Many Smaller Cities Seen Losing Flights

Posted on May 22, 2008
Filed Under Aviation Interest |

On its front page, the New York Times (5/21, A1, Maynard) reports that smaller cities are increasingly shut off from airline travel. “Flights seem to be disappearing by the day,” in some cases after the communities have invested in infrastructure to support the airlines. In Hagerstown, Md., city officials “started making the case to build a longer runway at their airport” several years ago. “$61.4 million later, the city opened its concrete welcome [mat], a new 7,000-foot runway” in November, “two months after the airport lost scheduled air service altogether.” The Times notes that “nearly 30 cities across the United States have seen their scheduled service disappear in the last year,” and they include New Haven, Conn.; Wilmington, Del.; Lake Havasu City, Ariz.; and Boulder City, Nev. Other airports have simply lost some flights. The Times points out that “[f]or American travelers, the shift means that they can no longer bank on scheduling flights to reach their destination within a single day.”

Regarding airports, Flight Global (5/20, Field) reported that the U.S. “is in an aviation slump, if not outright recession,” with airlines “cutting flights across the nation, trimming not just spokes but hubs as well.” The air transportation system, it adds, is “generally creaking toward gridlock,” with delays and infrastructure problems at major hubs such as New York and Chicago creating “chokepoints.” Adding to the problem, experts said, is that while “10 miles of new runways may have been added at major airports since 2001,” in the past 40 years only Denver and Dallas have added entirely new airports. Some cities, however, “fear the St. Louis Syndrome: building a major new runway, and then finding that its largest airline, in this case TWA, is no more.”

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