SYR

[daveinric]

Casting my vote for SYR as a new city. Good O/D, best economy in Upstate NY, many colleges and universities in the area, a large Army installation an hour north. Direct access to I-81 (Binghamton area, Watertown/Ft. Drum, and Kingston/Ottawa area) and close to I-90 as well. While not the size of CLT, MSP, or CVG, SYR would be very successful from the get-go.

 

[markkus757]

how many miles is it from ALB?? I know the thruway goes by both, just cna't remember the distance/drive time...

 

[furloughednow psa]

Casting my vote for SYR as a new city. Good O/D, best economy in Upstate NY, many colleges and universities in the area, a large Army installation an hour north. Direct access to I-81 (Binghamton area, Watertown/Ft. Drum, and Kingston/Ottawa area) and close to I-90 as well. While not the size of CLT, MSP, or CVG, SYR would be very successful from the get-go.

I think CVG. keep locals from driving to DAY CMH SDF and IND. Delta has cut so much but SW prefers chasing anther airline.

 

[daveinric]

ALB to SYR via I-90 is probably about 130 miles. ALB is a nice airport, and I have flown in there before when visiting the SYR area. We recently flew into BUF, and I'll never do that again; the place is a horror show.

I realize the argument that LUV might be reluctant to serve SYR because of existing service to ALB and BUF, east and west of SYR, respectively. My argument centers around the Syracuse Metro area and population centers north and south of SYR. When one looks at the market from that perspective, I believe LUV would be very successful operating out of SYR.

 

[Flying Titan]

Strategically, this makes a lot of sense. I believe there are over a million people in SYR and the surrounding communities (think Utica, Ithaca, Binghamton, etc.).

The drive between ALB and SYR is about 2 1/2 hours. The drive between SYR and BUF is about three hours. I'm sure that SWA gets some traffic from the SYR area, but there's no doubt that it's leaving a lot of dollars on the table from these potential passengers.

If SWA enters SYR it essentially locks up the vast majority of the upstate region, marginalizing JetBlue's limited presence and boxing-in AirTran's growing operation at ROC.

Of course, SYR isn't going anywhere and SWA may have some bigger fish to fry first.

 

[DalMD88]

I am from the SYR area. I can't figure out why SW hasn't picked up SYR. It is far enough from ALB and BUF and as others have said there is good traffic with the I81 as well as the Thruway. The only negative is the economy there still sucks. The area is stuck in the downturn of the 70's. Sure devlelopers claim they will expand the mall to be bigger than the Mall of America so SYR will be a Destination city. I as well as others, think the area needs real industry. Not just malls and Indian casinos.

 

[FutureUScapt]

Isn't one of the reasons B6 doesn't offer more flights into SYR bc of the high landing fees? I thought I had read an article a few months ago about how the airport director was unwilling to lower the fees.

If that is true, that is probably a big reason why WN isn't there, combined with the fact that the O/D is lower than their other recent destinations (IAD, DEN, PIT, PHL...)