TOLEDO, Oh -- A recent study by the Business Travel Coalition identified Toledo Express Airport as one of the 100 markets most likely to lose some or all passenger service.
http://www.myfoxtoledo.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6847383&ver...
Toledo airport affected by gas prices
By neighborhood co... - Posted on June 29th, 2008
Now that gas is getting fairly expensive, people will be less likely to want to drive to Detroit Metro ... just in time to Toledo Express to curtail or cancel flights.
yes, now that it costs more to drive to Detroit, I would think that Toledo would market hard the easy accessibility of the airport...shorter drive, less time driving around once you get there, less waiting in traffic, etc.
I've thought the same thing too.
I've flown out of Toledo Express a few times, and its much more convenient to get in and out of. The only draw to flying out of Detroit for me was that generally ticket prices were lower and also greater odds of getting a direct, nonstop flight.
But with gas prices the way they are, the idea of flying locally is much more appealing.
Guest Zero,
Toledo Express isn't curtailing flights. The airlines are. If the Port Authority had its way, Toledo Express would have hundreds of daily departures. Think of the airport as a mall.
Toledo Express is in real trouble. There's no doubt about that. It doesn't have any mainline service. It is serviced by turbo-props and regional jets. These are the least profitable aircraft in service today, Given the extraordinary price of jet-A fuel, the profit margin on each seat on a small aircraft is razor thin.
Back when av-fuel was close to a dollar a gallon, regional jets (jets with 35-50 seats) were supposed to be the salvation of airports like Toledo Express. Now, they are the cause of their demise.
Only one thing can save Toledo Express: A low fare carrier. Low fare carriers saved similar airports like Akron/Canton and Flint. However, expansion by low-fare carriers right now is highly unlikely. They operate on marginal yield per seat compensated by volume. The number of people flying is decreasing. Low-fares such as Southwest, Air Tran, and Jet Blue are holding their breath and waiting to see what happens next.
It almost sounds, Brian, like you're suggesting they throw up their hands as if it is completely out of their control.
I for one prefer to fly out of Toledo...sometimes it costs more, other times not. However they cannot operate like an SUV in a Prius market. Can they expand their maintenace service offierings? Expand air cargo? Engage in an intermodel? Offer low cost shuttle service to/from the airport from outlying areas? Implement Lean strategies to reduce their costs? I could go on. I'm not ready to shut the book on Toledo Express and I hope this community is not either.
Brian,
Would the airlines have bailed out of Toledo Express if they had more passengers? Why does management have such a hard time selling TE's attributes? I have heard the same message for years and its not working.
Like a lot of the other regional airports was built near metro or international airports.
An airline like any business has to cut costs and be more efficient.
The airlines are being hit hard by the oil issue and the planes are not as efficient as they could have been designed to be.
Airlines are consolidating, just like in the 70's with the loss of Eastern, Braniff and others.
When the price of aviation fuel and car gas double, none of us will be either flying or driving our cars. Toledo airport will become irrelevant.
"The price of gas could hit a whopping $7 per gallon, which translates to $120 to fill your average sedan. And even more if you own a sport utility vehicle. As reported recently by CIBC World Markets chief economist Jeff Rubin, these prices could force 10 million vehicles off U.S. roads over the next four years."
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5271315&page=1
I can't see the routes completely leaving Toledo Express. I do see only one of two carriers doing a morning and/or a evening flight out of our airport or doing puddle jumper flights to Detroit on demand.
but I know when we flew out west last summer it was about $200 cheaper to fly out of Detroit than Toledo. Even with today's gas prices, that still makes the Detroit drive a better deal. You're not going to spend $200 on gas going to Detroit Metro and back. $75-80 maybe, probably less.
So the one time you checked it was cheaper to fly from Detroit than it was from TOL. I fly almost weekly, and I can tell you that it's closer to 50/50. Gas is $4/gallon, and if you want to be able to park someplace where you can walk to your car, be prepared to drop big money just for a parking space. Unless it's greater than $150, I fly from TOL up to Detroit. It's much much much easier to travel from our little airport.
I clearly said I hadn't checked recently; was just relating the one experience.
For kicks, I did check on flights just now out of Toledo and Detroit to various locales and you're right, it's a small price difference and not enough to make the drive to Detroit.
Had that been the case last summer, we would have gladly flown out of Toledo.
What about the fact that the Detroit flight is a straight flight and the Toledo flight is a connecting flight. Any value to the straight flight? On the east side of town it only takes me an extra 10 - 15 minutes most to get to the Detroit airport. We travel frequently and find Detroit to be the better option almost everytime.
A few more positives about flying out of Toledo.
1. Less likely to get stuck in a middle seat - usually smaller planes flying out that don't have 3 wide rows.
2. Friendlier personnel. Hands down, Toledo outshines DTW at least in my experience in friendliness and willingness to help the customer...after all this is a service industry.
3. Safety. Overall I feel more comfortable at Toledo. The last time my flight ended in Detriot my husband and youngest were waiting in baggage claim area for me and got to watch a guy get snagged by a group of police officers and taken away in cuffs.
Just my humble opinions.
What was that guy arrested for? Do you know? Or did you just assume he was arrested for something that threatened you, instead of, say, a database false positive that YOUR face could have triggered?
Good question Guest, so I verified with husband what happened as it occured before we landed. Sorry, it was a woman, and it was outside the security area (baggage claim) so my impression is that it was not triggered by the database as she had not gone through security. It took three police officers to haul her off.
Also, let me clarify by what I meant by safety. In general when I fly I do have concerns re: terrorism and normally say a prayer prior to boarding for the welfare of all on the flight. What I mean in terms of safety though in my prior post was personal safety in terms of being attacked, having my purse stolen, etc. I'll have to do some research to see if I can find anything on percentage/nature of security calls at each airport.
Tonight I looked at Detroit vs Toledo airport statistics for the period April 1, 2007 - April 1, 2008 via the Bureau of Transportation Statistics website. I would be happy to email anyone the spreadsheet I created. Basically I saw a couple of trends:
You will spend about 7 minutes more taxing in and out of Detriot than you will Toledo.
A greater percentage of flights are late leaving out of Detriot than Toledo, but you are more likely to be delayed coming into Toledo than Detroit.
Almost 4,000 flights out of DTW were cancelled in that period, but percentage-wise, that is about 3% less that Toledo's cancel rate.
Yes, a good deal of this is attributable to the airlines, but since we cannot compete directly on price, maybe we can continue to improve our services. Just a little after dinner information to digest.
I'm in the same boat as you. It's really a wash to drive to Detroit. BUT..... I can park my car, walk inside, check my bag and be through security in less than 10 minutes. I can't even get from the parking garage to the check in point in 10 minutes at Metro. Let alone wait in line to go through security.
Overall, I find that it doesn't cost me any more to fly from TOL when you take all the costs into consideration. I also get twice the number of frequent flyer credits when I fly from here, which means I get upgraded more when I fly. The hassle factor of using Metro makes using TOL a better deal for me.
Interesting that you actively do not support your local airport, Troy. Using TOL creates jobs here, and those jobs create income here. That income supports your advertisers. Maybe you have more advertisers and listeners from Michigan, I don't know because I've rarely listened to you. But one would think that you'd at least give lip service to using local products and the local airport. Doesn't sound to me like you are that committed to Toledo.
My wife and I have not found the price to be the same. Again there are how many direct flights out of Toledo? When I used to travel to Atlanta and there was a direct flight from Toledo to Atlanta, we flew from Toledo. I do support local business here. I just purchased a new Harley from Signature. It ended up being priced slightly higher but being able to have it serviced locally was important to me. I have lived in the area all my life and my business provides jobs here. Does that sound like I'm committed?