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Silly guessing games
I like to wonder how many of the travelers in an airport are from the local area. And what features of a city suggest a high proportion of locals in the airport?
For instance do small cities have high percentages of locals in their airports? There are fewer locals to fill the place with, but not many New Yorkers fly to Greensboro, North Carolina.
At a given airport, it should matter whether the people of that area like to travel, whether no one else wants to visit that area, and whether that airport is a hub for switching flights.
It is easy to pick Chicago, Atlanta, and Denver as airports with many non-locals. But which airports have high percentages of locals? That means travel-hungry people from a boring, non-touristy, non-hub city. Minneapolis anyone?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on December 2, 2006 at 08:02 AM in Travels | Permalink
Comments
Minneapolis is a hub for Northwest.
My guess would be somewhere like Islip/Long Island, since there is a large local population that is poorly served by the other NY airports but is probably too out of the way for all but the cheapest non-local trying to go to NYC.
Posted by: Chris Lawrence at Dec 2, 2006 9:08:11 AM
Minneapolis and Detroit are both huge hubs for Northwest Airlines. (NW controls around 75-80% of the gates at both airports if I remember right.) And as a native, I protest that Minneapolis is boring and non-touristy! Though to be fair, it certainly isn't New York, LA, or Vegas.
The key would perhaps be non-hub city?
Posted by: J. Christiansen at Dec 2, 2006 9:10:00 AM
Btw, Minneapolis is not boring to *me*, I love the place...
Posted by: Tyler Cowen at Dec 2, 2006 9:15:07 AM
Minneapolis is a hub for Northwest.
I think it also matters how many national/international businesses have branches or factories in the area. Although New Yorkers wouldn't fly to Greensboro, I bet Detroiters fly to Greensboro all the time, because of the number of auto plants there.
The number of colleges that draw from a national pool in the area probably also has an effect, at least at certain times of year.
Maybe the some of the upstate New York airports?
Posted by: JMB at Dec 2, 2006 9:17:46 AM
My wag is Westchester County Airport. Stewart in upstate NY might fit well, too.
Posted by: Scott Wood at Dec 2, 2006 9:20:55 AM
Indianapolis?
Posted by: Continental Drifts at Dec 2, 2006 9:25:11 AM
I'd guess cities with professional sports teams without major hubs which are not major tourist destinations: Kansas City, Milwaukee, Des Moines, Cleveland, Pittsburgh.
I think a significant percentage of traffic out of Green Bay are locals flying to Vegas.
Posted by: Gary Arndt at Dec 2, 2006 9:29:03 AM
My pal and I once player a game at the Tampa Airport called lesbian or Canadian. We tried to guess which women were heading to the outbound Canada gates and which were um weren't. :)
Posted by: MAS at Dec 2, 2006 9:49:43 AM
Come visit the Twin Cities and you will see that it is far from "boring."
You will also see that it the hub for Northwest Airlines, with over 80%(?) of the gates at the main terminal being used by NWA.
Posted by: Rico Suave at Dec 2, 2006 10:04:54 AM
Another factor to consider is which airport. For instance Tampa has "Tampa International Airport" but less than 8 miles across the bay there's St Petersburg's Airport, which supports the lower buget airlines like USA3000. Chances are more locals would know about that option than tourist.
Posted by: Anybody at Dec 2, 2006 10:33:38 AM
Living in upstate NY, I'd concur with that call. If you fly out of Syracuse, I'm betting the vast majority of people there are locals. There's just not all that much to be flying up to up here, especially business-wise.
Posted by: Steven Horwitz at Dec 2, 2006 10:45:46 AM
Albany, NY
No one wants to be here. Not even the politicians.
Posted by: grant at Dec 2, 2006 10:49:00 AM
San Jose Airport? I know it's Silicon Valley, but they're extremely small, and have few long-distance direct flights, while SFO, just 30 minutes from San Jose, does. I personally always fly into SFO because San Jose has no direct flights from Philadelphia.
Posted by: Jith at Dec 2, 2006 10:59:19 AM
Manchester, New Hamshire.
But you have to think of Boston as local.
I bet Maine is the same way.
What about San Antonio, Texas if you exclude the military.
Pittsburgh is a major hub.
Posted by: spencer at Dec 2, 2006 12:01:53 PM
As others have pointed out, Minneapolis-St. Paul International is a major hub for Northwest.
Posted by: Charlie at Dec 2, 2006 12:09:52 PM
I think indianapolis and columbus, ohio are probably the largest cities in the midwest without a hub.
i've traveled to san antonion before. lots of tourist and businessmen attending conventions.
Posted by: younghova at Dec 2, 2006 12:21:21 PM
San Jose has a LOT of out of town flyers. A tremendous number of business travelers fly into or back out of SJC every week.
Posted by: quadrupole at Dec 2, 2006 12:44:38 PM
To make amends, I think we now need a "Favorite Things Minnesota" post
Posted by: Michael at Dec 2, 2006 12:57:18 PM
While it's not quite the same thing as the locals/non-locals issue, there are publicly available figures on the percentages of people using a particular airport who are beginning or ending their journeys (O&D) vs. changing planes. Looking through the aviation forum archives at airliners.net should provide these figures. If I recall correctly, plane-changers amount to more than 75% of the passengers at certain hun airports, Minneapolis among them.
Quite a few people heading to or from NYC actually use Long Island/Islip despite its being 50+ miles from Manhattan. It's the only airport in the New York region which Southwest Airlines serves and therefore frequently has the best fares. The Long Island Rail Road serves Ronkonkoma station, which adjoins airport property is a short, $5 van shuttle from the terminal, and while the train is a loathesome experience during rush hour it's not so bad at the times airport users are likely to be riding.
Posted by: Peter at Dec 2, 2006 1:47:42 PM
Airports near non-touristy areas with a high proportion of wealthy retirees (time and money to travel). Such places might be Long Island and north of NYC (both already guessed above) and perhaps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naples_Municipal_Airport
Posted by: Mike Linksvayer at Dec 2, 2006 2:00:43 PM
I would guess Omaha if you count as locals people for who it is the nearest big airport so will drive there to fly. It has only 4 million passengers per year vs over 30 for Minneapolis
Posted by: joan at Dec 2, 2006 2:57:49 PM
Why wouldn't the answer just be the smallest most out of the way airports in non-tourist areas? Forget major cities, it would be the 2 runway airport of some city half the country has never heard of.
Posted by: BillWallace at Dec 2, 2006 6:06:08 PM
If I had to make a guess out of thin air which airport in the US
had the greatest percentage of locals, it would be ADK (Adak Island,
Alaska which has twice-weekly service to Anchorage via King Salmon, Alaska)..
Posted by: Gary at Dec 2, 2006 7:57:17 PM
OAK, for similar reasons to those put forth by Jith for SJC.
Posted by: Anthony at Dec 3, 2006 1:40:27 AM
Monterey Airport, Monterey, CA. It's the smallest airport I've ever visited that has daily jet service from more than one line. There's a lot of wealth in that area, but the area's somewhat difficult of access. So the locals spend a lot of time on shuttle flights, going to and from the outside world on business, to other homes, and so on.
The only big outside draws are Pebble Beach and the Defense Language Institute. There's nothing else compelling enough to fly in for.
It's probably my favorite airport in the world, because it combine big-airport amenities with small-town informality. You can park right next to the main entrance! Easily! Free!
Posted by: Jones at Dec 3, 2006 9:05:56 AM
