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.
