Tallahassee Regional Airport

[Florida]

Is There Competition in the Air?

Experts don

[TD]

Basically, the Redneck Riviera poses no threat immediately to threaten our air service.

From one person or a few peoples perspective.

[Florida]

Tallahassee welcomes American Eagle jet service to airport

First, airlines are not adding many routes in what one American executive called "challenging economic times." Second, the event marked the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, that Tallahassee Regional Airport officials have allowed VIPs on the airport's tarmac. "In these times it's really difficult to add a route like this," said Dale Morris, managing director for government affairs at American Airlines/American Eagle, who came from Dallas for the ceremony. "This speaks volumes for this community's growing economy and of its support for aviation and American."

Tallahassee Mayor John Marks greeted executives from American Airlines and American Eagle this morning as they arrived from Miami by saying it was a "beautiful, glorious day in Tallahassee." Later, Marks said he "really prefers to fly" and that he had plans to bring his mother from South Florida to attend this year's Springtime Tallahassee, making the new service "a perfect fit." The highest ranking American Airlines official arriving Monday was Peter Dolara, who is the American senior vice president in charge of Miami, the Caribbean and Latin America.

"We believe we can make a contribution to government, students and people from this region," he said, adding the new route offers "great opportunities for exploration and development in this area." He also noted the connection between Tallahassee and Miami will allow Tallahassee travelers to "connect directly to 75 flights daily to South America, the Caribbean and Mexico. We'll bring people who before have not had an opportunity to travel to Tallahassee." Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce Chairman Ron Sachs said the new route will "help our business development here immeasurably. It will help our community and region soar."

Source: TDO.com

========================================

Personal Opinion:

I think this is a great accomplishment, however, we should not let this distract us from the ultimate goal of brining a discount carrier to our airport. We cannot count on American Airlines to keep their prices low, or lower them beyond what we see. I hope the route is successful, I hope to see more trade between Tallahassee and Miami as a result of this, but at the end of the day, I want more assurance that our airport will break free of the grip Delta has had us under and truly be transformed.

[Florida]

American Airlines Begins Nonstop Service From Miami to Tallahassee

On Sunday, American Airlines inaugurated a nonstop service between Miami and Tallahassee on American Eagle. American Airlines says American Eagle will fly the route twice daily on 44-seat Embraer 140 jets.

Flights from Miami to Tallahassee:

Flight 4516 will depart Miami at 7:15 a.m. and arrive in Tallahassee at 8:40 a.m.

Flight 4522 will depart Miami at 4:10 p.m. and arrive in Tallahassee at 5:40 p.m.

Flights from Tallahassee to Miami:

Flight 4519 will depart Tallahassee at 9:05 a.m. and arrive in Miami at 10:35 a.m.

Flight 4523 will depart Tallahassee at 6:05 p.m. and arrive in Miami at 7:35 p.m.

[TD]

American Airlines Begins Nonstop Service From Miami to Tallahassee

On Sunday, American Airlines inaugurated a nonstop service between Miami and Tallahassee on American Eagle. American Airlines says American Eagle will fly the route twice daily on 44-seat Embraer 140 jets.

Flights from Miami to Tallahassee:

Flight 4516 will depart Miami at 7:15 a.m. and arrive in Tallahassee at 8:40 a.m.

Flight 4522 will depart Miami at 4:10 p.m. and arrive in Tallahassee at 5:40 p.m.

Flights from Tallahassee to Miami:

Flight 4519 will depart Tallahassee at 9:05 a.m. and arrive in Miami at 10:35 a.m.

Flight 4523 will depart Tallahassee at 6:05 p.m. and arrive in Miami at 7:35 p.m.

Weird as it seems, i dreamed i was at the airport last night and i saw the new American Airlines Counter

[Florida]

Weird as it seems, i dreamed i was at the airport last night and i saw the new American Airlines Counter

hmm...

PLANES : Some dream symbols can be best translated into a single word in English. Planes and helicopters generally mean that you want something to happen quickly. That may of course have many varied uses. It may relate to a project which you want to achieve quickly. In that sense it relates to your priorities and changes within them because often a wish to achieve something quickly means that you put less effort into something else. But planes can relate to more long term goals such as your ambitions and careers. Finally a plane may simply suggest that you are realizing that things in general can happen very quickly. Problems can occur quickly. For instance it maybe associated with the fears about a young child who is capable of getting into trouble very quickly.

[TD]

hmm...

PLANES : Some dream symbols can be best translated into a single word in English. Planes and helicopters generally mean that you want something to happen quickly. That may of course have many varied uses. It may relate to a project which you want to achieve quickly. In that sense it relates to your priorities and changes within them because often a wish to achieve something quickly means that you put less effort into something else. But planes can relate to more long term goals such as your ambitions and careers. Finally a plane may simply suggest that you are realizing that things in general can happen very quickly. Problems can occur quickly. For instance it maybe associated with the fears about a young child who is capable of getting into trouble very quickly.

Well I was dreaming I was at TLH, so i think I must have been thinking of American.

[south park county]

Speaking of whatever you guys just said, are we possibly getting 737's back, seeing as the legislature is in session? When was the last time we even had those?

[Florida]

I know AirTran used 737s when they flew here. How I'd love to have them back!

[Go Gators]

I think one of the airlines flys them in still? I was out there in early January and saw one land.

[poonther]

I'm not sure who that would be GG? I know that Delta is giving us three MD-88 flights now. That's a plane I'm not a fan of. I'd much rather fly to ATL on the CRJ's, but hey I'm small so the size thing isn't an issue.

I thought the rest of the airlines serving TLH only used CRJ's?

[Go Gators]

I'm not sure who that would be GG? I know that Delta is giving us three MD-88 flights now. That's a plane I'm not a fan of. I'd much rather fly to ATL on the CRJ's, but hey I'm small so the size thing isn't an issue.

I thought the rest of the airlines serving TLH only used CRJ's?

It may not have been a 737, it was landing as I was about to board. It definitely had single jet engines on each wing. But I think you're right, I normally only see CRJ's at the airport too.

I like the MD-88, has a nice pur to it as you're going down the runway.

[Go Gators]

St Pete Times has a story on why its so expensive to fly from TLH:

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/03/05/Business...flight_re.shtml

[Florida]

I like the MD-88s as well.

St Pete Times has a story on why its so expensive to fly from TLH:

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/03/05/Business...flight_re.shtml

What a well written article. Its a shame that the best news articles written about Tallahassee come from the newspapers of other cities. Shame on you Tallahassee Democrat!

[Florida]

I'm forwarding this article to WTXL. Maybe we can get a story.

[south park county]

I'm suprised we stille get something as large as the MD-88. I think thats good. Does US Airways still operate Dash-8's here?

[Piedmont Airlines]

I am from Winston-Salem NC and I usually fly into Tallahassee regional once every couple of years when I am down visiting relatives. This past December was the most recent time I flew into Tallahassee regional. On this trip, I flew Delta and really noticed that Delta really has a monopoly on the airport and makes up more than half of the airports traffic. Delta is also a double-edged sword for the airport because it flies to five locations, which is a large number for an airport of Tallahassee's size and rents out all the gates on the B concourse. The negative side to having delta do this is that they control the fares by having minimal competition. The only destination that another airline serves from Tallahassee is to Tampa on Continental. The problem with that though is Continental flies 19 seat turboprop planes and Delta flies 50+ seat regional jets. I would much prefer flying on the jet rather than the prop plane. Also, it seems to me that Tallahassee regional should attempt to attract another low fare carrier. Just recently, Skybus announced that they were building their second hub at my airport, Piedmont Triad International. They have seats for just 10$ on each flight and fly Airbus A 319's that seat 142 people. If Tallahassee regional were to get a low fare carrier they would need to make sure they would not end up like AirTran did at Tallahassee regional.

It may not have been a 737, it was landing as I was about to board. It definitely had single jet engines on each wing. But I think you're right, I normally only see CRJ's at the airport too.

I know that US Airways Express flies Embraer 175's that seat 86 people and have the jets under the wings.

Photo courtsey of http://flickr.com/photos/96463101@N00/243627739

[Go Gators]

^ That may have been what it was, although it appeared larger than that. But like I said, I was in the terminal. I've flown on a JetBlue Embraer, I like those jets.

SkyBus would certainly be interesting here. I'm not sure how effective they would be though, as they dont fly to two major cities within Florida Orlando and Tampa (St. Augustine is the closest to Orlando, Ft. Myers for Tampa, and they are long enough drives to not be convenient). I like the A319's they fly though.

[poonther]

I checked their website and also from experience, USAirways flies only CRJ 700's out of TLH to CLT. Maybe they had to send down a 737 or E175 the day you saw them GG? SPC, I believe that USAirways has swapped all the Dash-8's for CRJ 700's. It cuts the trip down to CLT by about 45 minutes.

Ah PA, you too have discovered the evils of Delta that strangle our airport and sometimes our growth. I try not to fly Delta out of TLH as much as I can which sometimes can be tough to do. While I do have ill-will towards Delta, I also blame our local government for not running the airport more effectively. Heck even after request after request, they don't want to give TLH their own independent website much less bring in private consultants to run the airport or at least manage the airport by an independent authority other than the commission.

You're right, we do need a discount airline. Great that you guys are getting Skybus and also I just read where Columbia, SC and Myrtle Beach are getting Spirit. Their directs are to FTL. Seems like a good market for us. Our only problem is if TLH does get another shot at discount airlines, will our patrons use it or like zombies will they continue to line up at the Demon's (Delta) gate?

I'm confused by the fact that you mentioned that Continental to TPA is our only non-Delta choice. Did you mean that they are the only airline that flies a route that Delta does? If so, you are right about that until the first of this month when American came to town and started giving us 2 flights daily to MIA.

[Florida]

As an airport, do we have the ability to say "We don't want to renew your lease Delta"?

[blueheronNC]

As an airport, do we have the ability to say "We don't want to renew your lease Delta"?

I think that might be a "refusal to deal" violation of Sec. 1 of the Sherman (Antitrust) Act (ironically enough, since Delta is effectively the one monopolizing our market). But anyway, I'm only in the beginning stages of that class, so I'll get back to you on that

[Florida]

I think that might be a "refusal to deal" violation of Sec. 1 of the Sherman (Antitrust) Act (ironically enough, since Delta is effectively the one monopolizing our market). But anyway, I'm only in the beginning stages of that class, so I'll get back to you on that

Refusal to deal!!!! My garra!!! Now its against the law to say, "No!" We've found a way to say no to everyone else, why not Delta?

[Piedmont Airlines]

I'm confused by the fact that you mentioned that Continental to TPA is our only non-Delta choice. Did you mean that they are the only airline that flies a route that Delta does? If so, you are right about that until the first of this month when American came to town and started giving us 2 flights daily to MIA.

That is exactly what I meant. Continental is the only other airline that flies direct to a city from Tallahassee regional that would challenge Delta. I said this forgetting that American started flying to Miami this past Sunday. Hopefully this will help fares drop for travelers going to south Florida (which seems to me where everyone flies from Tallahassee regional)

Also you referred to delta as the "Demon" airline. When I was at the airport this past December I saw 4 planes go out, 3 Delta regional jets and 1 Continental turboprop. If it wasn't for Delta the airport would be very quiet and Delta is the only airline that actually flies in themselves. Delta does control the extremely high fares but they serve 5 destinations from Tallahassee. Northwest, US Air and American only serve one other location. That is a large number for an airport of Tallahassee regional size and make up 50%+ of the passenger and flight traffic. I know I have said this already but the airport would practically be dead most of the time with out them. I believe that the airport authority needs to do some recruiting and bring in a low fare carrier to challenge all the airlines and make the fares more affordable.

I also realized on my most recent visit that the security and bathrooms had been renovated. Does the airport have any other renovations or a possible expansion planed? I ask this because the waiting area seemed rather old and things seemed cheaply done. (Ex: the airlines have cheep wall mounted flight signs instead of the actual counters with flight screens behind them)

One last thing, I happened to check out the Tallahassee Regional airport site and according to the departure page there was a United flight to Charlotte at 7:00 A.M. tomorrow. I was unaware that United flew to Tallahassee but it looks like a type-o to me.

[Florida]

I had a similar instance with seeing United listed on the airport's schedule. Someone said that Delta and United often share a common "something".

The airport has a great list of improvements they plan to make over the next 10 years. Not sure why they aren't working a little harder to get that low-cost carrier you mentioned. I still don't know if I'm ready to buy the argument that there would be no activity at the airport if Delta wasn't here. I think there would be another to fill the void they'd leave behind. And if that other airline was a discount carrier such as Southwest or AirTran, you'd see more activity at the airport than Delta generates.

The Downward Trend Continues at TLH:

January

2008: 66,063 passengers

down 4.1% from the same time last year, 24.1% since 2005.

2007: 68,884

2006: 74,840

2005: 87,020

I know if this was my productivity trend on my job, the bosses would be making a case for my replacement.

[TD]

I had a similar instance with seeing United listed on the airport's schedule. Someone said that Delta and United often share a common "something".

The airport has a great list of improvements they plan to make over the next 10 years. Not sure why they aren't working a little harder to get that low-cost carrier you mentioned. I still don't know if I'm ready to buy the argument that there would be no activity at the airport if Delta wasn't here. I think there would be another to fill the void they'd leave behind. And if that other airline was a discount carrier such as Southwest or AirTran, you'd see more activity at the airport than Delta generates.

The Downward Trend Continues at TLH:

January

2008: 66,063 passengers

down 4.1% from the same time last year, 24.1% since 2005.

2007: 68,884

2006: 74,840

2005: 87,020

I know if this was my productivity trend on my job, the bosses would be making a case for my replacement.

Boycott Delta