Originally Posted by
MarkedMan
Luckily UA put it to the test and figured out what a mistake it was to pull out of JFK. Over 10% loss of traffic in the NYC market and more importantly loss of significant, historical price insensitive corporate contracts which have had a knock on impact.
But when all is said and done, the people who matter in the NYC market, who pay big bucks for premium seats, they aren't catching a train to Penn. Like it, hate it, think them selfish for booking a limo, think them smart or stupid, they want to fly to JFK and get in a car. That fact is well established.
Originally Posted by
apollo00
Well, Jamaica to Penn station on LIRR is actually about 5 minutes quicker station to station than Newark to Penn but I'll acknowledge that time savings by avoiding JFK AirTrain probably equal that out at least. My perception is JFK is a little cheaper on taxi fares.
It is difficult to over-state the aversion of middle-class and upper-class Americans towards any sort of shared transport. It's a multi-faceted and comprehensive aversion: they don't want to be on trains with people they don't know, they don't want to risk being near anyone they find unpleasant, they want a lot of personal space, they think it is demeaning to their social status to use public transport, they fear attack, they don't want to think about schedules, they don't want to walk or carry anything a long distance, they think it's uncomfortable, and so on.
It's a complete aversion, and it won't change soon, it's very deeply embedded. As soon as you provide a non-bus, non-train way to get somewhere then middle class Americans will start to use it in preference. Not just will they change airline to avoid the train to the other airport, they will also get a cheap taxi ("rideshare") rather than ride the subway (a significant proportion of Uber/Lyft usage in metro areas is displaced public transport usage, not journeys that would not have happened without the cheap taxi).