DOT's Domestic Airline Fares Consumer Report for 2Q04 and 3Q04 appeared last week, and the numbers for the third quarter provide some interesting measurements of the impact of Southwest's first two waves of service into PHL (28 daily flights) as well as the smaller impact of Frontier's entry into PHL, coupled with US Airways' GoFares response.
From a macro standpoint, Philadelphia went from being the 19th-most-expensive air travel market, with fares 20% above market averages, to being tied for the 48th-most-expensive market, with fares 2% below market averages, when comparing 3Q03 to 3Q04. Even more remarkable was the increase in quarterly O&D passenger traffic (in markets with more than 20 passengers per day), which increased from 2.759 million in 3Q03 to 3.752 million in 3Q04-- or 993,000 passengers. That's an increase of 10,800 O&D passengers per day, or 36%. And even though the average fare paid for travel to/from PHL dropped from $200 to $151 (nearly 25%), the total revenue generated by Philadelphia O&D traffic in the quarter actually increased by 2.7% from $552 million to $567 million.
Southwest also rapidly captured leading market share in PHL-PVD and PHL-MHT with over 60% of both markets; considerably lower average fares trumped US Airways' increased capacity on those routes. WN and US also very nearly split the PHL-RDU market, with US having a 3 point market share lead along with nearly 50% higher average fares.
O&D traffic in both the PHL-PVD and PHL-MHT markets simply exploded, increasing by over 1000% in both. In the quarter, the PHL-PVD and PHL-MHT markets, taken together, actually saw more passengers than the PHL-BOS market, in spite of some low-fare competition between PHL and BOS provided by AirTran. PHL-RDU traffic more than tripled.
From a macro standpoint, Philadelphia went from being the 19th-most-expensive air travel market, with fares 20% above market averages, to being tied for the 48th-most-expensive market, with fares 2% below market averages, when comparing 3Q03 to 3Q04. Even more remarkable was the increase in quarterly O&D passenger traffic (in markets with more than 20 passengers per day), which increased from 2.759 million in 3Q03 to 3.752 million in 3Q04-- or 993,000 passengers. That's an increase of 10,800 O&D passengers per day, or 36%. And even though the average fare paid for travel to/from PHL dropped from $200 to $151 (nearly 25%), the total revenue generated by Philadelphia O&D traffic in the quarter actually increased by 2.7% from $552 million to $567 million.
Southwest also rapidly captured leading market share in PHL-PVD and PHL-MHT with over 60% of both markets; considerably lower average fares trumped US Airways' increased capacity on those routes. WN and US also very nearly split the PHL-RDU market, with US having a 3 point market share lead along with nearly 50% higher average fares.
O&D traffic in both the PHL-PVD and PHL-MHT markets simply exploded, increasing by over 1000% in both. In the quarter, the PHL-PVD and PHL-MHT markets, taken together, actually saw more passengers than the PHL-BOS market, in spite of some low-fare competition between PHL and BOS provided by AirTran. PHL-RDU traffic more than tripled.
