Most traveled U.S. airline market routes in 2023

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

It's still inconsistent. You lump all the New York City airports into one group because people in an area have options for airports: people in the New York City area can fly out of JFK, Newark Liberty, La Guardia, Islip, and more. People in Chicago can fly out of O'Hare and Midway. People in Los Angeles can fly out of LAX, Burbank, Ontario, and more. So is it unreasonable to think that someone living in, say, Pompano Beach or Boca Raton would consider or use Palm Beach as much as Fort Lauderdale or Miami?

I don't have a good reason for why Palm Beach wasn't aggregated with Miami. I believe MIA serves as both the airport code for Miami International and the location code for all Miami Airports, so you would probably get results for Palm Beach if you do a search for flights to Miami. It should be the same as getting Burbank or Ontario for Los Angeles, and receiving Islip and Stewart for NYC.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by mhays

Dallas-Houston is 3:39 driving, center to center. That's close enough to be viable for a lot of people vs. flying.

Yes, factor in the time required to get to and from airport and the likely need to arrange car rental or other transportation options at your destination, driving really makes a lot of sense. Same logic applies to San Antonio and Austin market. Drive times to Dallas area or Houston are just not that overwhelming.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

It's still inconsistent. You lump all the New York City airports into one group because people in an area have options for airports: people in the New York City area can fly out of JFK, Newark Liberty, La Guardia, Islip, and more. People in Chicago can fly out of O'Hare and Midway. People in Los Angeles can fly out of LAX, Burbank, Ontario, and more. So is it unreasonable to think that someone living in, say, Pompano Beach or Boca Raton would consider or use Palm Beach as much as Fort Lauderdale or Miami?

Yeah, I'd say it's unreasonable. The three NYC airports are all quite large and proximate in distance to each other and the CBD. Same with Chicago. LA has one central airport hogging most of the traffic. Palm Beach is 70 miles from Miami. And it's a really small airport with pricey fares and wouldn't have any flights not present in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Miami is a mega global hub. Ft. Lauderdale has all the discount airlines going to the Carribean. PB is very local.

Of course you could find someone traveling 70 or even 170 miles for a flight. My brother has not infrequently flown out of O'Hare even though he lives in Metro Detroit, given he strongly prefers directs and some intl. flights can be big savings. I think he's flown out of Toronto too, using same reasoning. But that wouldn't be a typical thing. But if you save $1,000 on an intl. flight, and it's direct, it might be worth the schlep.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by homebucket

The drive can take up to 7 hours in peak traffic conditions. Probably why they’re also building a HSR line connecting Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga.

Yeah, but they'd miss experiencing Primm.

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by JManc

Yeah, but they'd miss experiencing Primm.

What's going to happen to the Desperado roller coaster? It was once the world's tallest.

[SacTownAndy]

Originally Posted by JManc

I'm surprised LA to Vegas is highly ranked. I figured more people would just drive.

Vegas is a big hub for Southwest and Spirit. There's likely an impact from folks whose final destination isn't Vegas, just passing through (likely the case for a lot of these hub routes).

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

What's going to happen to the Desperado roller coaster? It was once the world's tallest.

It hasn't operated since 2019.

The longer a 30 year old rollercoaster like Desperado sits dormant like that, the more unlikely it becomes that it will ever come back to life.

But it's certainly not impossible.... Time will tell.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by JManc

I'm surprised LA to Vegas is highly ranked. I figured more people would just drive.

More time to get drunk. I've flown between Vegas and LA so I'm not surprised at all. The flight I was on felt like a party shuttle. Half of the plane was too drunk to legally operate a car. The other half was probably nursing a hangover.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ Palm Beach is kinda pushing it.

It'd be like including Milwaukee's airport into Chicago's numbers. And even though some people in chicago's far northern burbs do use Milwaukee's airport, that would still be a silly thing to do IMO.

Palm Beach airport to Miami's airport: 63 miles

Milwaukee's airport to O'Hare airport: 66 miles

Even more ridiculous is "Greater Boston," which presumably includes TF Green in Rhode Island, Boston-Logan and Manchester. It is 105 miles from Manchester to TF Green.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

More time to get drunk. I've flown between Vegas and LA so I'm not surprised at all. The flight I was on felt like a party shuttle. Half of the plane was too drunk to legally operate a car. The other half was probably nursing a hangover.

That, and the traffic on 1-15 can be absurd. If youre tired from drinking/hungover driving in that traffic all the way to LA is rough....

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by SacTownAndy

Vegas is a big hub for Southwest and Spirit. There's likely an impact from folks whose final destination isn't Vegas, just passing through (likely the case for a lot of these hub routes).

Spirit has few connecting flights. Southwest has more connecting flights. Las Vegas has been one of the fastest growing airports (along with Denver) in the past couple of years and local officials from Las Vegas have resumed studying a second passenger airport for the region.

https://knpr.org/show/knprs-state-of...-back-on-track

One thing that stands out is how many of these routes (LA - Las Vegas, LA - Bay Area, Washington - Baltimore - Boston) could be served by high-speed rail if we made it a priority to provide modern, reliable, connectivity in the United States.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by LA21st

That, and the traffic on 1-15 can be absurd. If youre tired from drinking/hungover driving in that traffic all the way to LA is rough....

But we're told nobody will take Brightline...

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by SacTownAndy

Vegas is a big hub for Southwest and Spirit. There's likely an impact from folks whose final destination isn't Vegas, just passing through (likely the case for a lot of these hub routes).

Makes sense. I see alot of Southwest flying out of Burbank to Vegas, which could be the destination but also could be connecting flights.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Spirit has few connecting flights. Southwest has more connecting flights. Las Vegas has been one of the fastest growing airports (along with Denver) in the past couple of years and local officials from Las Vegas have resumed studying a second passenger airport for the region.

https://knpr.org/show/knprs-state-of...-back-on-track

One thing that stands out is how many of these routes (LA - Las Vegas, LA - Bay Area, Washington - Baltimore - Boston) could be served by high-speed rail if we made it a priority to provide modern, reliable, connectivity in the United States.

LA to Vegas just makes too much sense as a rail corridor, high speed or not. We complain that BosWash doesn't have true HSR, but inter-city rail service in BosWash is light years ahead of what rail service exists in any other region of the United States, at least pre-Florida Brightline.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

LA to Vegas just makes too much sense as a rail corridor, high speed or not. We complain that BosWash doesn't have true HSR, but inter-city rail service in BosWash is light years ahead of what rail service exists in any other region of the United States, at least pre-Florida Brightline.

I don't want to derail this thread but when people ask who will travel all the way to Rancho Cucamonga to take Brightline to Las Vegas, there is an estimated 2M people who live in the San Gabriel Valley, 2.2M people live in San Bernardino County, and 2.5M people live in Riverside County.

[badrunner]

But if you fly or take the train you don't get to say

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by Gordo

Yeah I knew it would be up there, but I didn't think that there's any way that it would be bigger than LA-Bay Area.

The numbers are basically the same, around 10k per day. And of course that number is dwarfed by the daily traffic on I-5 between LA and SF.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

More time to get drunk. I've flown between Vegas and LA so I'm not surprised at all. The flight I was on felt like a party shuttle. Half of the plane was too drunk to legally operate a car. The other half was probably nursing a hangover.

Brightline West will have a "Party Car" https://railway-news.com/in-pictures...ightline-west/

At least no stripper poles this time, which was shown in renderings from one of the previous iterations of this project (DesertXpress or XpressWest or something like that, it's been in the works for a long time before Brightline picked it up).

[ChiSoxRox]

Just noting that "mile long club" is the train equivalent to "mile high club."

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Brightline West will have a "Party Car" https://railway-news.com/in-pictures...ightline-west/

At least no stripper poles this time, which was shown in renderings from one of the previous iterations of this project (DesertXpress or XpressWest or something like that, it's been in the works for a long time before Brightline picked it up).

We don't have a party car in Florida's Brightline , but, you can order alcohol from the attendants that come around. They spill very easily with any bumps or leans!