Originally Posted by
LarkSFO
You can (I believe) fault state and local governments in this as well - building some of these secondary airports well beyond any reasonable scale. All on the promise of an airline, airlines which are capitalist entities and have proven that their word is worth, basically, nothing.
As a US taxpayer, I would also like to see the subsidization issue revisited... If some podunk airport needs a bunch of federal money to stay in business, then maybe they should not be in business. If you don't want to take a Regional Jet or SW from MHT (if you're lucky), then drive to Boston or even Hartford.
Anyway, back to the topic: Consolidation in no way (again, my opinion) will increase the competition at these secondary airports. Collusion, blatant or not, will be easier with fewer competitors, to the detriment of competition...
Can't argue with you at all.
As a further aside... I happened to be working in BTV in the early 1980s when PeoplExpress entered the market with cheap flights to EWR. The little airport was soon bursting its buttons with six or eight PE 727s visiting each day. The airport commission voted for a major, costly (for them) expansion including BTV's first jetways -- big step -- and just as they were cutting the ribbon, PE went bust and the airport reverted to sleepy quietude. Dumb decision making is right.