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I had a chance to fly from CAE to DCA and noticed that the main runway appears to be getting redone and we had to take off and land or the much shorter NE to SW runway. I got the ticket on US Airways for about $230 for a direct flight each way which appeared to be a deal given the often high price of flying in and out of CAE.
Without rehashing the SWA thing in Greenville and Charleston.. but are fares in Columbia expected to drop as the Cola Airlines attempt to keep passengers from traveling out of town to fly?? When is SWA expected to land in Greenville and Charleston? I want to be able to hopefully snatch up some deals into CAE if fares drop... if not grab a few cheap flights in to Greenville
Actually the secondary NE/SW runway ("Runway 05/23") is almost as long as the main one ("Runway 11/29") - 8,000 feet and 8,600 feet, respectively. That's been a big help since most regular operations from the main runway can use the secondary one.
I would not expect fares to drop at CAE at all (if that were the case, then you wouldn't see all the local hang-wringing over not landing SWA).
The airports themselves don't have much leeway in terms of setting fares, other than somewhat impacting them via landing fees, gate leases, and and capital improvement facility charges they may levy to fund new construction. It's mostly driven by supply-and-demand, and that supply is driven by fuel, capital, and labor expenses. CAE management can't "lower" fares. If they could, they would have done that a very long time ago to prevent current passengers from fleeing to Charlotte.
The legacy carriers serving CAE are going to (continue to) say, essentially "You want to fly out of CAE? Fine, we will charge you heftily for the convenience, instead of driving to GSP, CHS, or, as has been the case before, Charlotte". At least that's going to be the implicit message in the high fares to regular Joe leisure travelers. We're in the same position as Greensboro, NC, about 1.5 hours between two airports that have low-cost service (Raleigh-Durham with mainly Southwest, and Charlotte with jetBlue and AirTrain, although they also serve Raleigh). Fares at Greensboro are still very high and they have a lot of leakage of leisure, discretionary passengers.
Below is a basic concept rendering of part of the terminal for the 100 million renovation. The entire airport will use stone and wood to achieve a very distinct Upstate / mountain gateway feel, along with expansive glass for natural light. The landside terminal will receive a new third enplaning level to match up with the height of the concourses. Deplaning will be handled through the second level. A new food court with national restaurants/shops will be added. Additional gates will be added to both concourses. Additional baggage carousels. A definite complete makeover, and at 100 million, obviously will be very detailed. I'm sure people will post progress photos as construction progresses. I fly weekly, so I'll keep a photo update going.
The sketch looks great. While I generally like the clean, efficient modern design of the current terminal, I'm not a big fan of the 1960s brutalist type of modernism (i.e., the expose-concrete forms that are a bit too much like a Soviet-design bunker or housing complex).
If you want to see a much smaller but beautiful Upstate airport terminal done in local vernacular "cabin" architectural style, you can head over to Pickens County Airport in Liberty where they have built one.
Sadly, I wouldn't hold my breath on any impact to CAE. AirTran has toyed with Myrtle Beach and Charleston, but does not serve any SC markets any more (they do serve Charlotte, though). They used to serve Greensboro, NC, (a market in a similar position as CAE) but no longer. That's not to say nothing would happen eventually. But don't expect anything any time soon.
The good news for GSP and CHS, assuming Southwest follows through there as planned, is that eventually they will be plugged into an even larger low-fare network.
The bottom line is that this about Southwest capturing as much big city business traffic on the East Coast (where it has been making moves in the last couple of years anyways) as possible, particularly Atlanta, NY, and DC. Outside of JFK, they will now serve just about every large- and mid-sized airport in the East.
Just imagine how much fares are going to lower out of GSP and CHS if Southwest decides to fly directly to CLT and ATL from those cities? Oh my...
I'm not sure how much value they would get from flying such short distances from GSP/CHS to ATL/CLT (although I suppose ATL-CHS is a possibility). I think more likely is that GSP/CHS will get plugged into a broader East Coast network, mainly to the north via Baltimore (which will probably become a sort of central East Coast megahub for them - since both Southwest & AirTran have a major presence there) and perhaps to the NYC area, and down south to Florida. Outside of the East Coast, I would imagine they might get plugged into traditional Southwest quasi-hub airports like Nashville and Chicago-Midway, from where folks can access destinations further west.
Then again, what do I know - this is educated speculation on my part at best.
Sadly, I wouldn't hold my breath on any impact to CAE. AirTran has toyed with Myrtle Beach and Charleston, but does not serve any SC markets any more (they do serve Charlotte, though). They used to serve Greensboro, NC, (a market in a similar position as CAE) but no longer. That's not to say nothing would happen eventually. But don't expect anything any time soon.
The good news for GSP and CHS, assuming Southwest follows through there as planned, is that eventually they will be plugged into an even larger low-fare network.
The bottom line is that this about Southwest capturing as much big city business traffic on the East Coast (where it has been making moves in the last couple of years anyways) as possible, particularly Atlanta, NY, and DC. Outside of JFK, they will now serve just about every large- and mid-sized airport in the East.
Sadly, the loss of the brand AirTran, is one less low fare carrier that CAE could lure to compete with Southwest in GSP and CHS.
Not so fast.. Cape Air has just announced that it will be expanding into the Southeast and Columbia is being considered as a regional hub......
Seriously.. why arent there more little puddle jumpers like this one to provide service from small/ mid size cities to larger regional hubs How does a little airline like this even stay in business???
Cape Air. Your Wings to Baltimore and beyond. (http://www.capeair.net/common/index.php?lng=CAPE&div=AA&nav=AA&page=A05 - broken link)
Not so fast.. Cape Air has just announced that it will be expanding into the Southeast and Columbia is being considered as a regional hub......
Seriously.. why arent there more little puddle jumpers like this one to provide service from small/ mid size cities to larger regional hubs How does a little airline like this even stay in business???
Cape Air. Your Wings to Baltimore and beyond. (http://www.capeair.net/common/index.php?lng=CAPE&div=AA&nav=AA&page=A05 - broken link)
Most of their flights are federally subsidized through the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. Several isolated towns New England in Upstate New York can't profitably support even puddle-jumper service. So in most cases they're being paid by the Feds to fly to these places.
As much as we may complain about air service in the Midlands, profitability for the major air carriers isn't one of them.
Lest somebody think they can pull off a start-up airline like Cape Air for the Midlands, let me repeat two words for those who have memories long enough to go back about 15 years: Air South.
Lest somebody think they can pull off a start-up airline like Cape Air for the Midlands, let me repeat two words for those who have memories long enough to go back about 15 years: Air South.
I always found it odd that Air South was based in Columbia, but GSP, CHS and MYR all saw more nonstop service. One of the old route maps from 96/97.
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How does a little airline like this even stay in business???
