Airline Weekly is always a great source of interesting data and this week’s issue (subscription) summarizes daily revenue for the top 10 routes for each of the 11 largest U.S. airlines. And there’s some great nuggets in the data.
- American generates less revenue on New York – San Francisco than United, Delta, JetBlue and even Virgin America.
American Airlines A321T at New York JFK - United actually generates the most revenue by far on non-stop New York – Los Angeles and San Francisco flying.
- American, Delta, and JetBlue generate roughly the same revenue on New York JFK – Los Angeles. But American only generates half as much as Delta on JFK – San Francisco.
- American’s Phoenix, Charlotte and Washington National hubs don’t show up on either side of the airline’s top 10 markets for revenue.
American Airlines at Washington National - Southwest’s number one revenue market is Dallas – Houston. It’s 240 miles. That’s the definition of the Southwest effect, drawing people into the air and off the roads.
- JetBlue has taken the biggest hurricane hit of any US airline. They have a big presence in South Florida and the Caribbean, and fewer other markets to offset losses. New York JFK – San Juan is their 8th highest revenue city pair. (Boston – Fort Myers is number seven.)
- Phoenix – Fargo is a top market for Allegiant.
- Honolulu – Las Vegas is Hawaiian’s second biggest revenue market.
- New York remains king. Six of the top 10 air markets in the country are from the New York area. Four each are from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Three are from Chicago.
Strange that SWA sells so many tickets for Dallas-Houston flights…at just 240 miles (400 km), it’s almost faster to drive.
Those Dallas-Houston flights support the notion (need and viability) for a high speed rail line linking the two cities!
It is unsurprising. AA sometimes has only 3x daily flights between JFK and SFO, and they only fly the super premium-heavy A321T (only 72 MC/MCPlus seats) while Delta and United use 757s and 767s. AA’s transcon first class doesn’t seem to sell that well either.
It is truly amazing that Southwest’s number one revenue market is Dallas – Houston.
Las Vegas being Hawaiian’s 2nd-biggest revenue market isn’t surprising at all. Hawaiians don’t call Las Vegas the 9th island for nothing.
IAH-DFW wouldn’t be popular at all, but HOU-DAL makes it so much easier to commute. I wonder how many of WN’s passengers on that route are doing a daily commute.
None of this is really surprising. AA has a small presence on NYC-sfo with sometimes only 3 flights a day on small planes. United flies hourly almost from ewr to sfo and lax, and does so with a higher fare than competitors at JFK get. Las Vegas is a huge market for Hawaiians. Hawaiian air basically has a lock on it- the most capacity and the biggest planes. Not a surprise. Not surprising about dal-hou on southwest. It’s their busiest route still with the most frequencies and relatively high fares.
If three of American’s hubs (Phoenix, Charlotte, and DCA) aren’t among American’s top ten markets for revenue, then implies they have been eclipsed by some non-hub cities? What cities would those be? Seems counterintuitive to me.
@Charlie- not counterintuitive. I’ve seen this list and “markets” means origination and destination markets. Most people goingbthrough Charlotte and Phoenix are simply passing through. Charlotte and Phoenix are not originations or destinations for the majority of the passengers. DCA is different. It is an o/d market for the passengers, but DCA is mostly smaller planes. Other markets for AA are DFW-lga, Mia-lax, lga-ord, etc. markets where there’s a lot of o/d traffic. While Charlotte and Phoenix move a lot of people, most of the traffic is merely flowing over those cities, not going to and from these cities, which is what this list measured.
Interesting as it is to read this information, it is hard to know how much of it is self-fulfilling prophecy as airlines focus their battles in saturated markets.
At the same time they have almost abandoned smaller markets. We are left with no reasonable flights, one flight a day leaving at 5AM, or absurd connections.
Southwest would have fewer fliers on HOU-DAL flights if passengers had to leave at 5AM, fly to Salt Lake City, wait 5-6-7 hours and fly back to Texas, arriving at 7PM. Those kinds of flights are what fliers are left with in cities of about one million people.
Thanks a lot, oh deregulation. Everyone happy?
The “Southwest Effect” refers to a phenomenon noticed in the two decades after the 1978 deregulation for prices to drop on (almost) any route that Southwest entered. It was competition with legacy carriers dnd nothing to do with people substituting away from ground transportation.
@Cassandra- your post is pointless. Southwest has that many flights between Dallas and Houston because there’s is a market forbthat service. They know that after over 40 years of serving that route. Your comments are off topic. Airlines go where the passengers are. They are not a charity, as you seem to suggest they should be. Give some exAmples of small communities that are underserved. Maybe it’s because nobody goes throes places? Without those examples it’s impossible to evaluate your unsubstantiated claims.
Oh, I can think of one under-served community without any trouble: Beaumont/Pt. Arthur (BPT) to anywhere. Everyone drives to Houston (1.5 hrs to IAH, 1.75+ to HOU, depending on time of day) because the fares from BPT are ridiculous and the flight options are non-existent to minimal.
Examples:
R/T BPT-IAH $635, routing through DFW — really???
R/T BPT-AUS $350-$400, routing through DFW or IAH
Now, if you drive yourself to Lake Charles, LA (50 miles the opposite direction), you can get a non-stop to Houston for about $500.
There used to be some flights with Continental.
Beaumont/Port Arthur Metro area has about 400,000 residents. Lake Charles Metro area has about 250,000.
Sounds like you should start an airline!