A Delta Connection CRJ700 and Allegiant Air MD80 congregate at CIRA on May 16, 2012
It was obvious that AirTran Airways’ decision to end flights out of Central Illinois Regional Airport would reduce traffic. And it has: The Pantagraph reports that CIRA saw a 16.3 percent drop in passengers last year. CIRA handled a record 579,265 in 2011, but only 485,285 in 2012.
Yet the loss of AirTran Airways seems to have reduced seating capacity more than demand.
“What we need right now are replacement seats,” said Executive Director Carl Olson. “Our traffic isn’t down because there wasn’t enough of a market; it’s down because there aren’t enough seats to sell.”
One commenter to this article attempted to book through CIRA but due to no available seats, flew out of Peoria. Perhaps airlines have noticed. CIRA attempted to replace AirTran with two new carriers, Allegiant Air and Frontier Airlines. The former started twice-weekly nonstops to Sanford, Florida on May 16; the latter started quad-weekly nonstops to Denver on May 18 and tri-weekly nonstops to Orlando on May 25. Without them, there is no doubt that passenger traffic would have plummeted even further.
Frontier has upgraded to a larger aircraft on its Denver flights. On January 7, a 138-seat Airbus A319 replaced a 99-seat Embraer 190. The main reason for the upgrade was that most Embraers 190s were leaving Frontier’s Denver operation. But unlike a few other cities, CIRA generated sufficient traffic to retain service with the larger plane.
Another upgrade starts March 2-3 when one of three CIRA-Atlanta roundtrips will be operated by a 126-seat Airbus A319. The fact that Delta Air Lines itself will be flying out of CIRA is historically significant. AirTran Airways and Frontier Airlines both achieved Major Airline status ($1 billion in annual revenue), but Delta is a legacy carrier, with origins going back to 1924.
CIRA officials see opportunities in 2013.
Among the goals for 2013 is a focus on securing air service to Washington, D.C., or New York using a $500,000 federal grant, said Olson. The Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority also designated $200,000 in incentive cash last year for targeted marketing and promotions for new carriers.
CIRA is competing with Champaign-Urbana for similar service, and it’s unlikely both will get it. United Express to Newark (substituting for NYC) or Washington-Dulles is likely what Olson has in mind. Delta Connection to New York-LaGuardia is also a possibility, but this seems less likely. It is also doubtful Delta would want to cannibalize existing service to Detroit (or even Atlanta), which NYC flights would most certainly do.
- David P. Jordan
4 responses so far ↓
1 Erik // Jan 15, 2013 at 8:06 am
Is the 16.3% share a strong enough “demand” for airlines to be enticed to start service out of CIRA? I think you touched on it, but with each airport around the area it takes away from the bigger draw.
Also, I know it’s not the platform, but is a $500k federal grant for air service the best expenditure of tax dollars? Yes, it’s a drop in the bucket, but these multiplied throughout the country… Certainly transportation operates like any other business and will take any incentive that helps their business… but air really isn’t exactly “green” nor is it essential especially with bickering from both sides of the aisle on the debt/spending/tax issues at large.
Good post though David, I can assure you I don’t get this sort of info from our local news outlets.
2 David P. Jordan // Jan 15, 2013 at 8:37 am
Is the 16.3% share a strong enough “demand” for airlines to be enticed to start service out of CIRA? I think you touched on it, but with each airport around the area it takes away from the bigger draw.
Well…the 16.3% figure represents a decline is passengers. I think the issue for airlines is load factors. If the remaining 10-12 flights per day are full or nearly full and airlines are having to turn away passengers, then they have two options: (1) raise fares or (2) add capacity. So far, two airlines, Delta and Frontier, are doing the latter, which is good for CIRA.
Also, I know it’s not the platform, but is a $500k federal grant for air service the best expenditure of tax dollars? Yes, it’s a drop in the bucket, but these multiplied throughout the country… Certainly transportation operates like any other business and will take any incentive that helps their business… but air really isn’t exactly “green” nor is it essential especially with bickering from both sides of the aisle on the debt/spending/tax issues at large.
The Small Community Air Service Development (SCASD) grants are designed to offset startup costs as an incentive to airlines to add and expand service to small cities. In the end, they probably fail more than succeed. My definition of success is that service started through SCASD is profitable and the airline never collects the funds or when funds run out, service continued because it has become profitable without them. I’m unaware if a study has ever been done to determine the rate of failure or success of this program. If not, one should be done.
I’d prefer the SCASD program did not exist. Airport authorities are capable of enticing service expansion on their own. I think incentive programs should be local, not federal. Some airlines take the money, offer the bare minimum service required and then pick up and leave when the money runs out. But who cares, right? They were only using government money
An example of this was United Express’ ORD-SPI-IAD route begun April 24, 2007. It was doomed from the beginning because the ORD tag-on had numerous delays so SPI-IAD was delayed as well. The service ended in July 2008. At least UA restored a 5th SPI-ORD roundtrip to compensate for the loss.
I don’t think PIA or BMI have ever won service based on SCASD. Airlines have started service there based on merits (or incentives offered by the local airport). They seem to do pretty well that way.
3 Erik // Jan 16, 2013 at 9:42 am
Very good explanation.
Now thinking very whimsically, I wonder what would have been if PIA & BMI would have joined forces at some point a long time ago to meet in the middle and start a bigger hub in say, Morton.
Still being able to provide the quick access for CAT & State Farm, etc… but having a wide array of possibilities since they’d be drawing from a bigger region. On top of that, I could see rail heading in either direction and up to Chicago, over to Indy, or down to STL.
But that is my fairy tale. Growing up within a manageable 30 minute drive to O’Hare and having Metra leaving from our downtown may not be what others desire… I’m sure you have put a lot more thought into this issue than me from what I can tell.
4 David P. Jordan // Jan 16, 2013 at 11:53 am
Hi Erik,
The first suggestion of having a single facility to serve the BMI and PIA markets (and CMI, DEC and SPI included) didn’t come until 1987-1988 with the Central Illinois Regional Airport Study, which was done in response to post-deregulation loss of most jet service. By then it was too late as most commercial airports in central Illinois had spent several decades building, expanding and modernizing their facilities.
My fairy tale would have just three commercial airports serving central Illinois:
(1) Peoria/Bloomington International Airport, located along I-74 just east of Morton, serving about 550,000 people from combined metro areas.
Airline service would look something like this:
Allegiant Air
– 9 to 16 weekly nonstops to Las Vegas (3 to 4), Phoenix-Mesa (2 to 4), Punta Gorda (2 or 3) and St. Petersburg/Clearwater (2 to 4) plus Saturday-only winter season Cancun nonstops
American Airlines
– 2 daily nonstops to Dallas/Ft. Worth
American Eagle
– 6 daily nonstops to Chicago-O’Hare (5) and Dallas/Ft Worth (1)
Delta Air Lines
– 2 daily nonstops to Atlanta (2)
Delta Connection
– 9 daily nonstops to Atlanta (3), Detroit (4) and Minneapolis/St. Paul (2)
Southwest Airlines
– 4 daily nonstops to Baltimore (2), Denver (1) and Orlando (1)
United Express
– 7 daily nonstops to Chicago-O’Hare (5) and Denver (2)
(2) Springfield/Decatur Regional Airport, located along I-72 near Illiopolis, serving about 320,000 people from combined metro areas.
Allegiant Air
– 4-6 weekly nonstops to Las Vegas (2-3) and Punta Gorda (2-3)
American Eagle
– 3 daily nonstops to Dallas/Ft. Worth
Frontier Airlines
– 7 weekly nonstops to Denver (4) and Orlando (3)
United Express
– 4 daily nonstops to Chicago-O’Hare
(3) Champaign/Danville Regional Airport, located along I-74 between Fithian and Ogden, serving about 315,000 people from combined metro areas.
Allegiant Air
– 4-6 weekly nonstops to Las Vegas (2-3) and Punta Gorda (2-3)
American Eagle
– 7 daily nonstops to Chicago-O’Hare (6) and Dallas/Ft. Worth (1)
Delta Connection
– 3 daily nonstops to Atlanta
Frontier Airlines
– 6 weekly nonstops to Denver (3) and Orlando (3)
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