Originally Posted by Bagels
Uh-oh, time for our daily ‘MSP is underserved and overpriced! (We need jetBlue service to Amsterdam)’ thread.
* MSP enjoys a tremendous level of air service. This attracts business (start-up & relocation + attraction of conventions / routine business) and brings millions of connecting passengers (not only does the airport collect fees per passenger, the passengers spend money in various retail venues). The airport also collects fees per flights.
* MSP employees a large, disproportionate (in retaliative to other hub carriers & the employees/types of employees employed in various hub cities) number of NW employees.
When you have an operation that pumps tens of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs into your economy, you should expect to pay a premium for it.
(And BTW, the Star-Tribue is about as fair and unbias to NW as Bill O'Reilly is to the Democratic Party.)
Yes all of this is true, but the fares did not become unreasonable until the state invested in NW back in 1994 (I think it was 1994 mabye it was 1993). Once that happened in my opinion NW realized that the MAC and the State of MN had a vested interested in having no competition at MSP to ensure repayment. The Star-Tribune should have looked at fares from the time of the deal with the state for the next 2 years. They would have seen the huge increase in fares. As a small business this hurt us.
The MAC has no interest in competition as the loans have not been repaid. Anything they say in regard to competition is lip service as far as I am concerned. Yes we have great air sevice for a city our size. Really great service, but we who live in the hub pay for it.