Originally Posted by
boybi
How about this:
Budget airlines with fares 150% of legacy. But the budget airline flies from an airport 45min away from home.
Or...
Legacy (cheaper than budget), but will fly from airport 2-3hrs away with moderate road traffic, add another hour if there's heavy traffic.
Well, it wouldn't make sense if the budget airline was 150% of legacy AND further away, but I think you mean significantly less in cost but requiring a drive.
For the longest time we had a situation like that in ATL, as Southwest was in Birmingham in the late 80s and onward, if memory serves, and they'd do these $200 RT fares to western cities at a time when DL was really burning a hole in peoples' wallets after Eastern went under. Southwest didn't come to ATL until the AirTran deal, so there were a lot of years of people checking BHM.
OTOH, my first California trip at $198 RT required not only the 150-mile drive but connections in BNA and PHX (i.e. three flights) to get to ONT (not LAX). I might balk at jumping through so many hoops these days.
Though if you live in a city with a massive airport like ATL, it can actually be pleasant every once in a while to leave instead from one like CHA or GSP where your gate-to-car time is much less and you probably won't get long check-in or TSA lines.