FSDan From United States of America, joined Jan 2011, 623 posts, RR: 2 Posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 1640 times:
Even as Louisiana's state capitol and second-largest city, Baton Rouge has no mainline service from any legacy carrier. The city is home to LSU and is the headquarters of several Fortune 1000 companies (namely Shaw Group (336), Albemarle (784), and Amedisys (999)). On top of this, the energy industry has quite a significant presence in the city.
So, why is there not even one mainline flight to IAH, DFW, or ATL? Is it worth it for BTR to have 8+ daily flights to all three of those hubs, but with only one daily flight having a premium cabin (a CR7 to ATL)?
SFO LAX ONT DEN IAH DFW OMA FSD MSP MSN MKE ORD DTW MEM JAN BHM RSW ATL CLT PHL LGA JFK KEF LHR LGW MAD
kgaiflyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2008, 3639 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 1582 times:
It may be that BTR is so close to DFW, IAH, and MEM that there is not even time to serve a premium cabin their drinks. And there are cities that wish they had BTR's frequency of service -- 8 flights to ATL, 8 to DFW, 8 to IAH, 3 to CLT, 2 to MEM -- and the opportunity to connect to virtually the rest of the world. All jets -- no turboprops.
In addition, V2 *just started* scheduled 737 service from BTR to 3 cities -- including LAS
There are probably cities that would kill for what you folks already have.
AVLAirlineFreq From United States of America, joined Jun 2008, 785 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days ago) and read 1522 times:
BTR's catchment area is also greatly limited by its close proximity to MSY.
goblin211 From United States of America, joined Jun 2010, 1209 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days ago) and read 1495 times:
Quoting AVLAirlineFreq (Reply 3): BTR's catchment area is also greatly limited by its close proximity to MSY.
I was just thinking that but I'm not familiar with Louisiana geography so I wasn't sure. Also, could it be that BTR doesn't have enough gates to hold as many planes as MSY or the other nearby airports?
rfields5421 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 6140 posts, RR: 25 Reply 5, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 1406 times:
BTR has always in my memory (since about 1967) lost 'traffic' to better connection possibilities at MSY being so close. Hwy 61 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans was called Airline Highway precisely because it was considered the first part of any aircraft journey from Baton Rouge.
The opening of I-10 and limited acess speeds from Baton Rouge to MSY pretty much closed the door of BTR every becoming a significant airport.
Even today as MSY slowly loses traffic capacity, BTR is not a candidate for additional service.
The OP mentioned several folks as possible sources of traffic.
Universites / colleges are very poor generators of regular traffic most of the time.
The industries mentioned are not heavy flight travel users.
But the real reason for no large aircraft is frequency.
Passengers prefer 8+ daily options to what would be one only flight per day to those hub airports.
united319 From United States of America, joined Jul 2006, 513 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 1377 times:
Quoting kgaiflyer (Reply 1): It may be that BTR is so close to DFW, IAH, and MEM that there is not even time to serve a premium cabin their drinks.
BTR is relatively the same length of flight as MSY-ATL, MSY-DFW, MSY-IAH, MSY-MEM all with larger widebody service. If CO can do a complete beverage service on IAH-MSY on a 753, a DL MD-88, CO 737-524, or AA MD-82 can easily complete an F and Y beverage service.
Quoting goblin211 (Reply 4): I was just thinking that but I'm not familiar with Louisiana geography so I wasn't sure. Also, could it be that BTR doesn't have enough gates to hold as many planes as MSY or the other nearby airports?
About 30-45 minutes drive with MSY being on the extreme west end of the New Orleans metroplex.
FSDan From United States of America, joined Jan 2011, 623 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 1344 times:
Quoting kgaiflyer (Reply 1): There are probably cities that would kill for what you folks already have.
Oh, I'm not from there. It just sticks out to me as one of the only markets its size that has no mainline service.
Quoting Drerx7 (Reply 2): CO has had 735s on IAH-BTR in the past. Usually it would operate the last flight into BTR and the first flight over to IAH.
That makes a lot of sense to me. I'm surprised they don't still do that, as BTR seems like a logical place to have a 737 RON.
Quoting rfields5421 (Reply 5): BTR has always in my memory (since about 1967) lost 'traffic' to better connection possibilities at MSY being so close. Hwy 61 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans was called Airline Highway precisely because it was considered the first part of any aircraft journey from Baton Rouge.
OK, that makes a lot of sense. Same reason places like TOL and LNK have disproportionately small airports.
And I guess now that I think about it, I'm not at all surprised that BTR-DFW doesn't have mainline. The smallest mainline jet AA operates out of DFW is the M82/M83, which I'm sure would be far too much plane for this market. However, I could see UA/CO sending a 735/73G/319 to BTR as an RON in the future, or DL with a D95 (while they last) or 319 from ATL.
SFO LAX ONT DEN IAH DFW OMA FSD MSP MSN MKE ORD DTW MEM JAN BHM RSW ATL CLT PHL LGA JFK KEF LHR LGW MAD
RamblinMan From United States of America, joined Oct 2010, 1080 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 1111 times:
Quoting FSDan (Thread starter): Even as Louisiana's state capitol and second-largest city, Baton Rouge
Second-largest city in Illinois, Aurora, doesn't even have an airport. The capital, Springfield, has way less service than BTR. Pretty useless metric for determining what level of service an airport ought to have, wouldn't you say?
rfields5421 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 6140 posts, RR: 25 Reply 9, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 1030 times:
I would compare the BTR / MSY situation to Santa Fe and ABQ
The State capital not having major air service is not unusual in the United States. A little over 40% of the States have less than 'first level' service to the state capital.
Delaware - No commercial air service
Florida - Only one mainline - DAL to ATL
llinois -
Kansas - No commercial air service
Kentucky - No commercial air service
Louisiana
Maine - No commercial air service
Maryland - No commercial air service
Michigan
Missouri - No commercial air service
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada - No commercial air service
New Hampshire - No commercial air service
New Jersey - No commercial air service
New Mexico
North Dakota - One mailine to MSP (How long will it last?)
Oregon - No commercial air service
South Carolina - Seasonal mainline only
South Dakota
Vermont - No commercial air service
Washington - No commercial air service
Wyoming
True many of these state capitals are located closer to a major airport than BTR is to MSY, but not by much.
kgaiflyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2008, 3639 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 932 times:
Brick From United States of America, joined Aug 1999, 1571 posts, RR: 8 Reply 11, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 883 times:
No one has mentioned fares out of BTR compared to MSY. I had to travel to Baton Rouge at least twice a year for business, sometimes up to 6 times a year. Every time I needed to go to Baton Rouge, a check of airfares revealed BTR was much, much higher than MSY. Rental cars were also much cheaper at MSY than at BTR. So for me, economics dictated that every trip I made to Baton Rouge involved arriving at MSY and making the short drive on I-10.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Jan 2011, 623 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
