MKE Thanksgiving Holiday Traffic Expected to be up 40% over 2008
Nov 29, 2009, 7:27 pm
#31
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,653
Who said that MKE didn't have bleed to Chicago? Nice straw man arguement, though.
As I stated at the time, AirTran cherrypicked some markets which were significantly overserved to make MKE look stunted...and the comparatively large traffic nosedives seen in several of those cities (greater than the general traffic slump seen during the recession) supports that those cities were in fact overserved.
Undoubtedly traffic in Milwaukee is growing quite nicely to match the new service, in part due to fare stimulation, in part due to running a ton more connecitons through MKE, and in part due to improved competition with the Chicago airports. However the point questioning the viability of AirTran's plan was not that traffic would not increase...it was that both traffic and yield would not be strong enough to sustain it profitabily. No proof of that yet, and there won't be one way or the other for awhile.
As I stated at the time, AirTran cherrypicked some markets which were significantly overserved to make MKE look stunted...and the comparatively large traffic nosedives seen in several of those cities (greater than the general traffic slump seen during the recession) supports that those cities were in fact overserved.
Undoubtedly traffic in Milwaukee is growing quite nicely to match the new service, in part due to fare stimulation, in part due to running a ton more connecitons through MKE, and in part due to improved competition with the Chicago airports. However the point questioning the viability of AirTran's plan was not that traffic would not increase...it was that both traffic and yield would not be strong enough to sustain it profitabily. No proof of that yet, and there won't be one way or the other for awhile.
