New study: Charlotte airfares falling fastest

[700UW]

New study: Charlotte airfares falling fastest
JEFFERSON GEORGE
jgeorge@charlotteobserver.com
Airline ticket prices have dropped by a bigger percentage at Charlotte's airport than any other major U.S. airport over the last six years, according to federal government statistics released today.

In the first three months of 2001, the average fare at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport was more than $529 -- a level that often prompted travelers to use other N.C. and S.C. airports.

This year, however, the average fare in the same period was about $372 -- nearly 30 percent lower, and almost three times the average decrease among the nation's top 100 airports based on domestic ticket sales.

This year's average fare also is down more than 11 percent from early 2006 -- the nation's fourth-biggest dip over that time.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics in the U.S. Department of Transportation regularly tracks average fares, which are based on domestic round-trip and one-way tickets.

Charlotte's average fare is 43rd-highest among the top 100 airports, below Greenville, S.C. (No. 6), and Greensboro, N.C. (No. 29) -- the latter a popular alternative when Charlotte fares were higher. Charlotte's average fare remains higher than Raleigh, which is No. 80.

Charlotte/Douglas had the 12th-most enplanements -- passengers boarding planes -- of U.S. airports in 2006.

 

[az_wild727]

Is that due to US Airways/America West?

 

[Jimmy Neutron]

Oh no---better watch out because Doug Parker and the boys won't stay in markets long with low yields, now we all know that connecting hubs with little or no O&D traffic such as CLT have low yields. The lower the fares in CLT get the quicker they will run out the back door from the competition----Of course they will say, "We are doing our part to reduce capacity in the industry." and then announce that they are parking more planes....

 

[JS]

Is that due to US Airways/America West?

No, it's due to EVA Air.

Actually, fares started falling before the merger. US financial problems and price gouging invited competition, mostly from Delta with extra planes on their hands from the DFW hub closure, and AirTran started service to CLT.

When I lived in dirtneck upstate South Carolina, I used to fly Delta often, and occasionally US or UA, out of CLT when GSP was too expensive, which was most of the time. That and the cheap parking and far better security people made me happy to drive 1.5 hours to CLT.