Citizens asking for re-regulation: Memphis hub hurt by air industry
Last edited Wed Apr 25, 2012, 12:15 AM - Edit history (1)
"Mergers and a focus on loyalty programs for business passengers on high-volume routes have bypassed major cities, including St. Louis, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, forcing companies to relocate because of deteriorating air service, said Phillip Longman of the New America Foundation, a nonprofit Washington think tank. His recent article in Washington Monthly spurred Tuesday's discussion on whether it is time to "re-regulate" the airlines.
Longman noted that railroads were regulated in the 1880s after Wall Street financiers sought to dominate the market rather than provide services in the public interest.
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"Economic development officials in Memphis seem to be scared to say anything that would make our primary carrier upset," he told an audience of aviation industry officials and reporters. "The logic being that the airline's cutting 25 percent of our flights after telling us it loves us, what could it possibly do if it decided to reject us?"
Jones likened Memphis' situation to a frog in a pot of hot water, adjusting to worsening conditions until it succumbs. He said "every person in our region has a horror story," then went down a litany of examples, involving businesses leaving town, residents driving to Little Rock to catch a reasonably priced flight to their destination involving a stop back in Memphis, and $900 flights to Austin, Texas, for a law firm required to make the flight routinely."
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/apr/24/memphis-cited-example-deregulation-leading-poor-pa/
Local Memphis news tonight had passengers asking if regulation can be brought back because of ridiculously high prices.
I fly to Memphis for business weekly and have come to the conclusion that Delta wants to close Memphis as a hub and make it a mere spoke in its hub-and-spoke system. They just won't be honest and say it.
The airfares here are at least $150 more expensive on an advance purchase and multiple hundreds more expensive on short-notice fights.
Delta is pricing the locals out of flying out of Memphis airport (they drive to Little Rock or Nashville then catch cheaper flights). Business people are getting sticker shock, but have to suck it up in order to save time.
Delta has the audacity in this article to cite fuel prices as the reason for the higher prices. You can price an itinerary from Little Rock, connecting though Memphis to wherever you want to go for cheaper than the same direct flight from Memphis. How does that higher fuel cost thing work again, Delta?
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