Originally Posted by TwinAisle
There is actually hard evidence that a very surprising number of people don't look at total trip cost - instead, they will happily travel forty or fifty miles to an airport to save a fiver on the fare, rather than use the airport on their doorstep. No, I don't understand human nature sometimes either, but it is a fact.
Yellow Sun - not a cynical view, but one that is borne out by experience. "Do you think your local airport needs routes?" - Yes. "Would you use them?" - Yes, of course. "Would you pay a premium for the local experience?" - Yes.
Guess what? They generally then don't.
The LoCos have distorted the market to such an extent that a great proportion of the "tourist" markety has come to believe that price is the only criterion worth considering. Unfortunately, the legacy airlines rested on their laurels and perpetuated an air of exclusivity around air travel until the LoCos had already done the damage.
Even now, there are really only two big users of air transport - look at your typical survey: what does it ask? "Buisness" or "Leisure". Both of those are very price sensitive - which means the carriers and the airports they fly from are always, always at the mercy of the economic climate and marketing.
What's missing - and the key to the survival of these marginal airports - is an in-depth re-education of the public. Stop trying to play catch-up and create a parallel reality where air transport is just "normal" not something exotic or exclusive.
Scrapping the subidies for rail travel would help equalise the price equation, but more importantly, there needs to be an integrated approach involving the community, the airport and the airline(s) so that everyone feels their getting a fair deal.
It
is possible to change the attitude of a whole new generation of travellers and prepare them to look for
value rather than price, and the longer this economic downturn continues, the better the chances of "distorting" the market back again!
At least I hope so, otherwise I've wasted the last eighteen months. Anyone with significant connections to any marginal airport with ambition and imagination, feel free to PM me for more information.