Originally Posted by
jsloan
San Antonio is larger than Austin, but AUS carries much more traffic than SAT and recently expanded.
That said, I don't see the value for UA in having ether AUS or SAT as focus cities when they have a hub within driving distance.
So interesting backstory regarding SAT and pmUA trying to make it a focus city. This was in the 2005 timeframe well before the UA/CO merger was in the works.
Trans States approached UA with a proposal to launch several nonstop markets from SAT. At that time there were a considerable amount of conventions being moved to SAT while MSY will still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. The nonstop routes were ones that at that time weren't served nonstop, but WN carried the majority of the traffic. The thought was that by offering 1-2 nonstop flights/day in these markets, people would pay a slight premium over WN for the convenience of a nonstop, it would capture the people who ordinarily flew UA for their larger network reach but were forced to fly OAL because UA lacked market presence, and it would be a low-risk opportunity for UA to gain a presence in a region they didn't already have coverage because Trans States would operate under an at-risk agreement where they be responsible for the costs of the operation (and subsequently collect the revenue) but UA would market and sell the tickets.
Despite the offer of nonstops, UA wasn't able to capture the market share from WN mainly because UA didn't advertise the operation well enough, some of the convention surge died off, and also the reality that WN connectivity didn't add a considerable amount of extra flying time and there were a larger number of flights into/out of MSY that people had an option of choosing.