Do You Think The Columbia Airport Will Ever Be Served By More Than One Airline? (Kansas City: subsidized)

[dakota79]

Do you think the Columbia airport will ever be served by more than one airline?

I know some will say that the city is only a few hours from two major airports in St. Louis and Kansas City and why not just drive to them, but the city and metro area have grown a lot. I think if the service was there, the region could support it. I know of many other places where airports are much closer together and still served by multiple airlines. Northwest Airlink also has reported that Columbia is in their top five for service when it comes to plane capacity.

[ozarksboy]

Originally Posted by dakota79

I think if the service was there, the region could support it.

Don't things generally work the other way? That is, if the region could support it, the service would be there, wouldn't it? Don't services open when entrepreneurs or existing companies see data that indicates there is a market for them, rather than the other way around? Maybe no one with money to invest believes there's a big enough market to open another airline there.

[dakota79]

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

Don't things generally work the other way? That is, if the region could support it, the service would be there, wouldn't it? Don't services open when entrepreneurs or existing companies see data that indicates there is a market for them, rather than the other way around? Maybe no one with money to invest believes there's a big enough market to open another airline there.

I understand what you're saying, but I think it would be very hard for an airline to judge the potential of the Columbia based on the service the airport has had up until recently. Until Northwest started flying to Memphis, the only options were flights to St Louis and/or Kansas City. And the fares were usually $150-$200 added on to a fare from the larger airports. Most just opted to drive 2 hours to the big airports since they would end up connecting there anyway.

Now that Northwest is providing a real alternative by flying to Memphis for connections with decent fares (under $300 to quite a few cities) people are actually taking advantage of it with full flights according to Northwest. And if there was some competition, fares and one-stop destinations would improve even more.

Personally, I think the next best places an arline should offer service from Columbia to are Chicago or Denver. Chicago would offer tons of connections to midwest, east, and international destinations, and Denver would offer extensive connections throughout the mountain west and west coast.

While this is unlikely to happen right now with the current economy, maybe in time it will. Just a thought.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by dakota79

I understand what you're saying, but I think it would be very hard for an airline to judge the potential of the Columbia based on the service the airport has had up until recently. Until Northwest started flying to Memphis, the only options were flights to St Louis and/or Kansas City. And the fares were usually $150-$200 added on to a fare from the larger airports. Most just opted to drive 2 hours to the big airports since they would end up connecting there anyway.

If my memory serves me right, when TWE was still around, most of my Columbia friends were driving or taking the Tiger Express buses to MCI and STL.

[Thepreacherswife]

The reincarnated Ozark Air Lines tried for a year or so in the yearly 2000s, with flights to Chicago and Dallas. They survived for about a year before being bought out by the now defunct Great Plains Airlines, who stopped the flights. Then TWE came in with flights only to KC and STL, 9/11 hit, and the airport has never really recovered.

I think the Columbia/Jeff City area would need at least a population of 400,000 to make it worthwhile for any airline to provide service. I wonder how long it took Springfield's airport to really take off (pardon the pun), but they have the draw of Branson to make it a destination stop.

Mesaba seems to be doing well in Columbia, with 70% load factors through the end of 2008. But as long as the service has to be subsidized by the FAA, you're not going to see a second airline offering service. Mesaba currently gets over $2 million a year to provide service to Columbia.

[cyrano]

Sad to say but there's a greater chance of Mesaba leaving than of a second airline coming in. I was a regular user of Ozark Air Part Deux because it really was more convenient to go to Chicago by flying into Midway than any other alternative, but that obviously didn't, er, fly economically. I have a professional reason to look at the finances of Ozark/Great Plains and there simply wasn't enough demand.

There wasn't enough demand, and in the long run, there probably won't be enough demand, until the local business community and MU make a concerted effort to steer their business to flying. The real reason you want a functioning airport, instead of a Doc 'n Norm van and a two-hour drive out of Lambert, is not to serve Columbia's population, but to make it easier for people who want to do business in Columbia to get here. You build the infrastructure, support it until it can support itself, as part of an economic development plan for the area.

You don't need a city the size of Springfield to support the airport. Cities comparable to Columbia-- Madison WI, Lincoln NE, Iowa City-- do a far better job of supporting air traffic than we do. But we have such a short-sighted business community with a constipated attitude towards change that I have little hope for improvement in this or in any other area. Sorry.

[Thepreacherswife]

Originally Posted by cyrano

You don't need a city the size of Springfield to support the airport. Cities comparable to Columbia-- Madison WI, Lincoln NE, Iowa City-- do a far better job of supporting air traffic than we do. But we have such a short-sighted business community with a constipated attitude towards change that I have little hope for improvement in this or in any other area. Sorry.

I disagree about the size issue. Madison has a population of 225k. Lincoln had a population of 225k in 2000. Both of those are about double the size of Columbia + Jeff City and are actually larger than Springfield, which only has a population of 155k.

Iowa City, BTW, which is smaller than Columbia, doesn't even offer commercial air service, according to the city's website. You have to go to either Cedar Rapids (250k in the metro area) or Quad Cities (375k in the metro area).

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Thepreacherswife

I disagree about the size issue. Madison has a population of 225k. Lincoln had a population of 225k in 2000. Both of those are about double the size of Columbia + Jeff City and are actually larger than Springfield, which only has a population of 155k.

Madison and Lincoln also draw from a good number of smaller communities in all directions.

If you are an hour out of Columbia, generally you are going to be almost as close to either St. Louis or Kansas City. Also, I would rather just head to a MAJOR airport, catch a full sized jet and avoid the commuter and a connecting flight.

[cyrano]

Originally Posted by Thepreacherswife

I disagree about the size issue. Madison has a population of 225k. Lincoln had a population of 225k in 2000. Both of those are about double the size of Columbia + Jeff City and are actually larger than Springfield, which only has a population of 155k.

Iowa City, BTW, which is smaller than Columbia, doesn't even offer commercial air service, according to the city's website. You have to go to either Cedar Rapids (250k in the metro area) or Quad Cities (375k in the metro area).

You have a point on size but those cities are direct competitors to Columbia for a particular type of economic development. As for Iowa City, the Cedar Rapids airport is about 20 miles from Iowa City-- not that big a difference to Columbia Regional's distance from central Columbia. People are flying into Cedar Rapids to do business in Iowa City-- I know some of them.

My point remains-- the need for the airport isn't as much to serve the existing needs of the people who live here as to serve the business needs of those who do business here and want to do so.

[Woodlands]

Deleted- wrong city forum