Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

This article: http://www.airportbusiness.com....jsp?siteSection=4&id=2986 discusses the decline in Dayton airport traffic, but concludes that it is mostly due to Delta drawing pax back to Cincy. That theory is based on the idea that DL has made their CVG fares more competitive, keeping more of the CVG-area pax from defecting to DAY.

But I wonder if there aren't some pax deciding to come to IND, leading to the decline at DAY. Here's why: I looked at the top 10 destinations from DAY: Atlanta, New York, Orlando, Chicago, Dallas, Baltimore, LA, Boston, Vegas, and Denver - and I compared fares from DAY, CVG, and IND. I looked for the cheapest roundtrips during the month of October.

ATL: from DAY, $158; from CVG, $150; from IND, $148
LGA/JFK/EWR: from DAY, $172; from CVG, $178; from IND, $188
MCO: from DAY, $186; from CVG, $202; from IND, $166
ORD/MDW: from DAY, $130; from CVG, $130; from IND, $98
DFW: from DAY, $218; from CVG, $212; from IND, $208
BWI: from DAY, $98; from CVG, $158; from IND, $174
LAX: from DAY, $219; from CVG, $310; from IND, $199
BOS: from DAY, $188; from CVG, $198; from IND, $188
LAS: from DAY, $243; from CVG, $296; from IND, $226
DEN: from DAY, $218; from CVG, $242; from IND, $178

As you can see, for 8 of Dayton's top 10 destinations, IND was cheaper - the exceptions being New York and Baltimore. And to Boston, DAY and IND were tied. Cincy was cheaper than Dayton only to Atlanta and Dallas, both of which are DL hubs (even though they're de-hubbing Dallas).

So I really wonder about the article's conclusions re: the CVG-DAY relationship. I think DAY-IND and CVG-IND comparisons suggest that IND is drawing lots of its increased passenger traffic from southwestern Ohio. When you're taking the family on vacation, a $20 difference in ticket prices can add up to $80 to $100 or more very quickly, and it can make the drive to IND look quite attractive.

FWIW, I think we get a lot of pax from the Louisville area, too. I counted five cars with Kentucky plates (3 Jefferson County and 2 Hardin County) on Thursday morning, just on my walk from the surface parking lot into the terminal.

I wish there were some cool resource on the web that could do an analysis of airport o&d traffic by passenger ZIP code.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Good post. I think you are absolutely right. IND has such a large variety of destinations and the prices are good.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

i think the rising price of gas will also be playing a big influence where people fly to and from. for an individual, the difference between the two airports might be minute. for a family, the difference could add up quickly and make quite a difference.


oh, and for what it's worth, those airfares are less expensive than it is to fly from St. Louis. you guys are lucky.