and on a final note, since ISP is my hometown airport, I will say this...
While ISP may not draw as much O&D from NYC traffic as say, EWR (because of its distance from NYC) away from LGA/JFK, the Western Suffolk County industrial area has grown exponentially since WN began ISP service. Veterans Highway (NY Route 454) in Islip is almost a city within a county now-a-days. Major corportations have established HQ's there (Atkins nutritionals, for example) SOLELY DUE TO WN's SERVICE, and a new hotel literally goes up almost daily. The surrounding area has seen new Hampton Inn's, Radisson's, etc., that never would have been built prior to WN's entrance to the market, and pre-existing corporations based on the Island such as Sbarro, Computer Associates, and Arrow Technologies take advantage of ISP to the fullest. The corportate contracts that WN has at ISP today rival what US had at LGA several years ago. The aforementioned companies spend just as much at ISP with WN as, say, HSBC spent with US @ LGA to get to BUF before they dropped that contract (because US went all DASH-8! LGA-BUF!)
US Airways never should have taken for granted the LI O&D regardless of the fact that LGA is only 50 miles away. US was the major carrier at ISP for close to 30 years, and on a dark day in April of 97, they decided that ISP was going to be added to the list of the 9 cities that needed to have mainline eliminated. That was a terrible decision (as was the elimination of ABQ, SAT on the same day, if you remember what I am talking about).
It all goes back to what my friend Art @ ISP says... "It's about the fares, STUPID!" Maybe if US wasn't charging so much back in 97, ISP would have been profitable for them. In the past year, ISP has retained it's two daily ALB flights, but has seen it's PHL flights go from 6X to 5X and now to 4X on a DASH-8. In my eyes, totally unacceptable.
Regardless of who the US CEO is, if they really had a pair of balls (I hope that doesn't get deleted by moderator!), they would do something about it. I know for sure that although fares from ISP are low, ISP is one of WN's most profitable stations. Is it because it is it's only NY market, or because of the corporate contracts... who knows? But wouldn't it really send a message to WN if US restarted some mainline there? As an express station, can't ISP get 3 or 4 mainline flights per day? How about Sat. only MCO service? Or daily CLT serive? Or even 170 service to PIT?
Just a rambling thought!