As we have reported before, one of the first casualties of airline cutbacks is service to secondary cities. Early this summer, AT&T announced it was moving its headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas, stating that the lack of direct flights to other cities was a primary reason. Though there is some question whether this is the true reason for the move, the story raises serious questions. To what extent does the number of flights in and out of city feed or impede growth? What will be the long term impact to cities whose service has been cut?
Not all airlines are curtailing small city growth. AirTran announced last month they would open service to Harrisburg, PA with a daily flight to Orlando beginning November 20th. Columbus will be getting two daily flights to Atlanta, one to Ft. Myers, and one to Orlando, perhaps filling a post-Skybus void Airtran discovered.
There are additional isolated cases. As the legacy carriers pull out of many cities, some of the low-cost carriers hold strong, using such cities as alternatives to the congestion. However, for cities not in proximity of a major metropolitan area, even if they have a sufficient population to draw from, service can be a hard sell.
It remains to be seen whether we face a continued migration from America’s smaller cities to its larger ones, though it’s clear that having nonstop flights to many destinations is not by itself a recipe for growth. Just ask Detroit.