93Sierra From United States of America, joined Apr 2010, 261 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 years 1 month 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 2234 times:
According to the article (link below) IFP is searching for scheduled air service. Currently G4 and SX fly there both on charters and wikipedia even states that SX uses IFP as a "hub", however I do not see how that holds much truth. Who do you see them courting and/or who could actually make it work. Could anyone fill up an RJ or T-prop and go to either PHX, LAX, SLC etc...
On a side note, does anyone know how full those charters are when they come in? I have observed on Flightaware times where there have been 1 or 2 G4 Md-80's and 2 SX 737-800's there and that seems very crowded for their ramp.
apodino From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 3640 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (3 years 1 month 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 2135 times:
The only real purpose it would serve would be tourists looking for a cheaper alternative to LAS, as you can get hotel rooms in Laughlin for 16 bucks a night, but even so its only a 2 hour drive to LAS from there. IFP does have a 7,000 foot runway, but logically for air service from any of the majors, the most I could see justified would be maybe OO CRJ's to either SLC or LAX, and possibly YV to PHX.
United Express did operate LAX-IFP years ago, but I don't remember who operated it or for how long. I think it was before OO started flying for UA though. US has also run service to PHX in the past on Air Midwest beech 1900's. However like I said, IFP's biggest detriment is its proximity to LAS.
wedgetail737 From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 5527 posts, RR: 5 Reply 2, posted (3 years 1 month 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 1864 times:
I would love to see an airline do what Morris Air did in the early 1990's with 733 service between the West Coast (mainly OAK and SJC) to IFP on a seasonal basis. But who???
I would be lying if I didn't want AS/QX to fly there from the west coast to IFP...perhaps mainline from SEA, SJC, SFO and QX Q400's from LAX or SAN. I don't think it's too likely.
LAXintl From United States of America, joined May 2000, 22030 posts, RR: 51 Reply 3, posted (3 years 1 month 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 1842 times:
IFP has been itching to use $1mil in matching grants since last year and has been seeking a LAX flight without any viable takers IFP Searches For LAX Air Link (by LAXintl Jul 9 2009 in Civil Aviation)
My personal view is that while there certainly is demand betweenIFP-SoCal, it competes against a relatively easy drive, and also any traffic would peak for the weekend and make for dead weekday service.
[Edited 2010-04-18 09:11:12]
From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California
FX1816 From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 1400 posts, RR: 5 Reply 4, posted (3 years 1 month 4 days 16 hours ago) and read 1814 times:
Quoting LAXintl (Reply 3): My personal view is that while there certainly is demand betweenIFP-SoCal, it competes against a relatively easy drive, and also any traffic would peak for the weekend and make for dead weekday service.
Yeah exactly, it's just too convenient to travel there by driving for those of us in SoCal. Besides alot of people pull boats, wave runners, jeeps, etc. and they wouldn't find it useful to fly there. It's only about an 80-90 minute drive on highway 95 to get up to LAS so what would really be the point anyways? Don't get me wrong though, I'd love it since we leave all our gear at the in-laws house so it makes our travel there much lighter.
93sierra From United States of America, joined Apr 2010, 261 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (3 years 1 month 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 1753 times:
I agree that its an easy drive from socal and az, however is there any demand from the east coast? If Morris and Reno could do it back in the early 90's, why not a 2x weekly service to a hub?
point2point From United States of America, joined Mar 2010, 1961 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (3 years 1 month 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 1740 times:
They need to concentrate on getting service to some hubs to be successful. SLC, PHX, DEN, SFO might make for some decent traffic with the smaller jets, and convenient connections.
93Sierra From United States of America, joined Apr 2010, 261 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (3 years 1 month 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1442 times:
Skywest or Horizon to LAX could work if they really need that SoCal link, or Skywest to SLC or Mesa to PHX and take advantage of East to West visitors...
mark8762 From United States of America, joined Nov 2004, 127 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (3 years 1 month 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 1278 times:
The charters are operated for Harrah's. They have an arrivals and departures board at the bell desk, and I dont recall MSP being listed. The SX flights are to/from DFW and you can see the crews checking in to Harrah's after the arrivals, which to me means either the aicraft RONs or the crew from the day before takes the retrun trip. I have heard that G4 has a crew base at IFP. When I was working for US at LAS, we assisted SX in getting customers to DFW when they had an airplane stuck on maintenance in IFP. They sent them by bus to LAS to take the mid-day LAS-DFW non-stop.
NIKV69 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (3 years 1 month 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 1248 times:
Quoting 93Sierra (Thread starter): On a side note, does anyone know how full those charters are when they come in? I have observed on Flightaware times where there have been 1 or 2 G4 Md-80's and 2 SX 737-800's there and that seems very crowded for their ramp.
G4 and SY are always full but Canadian North has had trouble filling their planes last couple of seasons.
Quoting apodino (Reply 1): but even so its only a 2 hour drive to LAS from there
Much less now since they widened the highway. I make it in an hour and it's really not much longer if you drive slower than I do.
Quoting LAXintl (Reply 3): My personal view is that while there certainly is demand betweenIFP-SoCal, it competes against a relatively easy drive, and also any traffic would peak for the weekend and make for dead weekday service.
Quoting LAXintl (Reply 7): However seemingly the folks at IFP feel a link to Southern California is key for their long term needs.
Actually I think they feel it's a start but would like to get much more down the road since there is a lot in the long term plans.
IFP has too much working against it now to attract any big players. For starters they are seasonal, the current economy sucks and anyone looking for a vacation is going to go the charter route because they get a much better value for their money. Not to mention there is no ILS and no radar system.
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