Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Husband and I are eyeing a move to Charlotte at the start of summer. I've been looking at various flights in and out of CLT and am surprised at how expensive they are. Is this always the case, or is this related to the current work being done at the airport?
I know it is an AA hub, and have read about the low cost of operating in comparison to other hubs like PHL and MIA. I am of course aware that AA dominates something like 90% of flights at CLT, but is it always like this? Thus far in our research and planning, this has been the first sour spot regarding Charlotte, as we travel often and would hope to continue to do so out of CLT. Heck, living near a major hub airport was supposed to be a draw, not a drawback!
Husband and I are eyeing a move to Charlotte at the start of summer. I've been looking at various flights in and out of CLT and am surprised at how expensive they are. Is this always the case, or is this related to the current work being done at the airport?
I know it is an AA hub, and have read about the low cost of operating in comparison to other hubs like PHL and MIA. I am of course aware that AA dominates something like 90% of flights at CLT, but is it always like this? Thus far in our research and planning, this has been the first sour spot regarding Charlotte, as we travel often and would hope to continue to do so out of CLT. Heck, living near a major hub airport was supposed to be a draw, not a drawback!
Thank you for your thoughts
Raleigh may be a better option? My wife makes my buy premium economy or first class seats so they're all expensive regardless. But, at her (our) ages, one can demand comfort and pampering.
I think it's always like this. We flew to FLL in early December, and it was $900 for the two of us on AA (though I used points to pay for it). I flew to Austin in late January, and my ticket was $700 + (it was more because I booked refundable tickets). Airfare isn't going to go down, either.
There's also the airport in Concord that Allegiant flies out of - limited days but cheaper tickets if you're going somewhere they fly.
CLT is geared toward business travelers,connecting traffic & less toward O&D. With that said you can find cheaper options other than AA if you don't mind connecting thru those airlines hub network.
CLT is expensive if you are flying on a nonstop route with no other competition operated by American. Flights are not as bad on routes with lots of competition like CLT - Chicago, CLT - Boston, CLT - NY, et....
But if you look at a route like CLT - Seattle.... yeah it is expensive usually.
AA has 92% of air seats out of CLT - the most of any hub airport. https://simpleflying.com/the-battle-...lta-vs-united/
"This high domination makes competition difficult... it ordinarily keeps fares to/from the hub higher than they might otherwise be, somewhat offset by a much greater network."
More competition means lower fares, but fewer destinations and more overlap. The good news is that low-fare carriers are making headway at CLT in 2023; Spirit is adding four destinations and Sun Country is launching service.
AA owns nearly the entire airport. I read on the news maybe a month ago that the average price hike for airfare across the US was fairly low (less than 10%) and Charlotte Douglas was something like 36%. What im trying to say is the price is astronomical compared to others. Flights from Charlotte to Fort myers fla are $467 for the week of April 1st and from Boston to Fort Myers $178. You could drive to Boston, add an extra 2 hours to your flight down and 13 hours of driving and still not pay out even with gas the amount of 1 single ticket out of Charlotte. Its quite insane.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,700 posts, read 41,727,010 times
Reputation: 41381
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweetbottoms
AA owns nearly the entire airport. I read on the news maybe a month ago that the average price hike for airfare across the US was fairly low (less than 10%) and Charlotte Douglas was something like 36%. What im trying to say is the price is astronomical compared to others. Flights from Charlotte to Fort myers fla are $467 for the week of April 1st and from Boston to Fort Myers $178. You could drive to Boston, add an extra 2 hours to your flight down and 13 hours of driving and still not pay out even with gas the amount of 1 single ticket out of Charlotte. Its quite insane.
This is the best explanation I’ve heard for CLT. I’m paying $375 for direct from CLT to Milwaukee next week and back and other airports like GSO and Greenville-Spartanburg were $50-75 cheaper with connections. I fly often enough for work and fun this would have been a deciding factor to not move to Charlotte had I known.
This is the best explanation I’ve heard for CLT. I’m paying $375 for direct from CLT to Milwaukee next week and back and other airports like GSO and Greenville-Spartanburg were $50-75 cheaper with connections. I fly often enough for work and fun this would have been a deciding factor to not move to Charlotte had I known.
Non-stop will almost always be more than a flight with a connection.
I did find this article from 8/22 about CLT - AA controls 90% of CLT airport.
"Passengers leaving Charlotte Douglas during the first quarter paid $382 on average for their flight.
Year-over-year, that’s more than a 36% increase leaving passengers paying $102 more. Vigal Chokshi of Charlotte said, “I can feel it every time I book a ticket, things are really volatile and it’s really frustrating that prices are getting doubled compared to last year.” Nationally, the average airfare increased by 26% with flights costing $328.
The increased cost of fuel, increased flight demand, and staffing issues. Ethan Klapper, a Senior Aviation Reporter for The Points Guy said, “when you have that, they have to pass it on to consumers and it has become very expensive to fly.” On a local level in Charlotte, those points still apply, but American Airlines has a lot to do with it. American Airlines rather uniquely controls 90% of the capacity at Charlotte Douglas airport and that gives American Airlines a lot of pricing power,” said Klapper."
The relationship with American is so complicated.... in many ways Charlotte's economy is highly dependent on the AA hub. It is probably the single most important asset to the economy and city growing... as large firms can locate their headquarters here and have direct nonstop flights to almost any city in the country (time is money and not having employees connecting is valuable). It is named time and time again as a factor that has brought companies like Honeywell HQ, Truist Financial, Sealed Air, et... to our city (and even the ACC) We are only the 22nd largest metro area in the country... yet our airport is the 6th busiest in the entire country along the likes of airports in much larger cities like LAX, Phoenix, Seattle, et...
If our airport was "right-sized" without a major hub to reflect our actual population we would probably go from 700 daily flights to maybe 180 (that's how many Raleigh has)... we would have 1 or 2 daily flights to LAX instead of 6. We'd have 0 flights to San Diego instead of 4 daily flights. You could get rid of almost all of the Caribbean nonstop service except maybe a Saturday only flight to Punta Cana. We definitely wouldn't have nonstop flights to Mexico City, Costa Rica, Belize, and our European service being relatively robust to London 3x per day, Dublin, Madrid, Munich, Frankfurt, et.... Even using Milwaukee as an example, Charlotte is the only city in the Carolinas with nonstop service at 3 daily flights.
The downside to the hub is leisure travelers are teased with all these nonstop options... like mid-sized Charlotte has direct nonstop service to Antigua! But of course AA knows nobody else is going to fly a niche route like that other than themselves using the power of the hub... so they charge local travelers a premium for the nonstop.
Last edited by CLT4; 03-02-2023 at 09:43 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
