No one airline dominates either LaGuardia or J. Many passengers in north-central New Jersey face an unpleasant choice between commuting two hours in traffic to either J. Overpricing is not just a New York or New Jersey problem, though. Passengers in the middle of the country often bear the most burden, including many of those in the poorest parts of the United States:.
The table above reflects the 15 most overpriced airports from among the 50 where the most passengers begin and end their air travel. Next up was Newark. Then we see several other airports, like Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Dallas, and Washington Dulles, where one of the legacy carriers has a dominant share of traffic. The unifying theme is vacation destinations, like Las Vegas and pretty much anywhere in Florida.
The legacy carriers often charge comparable fares to those of the discounters like Southwest when they have plenty of seats to fill, but when supply is short or the passenger books at the last minute, they may raise their prices several-fold. This is a more viable strategy, however, for business destinations than for leisure ones.
While a casual traveler can probably forgo a weekend in Las Vegas, a last-minute client meeting in Houston may be unavoidable plus, someone else is probably paying for the ticket. The most competitively priced destinations tended to be warm-weather cities.
But there were some exceptions. The reason, no doubt, is because the traffic there is dominated by business travelers on their way to and from the headquarters of Wal-Mart in nearby Bentonville. Although Wal-Mart is famous for its sensitivity to prices, and has saved consumers billions of dollars over the years, its pricing power evidently does not extend to the air fares its executives and clients have to cough up.
Memphis is the busiest cargo airport in the Western Hemisphere. Almost every airport in this part of the country, in fact — Little Rock, Knoxville, Huntsville, Oklahoma City — is significantly overpriced. The cheapest midsize airports, meanwhile, are again those associated with leisure travel.
Even accounting for the fact that these are small markets with low demand, they still tend to be overpriced, as they are usually dominated by one or two legacy carriers who will charge you a premium to fly you to their nearest hub.
Passengers in areas far from large cities — like La Crosse, Wis. The airlines, rightly or wrongly, may take that trend to signify a lack of demand, and may cut service, with further price increases on the remaining flights. For the second quarter in a row, the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported today that Newark had the highest average fare for domestic flights.
Also for the second quarter in a row, Atlantic City International Airport was ranked the cheapest place in the country from which to fly. Rising fuel costs were the main cause. Continental, which is merging with United Airlines, has a near-monopoly at Newark, accounting for more than 70 percent of all flights. And in the case of Dulles, the presence of six lounges helped the airport avoid the lamentable title of most expensive airport in America.
And airports that do more to make the travel experience a pleasant one think: lounges often come out ahead. A graphic in this report has been corrected to reflect the figures cited in the text. Terms Apply. Disclaimer: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser.
Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. Many of the credit card offers that appear on the website are from credit card companies from which ThePointsGuy.
This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. This site does not include all credit card companies or all available credit card offers. Please view our advertising policy page for more information. Skip to content. Advertiser Disclosure. Melanie Lieberman, Michael Y. Park and Liz Hund. Illustration by Mattias Mackler The most expensive airports in the U. Here are the most expensive airports in the U.
Louis, Missouri Daniel K. Sign up for our daily newsletter. Sign up. I would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not sell your email. Please enter a valid email address Please check mailing preferences.
0コメント