In an effort to show airlines like United that San Luis Obispo has plenty of pent up flight demand going for it – a new consultant study shows only 38% of all flyers who reside in the area regularly fly out of SLO airport. Rather a majority chose to fly from another state hub like LA or San Francisco.
“Our consultant is finalizing the study and we will share it with United” who is considering adding regular flight service from San Luis Obispo to Denver. “This is updated information from a 2010 study with much better detail than we had back then” say assistant airport manger Craig Piper.He says the 38% figure from the leakage study is preliminary.
The leakage number is higher than an earlier study that said the San Luis Obispo airport serves only 42.8 percent of all San Luis Obispo area residents who fly with some 57.2 % to look elsewhere for flights. The latest estimate says 62% of residents chose another airport.
Stats for this past full year are not yet complied but it looks like airport passenger traffic picked up as the year progressed. November numbers are up nearly 11% over November 2012. United added another flight to LA from SLO in December and with more seats, traffic in December is expected to be up again.
‘We don’t yet know our December numbers but I can tell you our parking lots were full” says Piper. Like the rest of the economy passenger traffic started the year with an increase of only 0.4% over the same quarter a year earlier.But in the last quarter of 2013 it has likely grown to be over 11%. That acceleration could help make the case for SLO as well.
United is expected to decide in the next month or so whether to launch service between SLO and Denver as soon as this Spring after local public and private incentives totaling more than $1.7 million in cash and commitments were offered to offset start-up costs for the service.
A Sixel Consulting Group marketing study found that United Airlines faces a possible $1.5 million loss in the first two years of service that this county subsidy fund could help reduce.The funds committed by SLO area businesses also helps assure United that demand is there mitigating the airline’s risk.