Will this affect RFD? I would suspect we will see a lower percentage of McHenry,Kane and Lake county residents coming out to RFD.

But MSN will be the most affected. They have consistently higher fares than MKE, and only spoke to hub service.

Unless you’re going out and scientifically surveying stations, you have access to the same data I do.

Some points of note:

1. The numbers I cite are for metro area averages - they take into account Belvidere and other cheaper parts of the area. So Rockford city prices will be higher. Because these prices are captured daily from a large sample of stations at the same time, they’re the most reliable snapshot we have. Can parts of the Milwaukee area be cheaper or the same as parts of the Rockford area? Sure, but on average the Rockford area is cheaper right now.

2. Champaign and Decatur are the two metro areas cheaper than ours, according to AAA. I didn’t say we were the lowest, but that we were lower than most of the state’s metro areas. Mattoon is possibly in the Champaign metro area. And while the cities of Springfield and Peoria may have comparable prices to the city of Rockford, on average their metro areas are (slightly) higher.

Just because you don’t like the facts doesn’t make me a shill. Who am I shilling for, anyway? High fuel prices hurt more local businesses than they help … especially as the region tries to be a transportation hub,

You’ll have that some times … price differences between regions aren’t simply a function of taxes. It depends on how much gasoline is going for at the different terminals that serve a region … if Rockford’s terminals have a perceived shortage, for example, prices may be higher. More often than not, Rockford is well below Cook County, though.

Sorry I can’t give you an exact formula, but it’s not an exact science.

A little research instead of just reporting industry sources or news handouts would improve the accuracy of the register star quite a bit.
then we could have a newspaper instead of a business shill.

I always thought we had lower sales taxes, etc. than Chicago & Cook County do on gasoline-why did the prices match?

We already know that RFD won’t be affected, because it hasn’t been affected by Air Tran’s buildup at MKE. In fact, I don’t think that very many Southwest passengers from the Rockford area are going to be diverted away from MDW to MKE.

There is a specific demographic that flies Allegiant, and they don’t want to go to MKE anymore than they want to go to ORD/MDW, even though we all know that MKE is substantially easier. Earl and Esther from Paw Paw fly out of RFD for a reason.

If anything, RFD will benefit from this. No other low fare carrier in their right mind would consider serving MKE at this point. MKE is now Midway North, and nobody has the guts to go against Southwest and Air Tran at MDW. In fact, if Spirit wants to sustain their low cost model, or grow their Chicago market, for that matter, they won’t even be serving O’hare in five years…..nor will they go up against anybody at Midway.

Congratulations to MKE. They have a world class facility that has just transformed itself into Chicago’s other low fare airport.

Sorry but it’s not so simple.

A. As Snopes.com notes, those numbers are outdated … both old, and not taking into account industry consolidation.

B. More importantly, as the Energy Department says, it’s nigh impossible to tell where the gasoline you pump came from:

“This mixing of brands occurs because gasoline from different refineries is often combined for shipment by pipeline, and companies owning service stations in the same area may be purchasing gasoline at the same bulk terminal….

…Even if we knew which company’s refinery produced the gasoline, the source of the crude oil used at that refinery may vary on a day-to-day basis. Most refiners use a mix of crude oils from various domestic and foreign sources. The mix of crude oils can change based on the relative cost and availability of crude oil from different sources.”