Ishrion wrote:
Read again:
"The second objective of our Air Service Development plan is to recruit a legacy network carrier to provide service to one or more hubs"
"Because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business travel and our need to drive change to behaviors to support a new entrant carrier at LAF, we believe ultra-low-cost-service is the right
first step on this long-term journey."
G4 to Florida will be popular, college students could even theoretically walk to the airport. Nice to finally put numbers to how much demand there is from LAF
DiamondFlyer wrote:Midwestindy wrote:Tan Flyr wrote:The interesting stats to see would be the general traffic flows of folks from the Lafayette area Zip codes when they do fly out of IND or ORD/ MDW.Then the actual counts of those flows..naturally somebody, probably even Mitch, has access to those. The question is how much (percentage) of the "leakage" can you convert to using LAF.
Deals on parking, etc, help a bit. but the fares have to be in line with IND/ORD, and a solid case for organic growth of the market. Simply shifting x pax per day from IND or CHI area airports to LAF does little, if anything to the bottom lines of carriers.
I don’t necessarily agree on the fare element here.
The fares don’t need to be in line with ORD or IND, to an extent. A premium would most certainly be charged for passengers flying in/out of LAF, but that premium in air fare would be at least somewhat offset by savings in gas, parking, and drive time.
Not to mention AA or UA wouldnt necessarily only be shifting pax from IND to LAF, but also capturing new passengers who may have chosen DL, WN, G4, etc and converting them to AA or UA given it is much more convenient for them now.
DiamondFlyer wrote:
I think you all are forgetting the biggest issue. 50 seat jets are done, they'll be gone in 5-8 years for the most part. I just don't see LAF getting any kind of service, heck, the state will be lucky if SBN/EVV/FWA get back to the flying they had pre-covid.
Not sure why SBN, EVV, or FWA matter here. LAF is the fastest growing metro in the state of Indiana, and service at those airports don’t impact LAF at all.
Growth or not, LAF will not get airline service.
"The University is currently in final contract negotiations to retain the services of a firm to assist in planning efforts for this passenger terminal. Additionally, the University has had discussions with Allegiant about the potential new facility, and Allegiant has agreed to participate in an advisory role on the planning and design of the new facility. We currently expect the terminal to be completed in the first half of 2022."
"Since Allegiant’s initial receptiveness to the University’s business case for scheduled service, there have been multiple meetings between the University, PRF, the IEDC, and the local community to discuss this air service development project"
Not a guarantee, but LAF is in good shape for air service in the near future.