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2009-09-13 BACK
Far above the clouds she'll fly . . .
Far above the clouds she'll fly . . . From "Early Morning Rain," written by Gordon Lightfoot This article originally appeared in the Texarkana Gazette on September 13, 2009 Dr. Larry Davis, Professor of Economics & Management, Texas A&M-Texarkana College of Business Earlier this year, through tracking of my American Airlines (AA) frequent flyer account, I received congratulations on the occasion of my having accumulated a million miles of flying with their airline. Of course, reaching that plateau took twenty years as documented by my AA frequent flyer card that was issues on February 19, 1989. As a Texarkana area resident, I try to be a loyal customer to local businesses and that loyalty influences me to fly only American Eagle into and out of Texarkana. American Eagle is the commuter airline that transports passengers to and from Texarkana and other small market fliers to AA hub airports such as DFW. To those of you not familiar with this region, I was being a bit facetious in that American Eagle is the only airline that provides service to the Texarkana Regional Airport. There are several components that help to make a regional economy strong and progressive. An example that may be easily noticed in Texarkana is the highway infrastructural changes that are presently taking place. Another important element might be the accessibility to an abundant supply of commercial water. A factor that is almost always on the list of important components to a region is the presence of a viable airport to serve both its business and pleasure travelers. The broad base of companies and organizations in the Texarkana region need accessibility to timely and cost effective air-travel for its employees and other stakeholders. I would assume that to be a factor when a company is considering establishing operations in places such as Texarkana. Texarkana flyer loyalties are sometimes challenged by the available AA/American Eagle airfares from Texarkana and they become persuaded to fly from an alternative airport such as in Shreveport, LA (SHV) or the Longview/Kilgore/Gregg County airport (GGG). To illustrate my point, I went to the AA web site and priced round-trip flights to three arbitrarily selected locations (Albuquerque, San Diego, and Cedar Rapids, IA) on the selected departure date of August 18 with a return flight on the afternoon of August 20. Selected departures were morning flights and the returns were afternoon flights. To fly a round trip to and from Albuquerque on those dates, the fare from TXK was published as $562, from SHV, $540, and from GGG, $218. The listed fares to and from San Diego departing from TXK were $723, from SHV, $618, and from GGG, $318. Fares to and from Cedar Rapids, IA from TXK was published as $858, from SHV, $594, and from GGG, $556. These are provided as examples but further research reflected an extension of the sample airfare pattern. If you get the picture, the fares from TXK were invariably the highest of the three sampled airports. In the case of a flight to San Diego, the Texarkana departure fare was listed at 227 % of the fare when departing from Gregg County. For the trip to Albuquerque, the departing fare from Texarkana was 257 % of the fare from Gregg County. I see articles from time-to-time in the Texarkana Gazette reporting matters of the Texarkana Regional Airport including the monthly level of boarding for flights. When there have been published reports of reduced passenger boarding, the reasons have included the softening area economy. While there have been pockets of diminished activity in the economy, the Texarkana region has performed relatively well when compared to other areas of the country. A point of this article is the gouging element of the airfare pricing structure that AA makes available to passengers departing from Texarkana. It could be argued that this is a result of no direct competition to the single air carrier that serves Texarkana but that conclusion might be flawed when considering that American Eagle is, likewise, the only carrier that serves GGG where airfares are generally lower than Texarkana fares. The question remains as to why airfares for departures from Texarkana are abnormally and consistently high. In the same arena, when attempting to fly home from eastern U. S. locations such as Washington, DC, New York City, Boston, or Philadelphia that are located in a one-hour later time zone, it is often difficult or impossible to make the connection to the last daily flight from DFW to Texarkana, currently scheduled to depart at 8:10 pm. The alternative latest daily flight from DFW to Shreveport has a scheduled departure at 9:20 that is considerably easier to connect with. That consideration also sometimes influences Texarkana flyers to use the Shreveport airport. So, if there becomes an occasion to address the fare differentials with the carrier, a later DFW flight departure, say at 9:00 pm, that would be more accommodating to flyers trying to get into Texarkana at night might be a worthy agenda item. I know that a rebuttal would be the number of hours of downtime the overnight flight crew is required to have. A later night flight from DFW to TXK would require a later next morning departure flight. So, which should it be: keep the schedule as it is or reschedule a later incoming evening flight that would result in a later departing next morning flight? A survey of Texarkana flyers might be beneficial to determine a preference. With changes to the fare structure and the flight schedule, my bet is that the Texarkana Regional Airport boarding numbers would show an increase.
TOP
Far above the clouds she'll fly . . .
Far above the clouds she'll fly . . . From "Early Morning Rain," written by Gordon Lightfoot This article originally appeared in the Texarkana Gazette on September 13, 2009 Dr. Larry Davis, Professor of Economics & Management, Texas A&M-Texarkana College of Business Earlier this year, through tracking of my American Airlines (AA) frequent flyer account, I received congratulations on the occasion of my having accumulated a million miles of flying with their airline. Of course, reaching that plateau took twenty years as documented by my AA frequent flyer card that was issues on February 19, 1989. As a Texarkana area resident, I try to be a loyal customer to local businesses and that loyalty influences me to fly only American Eagle into and out of Texarkana. American Eagle is the commuter airline that transports passengers to and from Texarkana and other small market fliers to AA hub airports such as DFW. To those of you not familiar with this region, I was being a bit facetious in that American Eagle is the only airline that provides service to the Texarkana Regional Airport. There are several components that help to make a regional economy strong and progressive. An example that may be easily noticed in Texarkana is the highway infrastructural changes that are presently taking place. Another important element might be the accessibility to an abundant supply of commercial water. A factor that is almost always on the list of important components to a region is the presence of a viable airport to serve both its business and pleasure travelers. The broad base of companies and organizations in the Texarkana region need accessibility to timely and cost effective air-travel for its employees and other stakeholders. I would assume that to be a factor when a company is considering establishing operations in places such as Texarkana. Texarkana flyer loyalties are sometimes challenged by the available AA/American Eagle airfares from Texarkana and they become persuaded to fly from an alternative airport such as in Shreveport, LA (SHV) or the Longview/Kilgore/Gregg County airport (GGG). To illustrate my point, I went to the AA web site and priced round-trip flights to three arbitrarily selected locations (Albuquerque, San Diego, and Cedar Rapids, IA) on the selected departure date of August 18 with a return flight on the afternoon of August 20. Selected departures were morning flights and the returns were afternoon flights. To fly a round trip to and from Albuquerque on those dates, the fare from TXK was published as $562, from SHV, $540, and from GGG, $218. The listed fares to and from San Diego departing from TXK were $723, from SHV, $618, and from GGG, $318. Fares to and from Cedar Rapids, IA from TXK was published as $858, from SHV, $594, and from GGG, $556. These are provided as examples but further research reflected an extension of the sample airfare pattern. If you get the picture, the fares from TXK were invariably the highest of the three sampled airports. In the case of a flight to San Diego, the Texarkana departure fare was listed at 227 % of the fare when departing from Gregg County. For the trip to Albuquerque, the departing fare from Texarkana was 257 % of the fare from Gregg County. I see articles from time-to-time in the Texarkana Gazette reporting matters of the Texarkana Regional Airport including the monthly level of boarding for flights. When there have been published reports of reduced passenger boarding, the reasons have included the softening area economy. While there have been pockets of diminished activity in the economy, the Texarkana region has performed relatively well when compared to other areas of the country. A point of this article is the gouging element of the airfare pricing structure that AA makes available to passengers departing from Texarkana. It could be argued that this is a result of no direct competition to the single air carrier that serves Texarkana but that conclusion might be flawed when considering that American Eagle is, likewise, the only carrier that serves GGG where airfares are generally lower than Texarkana fares. The question remains as to why airfares for departures from Texarkana are abnormally and consistently high. In the same arena, when attempting to fly home from eastern U. S. locations such as Washington, DC, New York City, Boston, or Philadelphia that are located in a one-hour later time zone, it is often difficult or impossible to make the connection to the last daily flight from DFW to Texarkana, currently scheduled to depart at 8:10 pm. The alternative latest daily flight from DFW to Shreveport has a scheduled departure at 9:20 that is considerably easier to connect with. That consideration also sometimes influences Texarkana flyers to use the Shreveport airport. So, if there becomes an occasion to address the fare differentials with the carrier, a later DFW flight departure, say at 9:00 pm, that would be more accommodating to flyers trying to get into Texarkana at night might be a worthy agenda item. I know that a rebuttal would be the number of hours of downtime the overnight flight crew is required to have. A later night flight from DFW to TXK would require a later next morning departure flight. So, which should it be: keep the schedule as it is or reschedule a later incoming evening flight that would result in a later departing next morning flight? A survey of Texarkana flyers might be beneficial to determine a preference. With changes to the fare structure and the flight schedule, my bet is that the Texarkana Regional Airport boarding numbers would show an increase.
TOP