The Buzzards Are Circling

[CLT-Douglas]

The 5 million number seems a little high unless you also include the RDU--which again, has good air service--population which is more like 3 hours by car. Charlotte sits almost in the Appalachian foothills; so west of CLT there are no population centers of note other than Asheville (2003 est. 232,000) until you get across the mountains to Chattanooga.
I may be wrong, but it seems that you are assuming that the places that the LCCs fly (which you will admit is limited) are the places that CLT O&D passengers want to go. If that were the case, the LCCs would already be in CLT eating UAIR's lunch. As SFB said, if you take away all that connecting traffic that is there only because UAIR created a hub at CLT, there's just not that much traffic left.

[post="183561"][/post]​

One reason the LCC are not in CLT eating UAIR's lunch is because US takes up 90% of the gate space. I think there is only one available gate, which I am sure Independence Air will be taking in a few days. CLT would have to add on further to concourse A or build another concourse to make room for other airlines if US stays.

 

[sfb]

One reason the LCC are not in CLT eating UAIR's lunch is because US takes up 90% of the gate space. I think there is only one available gate, which I am sure Independence Air will be taking in a few days. CLT would have to add on further to concourse A or build another concourse to make room for other airlines if US stays.

The other reason why the LCC's have a limited presence in CLT (like CVG and MEM) is that it's very difficult to grab enough market share from the dominant carrier in a relatively small market to reach profitability. WN can prosper very nicely at PHL with only 10-20% of the market; 10% of the CLT O&D traffic won't even fill 10 737's a day.

It's easier to go after the spoke markets where the network carriers really don't offer a better product in terms of availability of non-stops. For the average, non-elite passenger, who cares if you're connecting at BWI or MDW instead of CLT or PIT?