No rush to Rushmore

July 30th, 2008 at 01:06pm Thomas V. Bona

So, after stalling with 80 seats sold - only 61 percent - RFD canceled its day trip to Mount Rushmore. Too bad, people missed out on a great romantic getaway:

 (If was good enough for Cary and Eva…)

Would the trip have sold better if they used crop dusters?

In all seriousness, got some great comments from loyal readers on this subject, and wanted to respond to them with a full post…

Craig Knauss wrote:

Hopefully they will pick up some more people for Rushmore. Right now 61% of seats are sold. Please remember, it is not necessary to fill all seats on all flights. It’s great if you do, but I’ve almost never been on a 100% full flight, and I’ve been on at least 200 of them over the years. I think the airport should operate the flight as long as it doesn’t represent a big loss. And it doesn’t look good to just cancel flights when they aren’t full. A small one is tolerable when compared to the other successes.

Unfortunately, Craig, the rules have changed with high fuel prices. The airport is only operating these day trips to break even on full planes, not make money. Tickets for Rushmore were going at least $300 apiece so, that’s $15,000 in lost revenue. And there’s no windfall on those sold out trips to Niagara and Mackinac to back them up. The program is a marketing effort to keep RFD top of mind for consumers and airlines. If flights lose thousands of dollars, the program could end prematurely. So they’re making a calculated risk that it’s better to risk alienating some people with cancelations than to not offer the program at all, or to only go to “safe” destinations like Niagara. Tough times require creative solutions, and it appears to be working so far.

ANCJason wrote:

I’m really surprised that Rushmore isn’t selling better as well. It used to be that a 61% load would suffice, but those days are over. Mt. Rushmore would have been a great July 4th getaway, so if it doesn’t work out this time, maybe they will give it a chance next summer around that time.

I think you’ll see it tried again as an overnight trip yet this season, but that would be a great July 4 trip, you’re right. People are still getting used to the *concept* of day trips from RFD, so that’s part of it. I’m not overly surprised it didn’t work out, given the distance and price and relativley short window. But we’ll see what Bob and the gang have up their sleeves.

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