Feb 22, 2006 9:13 am US/Central
Good Question: Will The Twin Cities Be Grounded?
by Ben Tracy
Minneapolis (WCCO) ―
The standoff between Northwest Airlines and its labor unions could push pilots to the picket lines as soon as next week.
If the pilots strike, the company's survival is up in the air, which has many Minnesotans wondering if the Twin Cities will be grounded.
When Minnesotans fly, it is usually on a Northwest plane, but what would the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport look like without a hub airline?
Terry Trippler is an airline analyst. He thinks Northwest and its pilots union will strike a deal, but if they don't, he believes the Twin Cities will be come a secondary airport.
Of the 127 gates at the airport, Northwest occupies 102 and accounts for 80 percent of the area's air traffic. Because of that, Minnesotans pay high prices, but get more flights than our population dictates.
"One of the reasons we have so many flights right now is that 60 percent of all people that board aircraft out at the airport are connecting," Trippler said.
Only 40 percent of the people who board planes at the airport originate in the metro area.
"We're an anomaly here that we have this many nonstop flights for a city of 3 million people," Trippler said.
If Northwest were to fold, the Metropolitan Airports Commission said it would court Southwest Airlines and jetBlue, which are two airlines that do not currently fly in or out of Minneapolis. The MAC said it would also ask the major airlines already here to increase flights.
"Combined, these airlines aren't going to have 4(00) or 500 flights a day," Trippler said. "It's just not going to happen."
So, doesn't it make business sense for other airlines to send more planes to Minneapolis?
"Absolutely," Trippler said. "People will eventually come here, but again, they don't have the aircraft to come here, they don't have the crews to come here. In the meantime, if Northwest were to go belly-up in March, we're going to have a hell of a summer."
That's because other airlines are struggling and it is unlikely they could afford to make our metro area a major hub.
"(If they go away,) nobody's coming in," Trippler said. "It'll be a piecemeal and we'll be the Kansas City of the north."
As for airfares, more competition at the airport would probably drive down prices, but Trippler said if Northwest goes and there are significantly fewer flights, fare prices would likely go up, at least for awhile.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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