Will Rogers either. The way some people describe it you would think the place is a dump. The airport is one of the nicer small airports in the country and our passenger counts are pretty consistent with non-tourist non-hub airports for cities of our size. Also, passenger counts are growing and have been for some time; Tulsa's airport hit a 10 year low in traffic this past year even though it is supposed to be so much cheaper and easier to fly out of. I have never seen any sort of official study done, but I don't think "leakage" to DFW is as near the problem it is advertised. I honestly know of two people who have driven to Dallas to fly out (both were international destinations) in the entire time I've lived in OK.

I definitely think more West Coast destinations are possible, especially if in-migration from CA to OKC continues at its current pace. But with a lot of things its just going need some time. If we can keep up the growth I'm sure more service will come. But like the IKEA rumor that likes to surface on here, this hub talk really needs to be put to rest. That ship sailed a long time ago (about the time the Gipper deregulated the industry) and we can achieve more flights without hub status anyway.
I think the perception here needs to change a bit, OKC is not a small airport. The rest I agree with you.

However get away from OKC and go to the medium cities in the Great Lakes and Northeast. Most of those airports are going to have between 5 and 10 gates and that is it. Some are lucky to have more than a couple jet bridges.