In a press release today, Airtran asked its customers to voice their input on where they’d like to see the airline fly next. The list of possible cities includes:
- Albany, N.Y.
- Albuquerque, N.M.
- Allentown, Pa.
- Austin, Texas
- Baton Rouge, La.
- Boise, Idaho
- Burlington, VT
- Charleston, S.C.
- Charleston, W.Va.
- Chattanooga, Tenn.
- Chicago (O’Hare), Ill.
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Fort Wayne, Ind.
- Grand Rapids, Mich.
- Harrisburg, Pa.
- Hartford, Conn.
- Jackson, Miss.
- Knoxville, Tenn.
- Lexington, Ky.
- Little Rock, Ark.
- Louisville, Ky.
- Manchester, N.H.
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Northwest Arkansas, Ark.
- Oakland, Calif.
- Oklahoma City, Okla.
- Omaha, Neb.
- Phoenix, Ariz.
- Portland, Maine
- Portland, Ore.
- Providence, R.I.
- Reno, Nev.
- Roanoke, Va.
- Sacramento, Calif.
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- San Antonio, Texas
- San Diego, Calif.
- San Jose, Calif.
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Shreveport, La.
- Spokane, Wash.
- St. Louis, Mo.
- Syracuse, N.Y.
- Tri-Cities, Tenn.
- Tucson, Ariz.
- Tulsa, Oka.
- Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa.
- Wilmington, N.C.
Now, let’s divide this list up, keeping in mind a few things. Airtran’s base is in the South, in Atlanta. It has a large coverage area in both the South and the Northeast. It has only five destinations in the western US: Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Keeping with that, service to those places would likely be hub flights to Atlanta and limited.
Using that to disqualify destinations for the time being, that eliminates Albuquerque, Boise, Oakland, Phoenix, Portland OR, Sacramento, Tucson, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Jose, Spokane, and Tucson. The best destination would allow them to offer service from their focus cities in addition to their hub.
Airtran already has a good presence at Chicago-Midway, so Chicago-O’Hare should be lower on their list, as it is very hard to get space there to grow.
Allentown and Harrisburg, PA are suffering from a lack of service. Several airlines have tried to bring leisure service to this region, including Lehigh Valley Air and Hooters Air. From these locations they could offer Florida service, Atlanta, as well as service to New York, Boston, and Chicago Midway. Wilkes Barre/Scranton also has a complete lack of mainline service and the region could certainly sustain low fares.
Albany, Hartford, Manchester, and Providence all have popular Southwest service, and Southwest’s coverage is good, although Airtran could find a niche if it wanted to. Conversely, despite Jetblue’s presence in Burlington, Portland ME, and Syracuse, Airtran could do well inaugurating service from there to Midway and points south, where coverages is lacking. It could even give Jetblue a run for its money in its new daily Syracuse service to Florida.
Knoxville, Charleston WV, and Charleston SC suffered from the loss of Independence Air. The legacy carriers raised their fares after they beat out the short-lived low fare carrier. Chattanooga is only two hours from Atlanta, and we think it would also be a good option for Airtran, as people from the airport drive the distance to Atlanta already and they could capture that traffic from Delta, as well as enhance their own offerings in the region.
Entering Salt Lake City would be something of a mistake. After all, Airtran built its business at Delta’s hub in Atlanta. Taking on Delta’s hub in Salt Lake, especially on that interhub traffic, would be risky. Conversely, Delta has scaled down its service in Cincinnati. The airport currently has the highest fares in the country, sending many to Airtran at Dayton Airport. It might be able to drive prices down, if nothing else. Delta has switched many of its regional flight services from Cincinatti to Atlanta and without regional flights to connect, Airtran might be able to cement itself into a niche in the traffic there.
Cities like Des Moines, Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Northwest Arkansas(Fayetteville), and Omaha have recently proved they can sustain some service beyond regional hub flights. Airtran’s fare system could drive development to these cities and increase their service.
All this analysis said, the top city we’d like to see Airtran try is Cincinatti, because it sorely needs low-fare service. After that, we’d liek to see them increase traffic from lesser served cities where people are currently forced to drive 2-5 hours to save on fares. We think this model, when sustainable, is best for the public good and it means less competition from legacy carriers. Price wars are good for a while, but if the legacy carrier wins, it will ultimately drive prices back up, as places like Knoxville prove.
Visit Airtran’s website here to vote…