Mayor From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 9160 posts, RR: 14 Posted (4 years 10 months 4 weeks ago) and read 1393 times:
A couple of reports have been in the news, locally for the past couple of days, causing a mild panic among travellers as well as the usual media frenzy:
PanAm747 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 4242 posts, RR: 10 Reply 1, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1355 times:
FSM is already hanging by a thread.
While AA (Eagle) is the predominate carrier, there is also NW Express to MEM and recently-added DL Express to ATL. However, when the DL/NW merger goes through, the MEM hub could be closed, leaving FSM with just two destinations.
I doubt Eagle would pull out of DFW entirely, but the ATL flight could also be lost. Such a shame for this beautiful airport!! At least there are choices such as XNA (which will keep at least some of its airline service) at 83 driving miles away, TUL at 132, and LIT at 164.
Sadly, it wouldn't surprise me to see one day airports such as FSM and Bakersfield BFL killed by proximity to more "popular" airports that are within a roughly two-hour drive.
Pan Am:The World's Most Experienced Airline - P(oor) S(ailor's) A(irline): San Diego's Hometown Airline-Catch Our Smile!
Mayor From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 9160 posts, RR: 14 Reply 2, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1347 times:
Well, checking the DL flights to ATL, they look to be at least a 60% load factor. DL had service into FSM, previously but when XNA was opened and Drake Field closed in Fayettville, ASA consolidated all their ops at XNA and pulled out of FSM. XNA is not the easiest airport to get to and if you live in the FSM area, it takes almost as long to get to as it does to TUL. Because I fly non-rev on DL and usually have to go to SLC, my only choice is TUL. It's almost exactly a 2 hour drive from FSM. I was actually shocked when DL resumed service at FSM. I think it's doing well enough to keep the service and I think they would do well to have service to SLC, too but I don't think it will happen in the near future as they've recently dropped XNA-SLC service.
BTW, FSM is the second largest city in Arkansas, behind LIT but we always seem to come up short compared to Northwest Arkansas.....(Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale, etc.)
[Edited 2008-06-26 08:55:45]
"A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary"----Fred Allen
RL757PVD From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 4537 posts, RR: 13 Reply 3, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1335 times:
Im going to the Jonesboro Airport to meet with the airport folks for some non-air service items, but im going to try to find out whats going on there. If they add the planned JBR-STL flights before the next meeting i might try to fly into there rather than MEM next time.
Experience is what you get when what you thought would work out didn't!
EXAAUADL From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1313 times:
This is that business coalition pressing the panic button again. I can see XNA losing LAX and even LGA service. DFW being thinned out some and losing STL. On the outside chance I could see CLT-XNA being canned.
FSM probably wont lose service until after the DL/NW merger. If DL keeps MEM, then FSM would likely lose ATL.
Mayor From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 9160 posts, RR: 14 Reply 5, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 1306 times:
I think AA has already announced losing one LGA flight from XNA.
"A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary"----Fred Allen
PanAm747 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 4242 posts, RR: 10 Reply 6, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 21 hours ago) and read 1248 times:
Quote: FSM is the second largest city in Arkansas, behind LIT but we always seem to come up short compared to Northwest Arkansas.....(Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale, etc.)
According to this, Little Rock is the 78th largest metro area (666,401), Northwest Arkansas is the 110th (435,714), and Fort Smith is 158th (289,693).
Knowing the growth of Northwest Arkansas - and the businesses like Wal-Mart & Tyson headquartered there - I'm not surprised that they have more, but like everyone else in the U.S., they are vulnerable to cutbacks in service.
Pan Am:The World's Most Experienced Airline - P(oor) S(ailor's) A(irline): San Diego's Hometown Airline-Catch Our Smile!
MOBflyer From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 1209 posts, RR: 5 Reply 7, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 1206 times:
Quoting PanAm747 (Reply 6):
According to this, Little Rock is the 78th largest metro area (666,401), Northwest Arkansas is the 110th (435,714), and Fort Smith is 158th (289,693).
Quoting Mayor (Reply 2): BTW, FSM is the second largest city in Arkansas, behind LIT but we always seem to come up short compared to Northwest Arkansas.....(Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale, etc.)
You are both correct. PanAm is referring to MSA population, and Mayor is referring to city proper population.
Mayor From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 9160 posts, RR: 14 Reply 8, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 1112 times:
Quoting MOBflyer (Reply 7): You are both correct. PanAm is referring to MSA population, and Mayor is referring to city proper population.
Exactly. None of those cities I mentioned is near as large as FSM and yet the total population in that area is larger than the metro area for Fort Smith. I think what is dissapointed, here, is that FSM always seems to be the underdog and actually, don't really try to improve their situation. At least that's my observation since I moved here in 2005.
"A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary"----Fred Allen
AVLAirlineFreq From United States of America, joined Jun 2008, 785 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1058 times:
It seems hard to believe now that FSM had mainline Branniff service up until deregulation, doesn't it?
Aggieflyboi04 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 207 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 1022 times:
Quoting EXAAUADL (Reply 4): On the outside chance I could see CLT-XNA being canned.
Doubtful. Everytime I work out to XNA the flight is 95% to 100% full. It could maybe drop to 2flights a day, but I doubt that It will be done away with.
Slider From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 6518 posts, RR: 37 Reply 11, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 1009 times:
FSM is toast.
XNA would be or darn near it if not for Wally World.
Mayor From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 9160 posts, RR: 14 Reply 13, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 1001 times:
Slider From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 6518 posts, RR: 37 Reply 14, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 970 times:
Market size, economics of 50 seat RJs, high fuel, what else do you need?
Unless the yields are supreme, which I'm assuming they're not, FSM is precisely the kind of market that sadly will be seeing air service diminished. Plus, geographically, it's close enough to XNA which has enough scheduled air service (that will remain due to the corporate interests).
This is exactly the kind of market that needs to be culled down in the new climate. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but that's life now.
Mayor From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 9160 posts, RR: 14 Reply 15, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 937 times:
Quoting Slider (Reply 14): Market size, economics of 50 seat RJs, high fuel, what else do you need?
Unless the yields are supreme, which I'm assuming they're not, FSM is precisely the kind of market that sadly will be seeing air service diminished. Plus, geographically, it's close enough to XNA which has enough scheduled air service (that will remain due to the corporate interests).
This is exactly the kind of market that needs to be culled down in the new climate. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but that's life now.
It could happen, but I submit this.......first, realize I'm speaking of DL as I don't have the figures for AA or NW out of FSM. The economics are the same for XNA as FSM....same a/c, same fuel and I would imagine, very close to the same load factors. If DL were to pull out, those people wouldn't suddenly start driving up to XNA just to catch a DL flight, no matter the loyalty. They're going to go out of their closest airport by switching carriers..i.e. AA or NW. That's just a matter of convenience. It's actually easier to drive to TUL than it is XNA, in my experience.
Since DL started operating out of FSM last June, the load factors have been, on the average, 70%+. Now, with a pending DL/NW merger, this could all just be conjecture OR DL could maintain flights to both MEM and ATL.
Time will tell.
"A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary"----Fred Allen
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