LVIA or ABE airport (Philadelphia, Allentown: buying, costs, bus)

[PacoMartin]

The new management firm has taken over at the airport, and restored the ABE name.Fly LVIA is still the website.

Now that American Airlines has pulled out, the choices are fairly skimpy.
Delta - Atlanta & Detroit
United - Chicago & Washington DC (Dulles)
USAir - Philadelphia & Charlotte
Toronto - twice a day on small plane

Then there are some specialty flights to Florida on limited days of the week. Twice weekly to St Petersburg, twice to Fort Myers, and twice to Sanford Airport in the Orlando area (further from Disneyland then main airport). There is some summer flights to Myrtle Beach, SC for golf. The airlines are Allegiant Air, and DirectAir (a virtual airline who rents the service of jets and crews).

The big question is AirTran who is flying twice a day to Orlando. With Southwest Airlines buying AirTran the big question is which of the current AirTran small operations will it shut down, and which will it expand with good connections to Southwest cities. So far ABE was not in the first 6 airports that are planned to be shut down.

The drawback is that AirTran also flies out of Harrisburg. Southwest has major service in Philadelphia, and just got some slots at Newark Airport. They have one of there biggest hubs at BWI near Baltimore.

The airport authority is desperately sending gifts to Southwest Airlines every other week. Recently they sent a valuable Martin guitar, because they know that the CEO likes guitars.

The ABE airport is the most underutilized airport for a metropolitan area of this size in the country (except for the impoverished Rio Grande Valley). I've done the research. What are the chances that Southwest will save the day?

[flyonpa]

My Guess is very low, SW will pull out of ABE. SW likes to do 6-8 turns per gate. Unless they can get 1/2 the passengers off the other airlines to fly on SW. They will pull the city off its list.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by flyonpa

My Guess is very low, SW will pull out of ABE. SW likes to do 6-8 turns per gate. Unless they can get 1/2 the passengers off the other airlines to fly on SW. They will pull the city off its list.

The ABE airport averaged 1135 enplanements per day in 2010. If you figure 110 passengers per jet, 6-8 turns would be 660 to 880 passengers coming and going through one gate in a day.

I don't think it is possible to grow the airport that fast.

[PacoMartin]

AirTran Airways will continue to operate at Asheville, Atlantic City, and Quad City airports through January 6, 2012, and at Newport News Williamsburg through March 9, 2012. Asheville (N.C.) Regional (AVL),
1) Atlantic City International (ACY),
2) Quad City (Moline, Ill.) International (MIL), and
3) Newport News Williamsburg (Va.) International (PHF).

The following airports discontinued as of June 2012.
4) Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS),
5) Miami International (MIA),
6) Central Illinois Regional Airport/Bloomington/Normal, Ill. (BMI),
7) Charleston’s Yeager Airport in West Virginia (CRW), and
8) Dulles International (IAD).

ABE and Harrisburg are still being serviced.

[PacoMartin]

Continental abandoned flying to Newark a number of years ago. They now offer a bus service three times per day which gives you airlines miles. However, it is considerably more expensive than taking a Trans-Bridge bus which leaves from the bus terminal about 1 miles from the airport terminal.

American airlines regional subsidiary American Eagle has left the airport this summer. A number of years ago they flew to JFK and to Boston.

Florida service is limited. Although it seems like someone will always fly to Orlando, the other cities change frequently. Miami and Ft Lauderdale currently have no flights.

About 20% of the passengers flying out of ABE fly down to Philadelphia Airport (54 air miles). I presume that almost 100% of those people are making connections.

Would you rather drive to PHL airport or fly there from ABE if costs were similar? Do you think that USAir will replace this flight with a bus (like Continental)?

Right now Bieber bus only goes to downtown Philadelphia. They do not service the airport. So going by bus means switching to the train once you are downtown (a lengthy process which probably nobody does).

[JohnZ963]

It's unfortunate, but I predict that AirTran/SW will pull out of Allentown before long.

I love flying out of ABE whenever possible. At least for the routes I usually travel on (connecting to other small-ish cities, usually both flights on regional jets) the fares are pretty comparable to PHL or EWR. It's when you try to fly from ABE to a hub without connecting to anywhere else that it gets crazy-expensive.

Also, if I'm going to be traveling with large baggage that can't be gate-checked on the regional jets (golf clubs, etc.) I usually go Southwest out of PHL to avoid the baggage fees.

[PacoMartin]

Doesn't that irritate you? You can look at a regional jet from ABE to Chicago alone (653 miles), and then look at the same regional jet with a connection to Los Angeles (653+1740=2393 miles), and there is only an 11% difference in the fares.

But it's still cheaper to take a plane for a 54 miles flight to Philadelphia and fly to Chicago from there. But if you really want a reasonable fare you have to drive to Philadelphia or Newark.

[avg12]

Originally Posted by PacoMartin

Continental abandoned flying to Newark a number of years ago. They now offer a bus service three times per day which gives you airlines miles. However, it is considerably more expensive than taking a Trans-Bridge bus which leaves from the bus terminal about 1 miles from the airport terminal.

Continental is now part of United, so United offers bus service to Newark, and then RJ service to Washington-Dulles and Chicago.

I figured the bus service would be eliminated by now, with most travelers routed via IAD on RJ, however, there must be people still taking the ABE-EWR bus service.

Originally Posted by PacoMartin

Do you think that USAir will replace this flight with a bus (like Continental)?

I don't think so. There is too much highway traffic strained by only 2 lane roads between ABE and PHL. At the same time, US Airways doesn't want to concede the Lehigh Valley area to United or Delta, so they will contract for RJs between PHL and ABE. That is, they know that ABE-CLT-Europe wouldn't be as competitive as ABE-IAD-Europe/Asia/etc. from the bigger network United offers.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by avg12

I figured the bus service would be eliminated by now, with most travelers routed via IAD on RJ, however, there must be people still taking the ABE-EWR bus service.


I don't think so. There is too much highway traffic strained by only 2 lane roads between ABE and PHL. At the same time, US Airways doesn't want to concede the Lehigh Valley area to United or Delta, so they will contract for RJs between PHL and ABE. That is, they know that ABE-CLT-Europe wouldn't be as competitive as ABE-IAD-Europe/Asia/etc. from the bigger network United offers.

You may be right. Perhaps they are just waiting for the Continental brand to be eliminated. Once all jets fly under the United name, the bus service may be eliminated. It is cheaper for locals to go to Newark Airport on Trans-Bridge (although there are a few intermediate stops).

I was surprised to see the USAir has twice as many passengers that fly to PHL as they do to Charlotte.

I guess flying people 55 miles to Philadelphia is not substantially different than flying them 159 miles to Washington Dulles, or even 290 miles to Toronto. A connection is a connection. Small differences in fuel may not matter in the long haul. I just read about them spending billions on a new runway in Philadelphia, and it seems funny to be wasting assets on a 55 mile flight.

[avg12]

Originally Posted by PacoMartin

I was surprised to see the USAir has twice as many passengers that fly to PHL as they do to Charlotte.

US at CLT offers less European cities in comparison to US at PHL. But for the rest of the domestic network connections and Caribbean and Latin America (whatever cities US services), CLT routing from ABE is efficient.