Originally Posted by
ashill
I think someone (FWAAA?) has posted the O&D numbers for DCA-PHL, and my recollection is that it was single digits per day. If I read the data I just pulled from the BTS correctly (never done this before, so I'm not sure), there were 100 reservations flown for DCA-PHL and 109 for PHL-DCA in 2015 Q1 (most but not all with one passenger). That's closer to 1 passenger per day each way than 10. As far as I'm concerned, that's consistent with zero O&D traffic, which makes sense.
I had previously posted about the absence of O&D on the PHL-LGA route, which was an average of one to five daily passengers depending on the quarter, so in effect, there's zero O&D from PHL to either LGA or DCA.
Years ago,
BoeingBoy pointed that out as one of the big reasons that PHL shows lower O&D than similarly sized cities and metro areas: NYC and WAS are typically among the largest O&D markets for any USA city, yet PHL is in a unique position of having frequent and fast train service that all but eliminates airline O&D between PHL and both of those markets.
I agree that the sole reason for LGA-PHL and DCA-PHL is be to enable connections at the PHL hub. Plus, those flights are great for hoarding slots without losing them, like when US used to run twenty-something Dash 8s a day between LGA and PHL.