Archive for January, 2008
January 31st, 2008
Some interesting notes from AAA’s Fuelgaugereport.com.
Normally, Rockford’s average gas prices rise and fall with the rest of the state. But today, our average price for regular unleaded dropped almost 2 cents to $2.998 a gallon, even as the rest of the state rose more than a cent to $3.056 a gallon. Most other Illinois metro areas increased (poor Champaign/Urbana went up 10 cents a gallon).
Also, Rockford’s average gas prices dipped to below $3 a gallon for the first time since last fall. Don’t count on that lasting long, though, as demand will pick up in the spring.
January 31st, 2008
Bob O’Brien, executive director of Chicago Rockford International Airport, just made a lengthy response to my post about Allegiant’s summertime cuts here.
He says, among other things:
The counter to this is very simple and easily measured, especially during “contractions” in service as noted above. It is to sell every seat on every plane (100% - no exceptions).
But how? Well the fact is that 2,500,000 people live within 60 minutes of RFD. Moreover, and here is the real answer to our challenge: a community that accepts ownership and responsibility for the recent re-establishment and growth of hometown air service, WHO IN TURN TELLS THERE FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN ADJACENT COMMUNITIES AND COUNTIES ABOUT THE GREAT VALUE OF NON-STOP AFFORDABLY PRICED FARES ON ALLEGIANT, AND GOES SO FAR AS TO ACTIVELY WORK THEM INTO TRYING RFD verses driving right on by while enroute to O’hare for the same destinations being offered out of RFD. AND ONE MORE THING, “WE” ALL HAVE FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND BUSINESS ASSOCIATES LIVING ACROSS THE COUNTRY WHO COULD USE ALLEGIANT, IN THIS CASE, TO FLY INTO THE CHICAGOLAND REGION, verses dragging the “local folks” down to O’hare to PICK THEM UP!
See the whole thing after the jump.
Good article by Thomas, and certainly factual.
Likewise, I agree with his general assessment as to “why”: long flights burn lots of gas, reducing profits to marginal or worst losses. However, I would take exception to the fact it doesn’t bode well, unless of course we were to simply step back and accept the situation for what it is (as Thomas stated it). That is what most communities would normally do. I’m betting that Rockford and the surrounding communities get it; they get that this challenge is nothing more than another opportunity, and it is.
The airline industry will be pulling back as a whole, hoping to cut loses. The first cuts are reduced through “eliminations of service via non-profitable cities”, then “marginally profitable cities”; the final wave of cuts are “reductions verses eliminations”, these are a combination of weaker cities but ones an airline want to remain in with hopes of strategic benefit over the long haul (no pun intended), the other is long haul routes (in real terms just as Thomas correctly noted).
The counter to this is very simple and easily measured, especially during “contractions” in service as noted above. It is to sell every seat on every plane (100% - no exceptions).
But how? Well the fact is that 2,500,000 people live within 60 minutes of RFD. Moreover, and here is the real answer to our challenge: a community that accepts ownership and responsibility for the recent re-establishment and growth of hometown air service, WHO IN TURN TELLS THERE FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN ADJACENT COMMUNITIES AND COUNTIES ABOUT THE GREAT VALUE OF NON-STOP AFFORDABLY PRICED FARES ON ALLEGIANT, AND GOES SO FAR AS TO ACTIVELY WORK THEM INTO TRYING RFD verses driving right on by while enroute to O’hare for the same destinations being offered out of RFD. AND ONE MORE THING, “WE” ALL HAVE FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND BUSINESS ASSOCIATES LIVING ACROSS THE COUNTRY WHO COULD USE ALLEGIANT, IN THIS CASE, TO FLY INTO THE CHICAGOLAND REGION, verses dragging the “local folks” down to O’hare to PICK THEM UP!
Thomas is right. And so am I. Please redouble your efforts in support of air service development and RFD. You got us here in four short years. we can double our progress in the next 24 months, if we don’t accept the traditional attitude during a slow down in the industry. It’s ours (the regional communities) to claim.
And please don’t doubt it for a second. Two weeks ago a “princess” of an airline said “yes, we have a deal philosophically” to start an incredible quanity and quality of air service at RFD. As we worked over the last two weeks to dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s”, they, like most everyone else said “time out”. We are sorry but we just can’t make the commitment at this time (they cited items along the line of fuel prices AND the economy, which we are all dealing with). They begged our understanding. They even went as far as to say that RFD was ” a no brainer three months ago”. We (the airport’s board and staff, plus the community’s grass root program that built us into what we are today) have credibility with this airline, and them with us.
Let’s not simply double our efforts, lets triple our efforts and sell the last 15 seats of every flight, making them full. This will send an immediate signal to Allegiant that we want those additional flights back, and to “Princess” off in the distance, that we intend to race head on towards her in an effort to capture her heart for this regional community.
Who is with us?
PS: For the record, this is my first blog ever!
January 31st, 2008
Allegiant Air just updated its flight schedule through August, and there’s some bad new for Rockford - we’re losing service to Phoenix/Mesa, Ariz., in July and August.
It’s a seasonal cut causes by high fuel prices, Allegiant spokeswoman Tyri Squyres told me, and the flights will be back in September and October. Also temporarily losing Phoenix service those months are Fort Wayne, Peoria and Green Bay. What do those three routes have in common? They’re three of Allegiant’s seven longest routes, all clocking in at 1,380 miles or more.
At a webcast yesterday Allegiant officials touted how they had cut some routes over 1,200 miles in the past year and reduced their average length to 922 miles in light of high fuel costs. Allegiant has been moving its planes around to use them on shorter-haul trips that are more profitable.
This doesn’t bode well for Rockford’s goal of getting a third weekly flight to Mesa, it seems. Squyres said service to Phoenix was cut for the last summer because of seasonal demand - unlike Las Vegas, with its casinos, few people want to go to Phoenix in the height of the summer. But we’re also going down to two weekly flights to Vegas in the late summer.
I wouldn’t take this as an indication of any weakness in the Rockford market, just the reality that high fuel prices cause airlines to act very conservatively, especially on longer routes.
UPDATE (3:30 pm Jan. 31): Squyres tells me that that the seasonal cutting of service won’t necessarily hurt our chances of getting a third weekly flight to Phoenix in peak season. However, our *distance* from Phoenix will be a factor in choosing who gets extra flights. She said Rockford is doing well on that route, but so are other, closer cities.
January 29th, 2008
The airline will base two planes and add more than 60 employees at the airport, located in between Vancouver and Seattle.
Why should you care? Because whither Allegiant, whither Rockford. The low-cost carrier is the largest operator at Chicago Rockford International Airport and flies to every one of its “focus cities” from Rockford. So if Allegiant ever decides to make Bellingham a bit of a “focus city”, it could benefit Rockford…
Not saying that’s definitely their plan. What I do know, from a public presentation airline officials made a couple months ago, is they plan to make cities like Reno and Lake Tahoe sort of mini-focus cities, adding routes from places that already have successful Las Vegas service. The airline also is considering “niche” destinations that would be served by only a few cities. Maybe Bellingham? I hear Vancouver is quite nice.
Airport Executive Director Bob O’Brien said, “Yes we have talked with Allegiant about Bellingham, as well as other destinations. And next week I’ll be out meeting with them in Las Vegas.”
Moreover, O’Brien continues to lobby Allegiant to base a plane here in Rockford and perhaps make “Chicago/Rockford” a bit of a focus city. Airport officials may have to build a maintenance facility for Allegiant here to make it work, but there’s room for something like that, O’Brien said.
All this is tempered, of course, by the high price of fuel. Allegiant is trying to make a name for itself as an alternative to the big legacy carriers. But its “Maddog” planes are guzzlers.
Keep watching the skies…
January 29th, 2008
Hell hath no fury like an airline scorned, apparently.
Last year, AirTran was rebuffed in its attempt to merge with Midwest Airlines. AirTran’s not taking it well, attacking Midwest at its home turf of Milwaukee. It just announced service to five more destinations from MKE. That comes a week after it announced service to New York City.
It’s too bad, because I like Midwest, or what Midwest used to be. It seems that airline is cutting a lot of its “signature service” - two-by-two seating, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and a general sense that it was giving more value than other airlines. Now it’s becoming more like other airlines.
AirTran seems like a decent low-cost carrier that has a working business model. I look forward to flying them this summer for the first time, and will give a trip report. I like Milwaukee’s airport and look forward to fly out of there again.
What experiences have you had with AirTran or MKE?
January 25th, 2008
Good news for those of you who drive to Milwaukee to fly east. AirTran is starting a route to New York’s LaGuardia airport in May. With three new daily flights from a discount carrier, that could drive prices down.
Midwest Airlines has flights from Milwaukee to LaGuardia starting at $178 round-trip plus tax and fees and flights from Milwaukee to Newark, N.J., starting at $228 round-trip plus tax and fees. Continental Airlines has flights from Milwaukee to Newark starting at $208 round-trip plus tax and fees, starting in February.
AirTran’s route starts May 6. For the first month, tickets start as low as $148 round-trip plus tax and fees. After that, they increase to at least $174 round-trip plus tax and fees.
As a New York native, I’ll be watching this battle closely and looking to make a trip home soon.
January 16th, 2008
Looks like there might be some competition over Amtrak routes after all, at least from rail advocates. According to an article in River Cities’ Reader, folks in the Quad Cities are saying their planned Amtrak route should get funded before ours. Here’s the key part:
“I think the next thing we’d like to see happen … [is] service expansion to both Rockford/Dubuque and the Quad Cities, because they’ve been so long without passenger-rail service,” (George Weber, acting chief of the Illinois Department Transportation’s Bureau of Railroads, said. Dubuque was last served by passenger rail in 1981, while the Quad Cities have been without service since 1978.
Establishing new service, of course, “depends on funding availability,” he said.
The Quad Cities Passenger Rail Coalition wants to jump ahead of Dubuque in the line for funding. “We’re all vying for money,” Rumler said. He noted that Amtrak’s study of the Chicago-Rockford-Dubuque line estimated annual ridership at 77,500 and capital costs of $32 million - both inferior to estimates for the Quad Cities line. “The Quad Cities is a solid investment … compared to other potential” routes, he said.
But it’s not quite so simple, Weber said. Estimated ridership is a factor, he said, but “there are other parts that could swing your priority over to a corridor that might not have as much demand in ridership.”
For example: “The Rockford study was done first,” he said.
Expediency is also key, he said. “A lot of it depends on trying to work out some type of a construction agreement and operating scenario with the host railroad. … If you had the money, how soon could you do the track work … ?”
On the other hand, “the Quad Cities probably requires a little less capital,” Weber said. “We would have to make the determination at the time funding becomes available.”
He added that both Dubuque and the Quad Cities would have sufficient ridership to merit starting service, and would have state operating contributions that are in-line with existing Amtrak routes in Illinois. “They’re both feasible,” he said. “They’re comparable.”
Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari said the company doesn’t have an opinion on whether a particular route would be worth the cost for the state - “That’s not really our business,” he said
January 14th, 2008
With word Friday that flights from Rockford to Ireland will start in June, Chicago Rockford International Airport took another step toward not only toward a record near in passenger service, but toward officials’ stated goal of 300,000 passengers.
The airport saw 215,009 passengers in 2007, second only to 1991’s record of 221,006.
Already there’s room for growth, even if nothing else is added. Besides 40 flights between Rockford and Ireland this summer, there will be full years of service to Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Assuming those planes are all on average 85 percent full (about the airport’s average for 2007), those three routes would add 48,166 passengers to the total this year. That brings RFD to 263,175. Again, that’s if nothing is added.
Airport officials hope to add other routes this year: targets include Myrtle Beach, SC; Fort Myers, Fla.; and east and west coast destinations. The airport also hopes that successful Ireland flights could lead to another European destination.
On top of that, the airport is lobbying United Airlines, Allegiant Air and Apple Vacations to add flights on existing routes, further raising the numbers.
January 14th, 2008
Airfare is going up again. United Airlines and other airlines are increasing their fuel surcharges from $10 each way to $25 because of high fuel costs. The bad news is, that’ll hike fares for Rockford’s Denver route. The good news is, it’ll also hike fares from Chicago O’Hare to Denver, so it shouldn’t affect Chicago Rockford International Airport’s competitiveness.
Allegiant Air doesn’t plan to follow suit, spokeswoman Tyri Squyres. The airline has to keep its fares low because that’s the crux of its marketing strategy.
January 11th, 2008
Southwest Airlines is juggling a bunch of routes throughout its system to focus on the most profitable ones. At Chicago Midway, it’s it’s cutting eight daily flights and replacing them with four, for a net loss of four.
There will be one less daily flight to Kansas City, St. Louis and Tampa Bay and two less daily flights to Las Vegas. Southwest is also cutting a seasonal daily flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Orlando.
It’s adding a daily flight to Buffalo and a seasonal daily flight to Denver, Portland and Seattle.
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