[OKC] FW: [PassRailOK, TX, KS] Rail Expansion Efforts Continue - Airlines cut small jets as fuel prices soar

[Shauna Struby]

From: sfrr at aol.com [mailto:sfrr at aol.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 2:43 PM
To: EvanStair at PassengerRailOK.org
Subject: [PassRailOK,TX,KS] Rail Expansion Efforts Continue - Airlines cut
small jets as fuel prices soar 

 

All,

THREE EFFORTS CONTINUE. We continue working regional passenger rail on three
fronts:  

1) Connecting Tulsa with Oklahoma City through the Eastern Flyer Task Force 
The Oklahoma State Senate President Pro Tempore has named his list of task
force members.  Because the House Speaker is changing for the 2011 session
due to term limits, we do not expect the first task force meeting to occur
prior to the end of the year.  The task force seeks to study development of
a Public-Private Partnership to expand state passenger rail services.

2) Preserving the Southwest Chief route over Raton Pass 
ColoRail President Jim Souby and myself were guest speakers at the kickoff
of the Southwest Chief Coalition in La Junta, CO earlier this month.  We
would like to express our appreciation to Mr. Rick Klein, La Junta City
Manager for organizing this kickoff and showing the leadership that will be
required to save this train.  The effort not only looks at preserving the
route over Raton Pass (on the Colorado - New Mexico state line) but also
preserving the train itself.  Congressional budget cutting is threatening
this route.

3) Connecting existing Amtrak services with the northern half of Amtrak's
system in Kansas.
We expect the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) to announce the
release of its Service Development Plan (SDP) for the 606 mile
Texas-Oklahoma-Kansas Corridor (TOK Corridor) any day.  After this study is
released only National Environmental Protection Act studies and completion
of the Oklahoma State Rail Plan will remain.  KDOT officials have stated
they do not have the funding to complete one of the two required NEPA
studies.  Therefore; without funding from a Kansas-state-external source
this project will likely end.

AVIATION WOES.  This article shows how the transportation world is rapidly
changing.  In years past I have taken many of these smaller planes out of
Oklahoma City to Dallas and Kansas City to connect with longer flights.  

The exit of commercial airlines from this segment of the industry will leave
a gap that must be filled if we are to remain a mobile society.  We have
already seen essential air service programs deteriorate and vanish from many
airports.  

Will Mid Continent in Wichita, Will Rogers in Oklahoma City, and Tulsa
International begin losing business?  Preserving regional aviation requires
new thinking.  A multimodal approach is demanded by this transportation
change.

The solution in my view is to provide better passenger rail services between
the state's small communities and metropolitan areas.  This will not only
preserve quality transportation for small town Oklahoma, but long range, it
could prop-up the state's largest airports such as Oklahoma City's Will
Rogers World Airport and Tulsa International.  

Connectivity between the railroad station and the airport is also essential.
Making the rail connection, for example, from Chandler, Bristow, and Sapulpa
to Tulsa International would attract new aviation customers, keeping the
larger airplanes full, and Tulsa International healthy. The same is true
regarding transporting people from western Kansas to Wichita's Mid-Continent
Airport.  

Making these links is vital to maintain the mobile society we all enjoy.

Evan Stair
Executive Director
Passenger Rail Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas
www.PassengerRailOK.org

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2011-11-28/Airlines-cut-small-jets-
as-fuel-prices-soar/51433152/1 


Airlines cut small jets as fuel prices soar 


By Joshua Freed, AP Airlines Writer


MINNEAPOLIS – The little planes that connect America's small cities to the
rest of the world are slowly being phased out.

Airlines are getting rid of these planes — their least-efficient — in
response to the high cost of fuel. Delta, United Continental, and other big
airlines are expected to park, scrap or sell hundreds of jets with 50 seats
or fewer in coming years. Small propeller planes are meeting the same fate.

The loss of those planes is leaving some little cities with fewer flights or
no flights at all.

The Airports Council International
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Airports+Council+International>
says 27 small airports in the continental U.S.
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/U.S> , including St. Cloud, Minn.,
and Oxnard, Calif., have lost service from well-known commercial airlines
over the last two years. More shutdowns are planned.

Travelers in cities that have lost service now must drive or take buses to
larger airports. That adds time and stress to travel. St. Cloud lost air
service at the end of 2009 after Delta eliminated flights on 34-seat
turboprops. Now, passengers from the city of 66,000 have a 90-minute drive
to the Minneapolis airport 65 miles to the southeast.

Roger Geraets, who works for an online education company based near St.
Cloud., flies at least twice a month from Minneapolis. He used to connect
from St. Cloud. Now he drives, leaving an extra half hour for bad traffic.
There are other headaches. Parking at St. Cloud was free, but in Minneapolis
it costs $14 per day. And getting through airport security in Minneapolis
takes longer.

Another city without service is Oxnard, 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Towns,+Cities,+C
ounties/Los+Angeles> , which lost three daily turboprop flights operated on
behalf of United. The airport's website advises travelers to catch a bus to
Los Angeles International Airport
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Los+Angeles+International+Airport>
.

Atilla Taluy, a tax preparer who lives in Oxnard, ends up driving or taking
the shuttle to Los Angeles. "In morning traffic, it becomes quite a
burdensome trip," he says.

Pierre, S.D., will lose Delta flights to Minneapolis in mid-January. Pierre
officials are waiting to find out whether those flights will be replaced or
whether the city will be left with only Great Lakes Airlines
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Companies/Transporta
tion,+Travel,+Hospitality/Airlines/Great+Lakes+Airlines>  flights to Denver.
The Denver flights add almost 600 miles in the wrong direction for people
who want to fly from South Dakota
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/States,+Territor
ies,+Provinces,+Islands/U.S.+States/South+Dakota> 's capital to Washington,
D.C.

"I don't know if they really care about (passengers) in the small markets,"
says Rick Steece, a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control who
travels overseas from Pierre two to three times a year.

In the late 1990s, when jet fuel cost one-fourth of today's prices, the
small jets and turboprops were a profitable way for airlines to connect
people in small cities to the rest in the world. The flights attracted
business travelers who tended to pay more for tickets.


Airlines loved the planes. Bombardier and Embraer sold more than 1,900
50-seat jets during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

"We all got carried away with it," says Glen W. Hauenstein, Delta's
executive vice president for network planning, revenue management and
marketing.

Then jet fuel prices soared. They're at $3.16 per gallon today, up from 78
cents in 2000. That's changed the economics of small planes.

For airlines, it all comes down to spreading fuel costs among passengers. A
Delta 50-seat CRJ-200 made by Bombardier takes 19 gallons of fuel to fly
each passenger 500 miles. Fuel usage drops to just 7.5 gallons per passenger
on Delta's 160-seat MD-90s over the same distance.

So while the bigger jet burns more fuel overall, it's more efficient.

Delta is moving away from small jets more aggressively than other airlines.
It will eliminate 121 50-seat jets from October 2008 through the end of next
year. That will leave it with 324.

Lynchburg, Va., lost Delta's three daily flights on 50-seat jets earlier
this year, although US Airways
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Companies/Transporta
tion,+Travel,+Hospitality/Airlines/US+Airways+Airlines>  still flies similar
jets there.

Airport manager Mark Courtney says Delta also served nearby Roanoke and
Charlottesville, Va., each about 60 miles away, so it may have figured its
Lynchburg customers will drive to those cities to catch a flight.


Lynchburg is the home of the 2,000 workers for French nuclear services
company Areva, and its largest international destination had been Paris by
way of Delta's Atlanta hub, Courtney says.

Some Delta routes served by 50-seaters are getting bigger planes instead.
Delta's Atlanta-Des Moines flights are on larger MD-88s, which seat 142, and
it has shifted the mix toward larger planes between Atlanta and Birmingham,
Ala., Nashville, and Savannah, Ga., too.

United Continental Holdings Inc. still has 354 50-seat jets. But that number
is expected to shrink, said Greg Hart, the airline's senior vice president
of network.

Continental's effort to get rid of its 37-seat planes shows how eager
airlines are to quit flying them. It has 30 of the jets under lease, some
until 2018. Twenty-five are grounded. The rest are subleased for $6 million
less than Continental is paying for them.

American Eagle <http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/American+Eagle> ,
which feeds traffic to its corporate sibling American Airlines
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Companies/Transporta
tion,+Travel,+Hospitality/Airlines/American+Airlines> , owns 39 of the same
37-seaters. But 17 of them were parked as of the end of last year. Parent
company AMR Corp. had been trying to sell some of those planes in 2009 but
couldn't get any buyers.

Many travelers won't miss the small jets.

One of them, Tony Diaz, is a technology support manager from Dallas. He was
changing planes in Minneapolis on his way to Moline, Ill. The second leg was
a small Delta jet.


"The larger planes are definitely better to ride in," he said, glancing down
at his larger-than-average frame.


There's still a market for larger jets, which allow airlines to spread out
fuel costs.


Nearly all so-called regional jets sold between 2010 and 2019 are expected
to have 51 seats or more — with the biggest category being jets with 76 to
130 seats, according to Forecast International.


"More of those are going to see the skies," said aviation consultant Mike
Boyd <http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Mike+Boyd> . But those
aluminum-skinned 50-seaters will be scrapped for parts. "They're on their
way to the Budweiser display."

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: winmail.dat
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 13138 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.sustainableokc.org/pipermail/okc-sustainableokc.org/attachments/20111129/bbdb42a8/attachment-0001.bin>