No, it’s not what you think. Jeff, you can put down the Valium,
The Sacramento-Portland Test is a quick and dirty means of seeing how well US Airways’ Charlotte hub is doing. Portland and Sacramento are the fifth and seventh largest West Coast destinations from Charlotte:
Los Angeles: 577 passengers/day @ $306 average fare
San Francisco: 428 pax/day @ $323 average fare
Seattle: 354 pax/day @ 278 average fare
San Diego: 251 pax/day @ $271 average fare
Portland: 194 pax/day @ $277 average fare
Ontario: 132 pax/day @ $235 average fare
Sacramento: 118 pax/day @ $282 average fare
Passenger numbers and fares are for those traveling between CLT and the airports indicated in the 3rd quarter 2008 (latest available). Passengers connecting in CLT aren’t included.
LAX, SFO, SEA, and SAN all have had year-round nonstops from CLT for years. Portland, OR first appeared as a summer seasonal service in 2007. Last year, US Airways announced a big build-up at CLT, announcing multiple new destinations. Included in that was the return of Portland, again as a summer seasonal service, and a seasonal red-eye to Sacramento.
Since then lots of bad things have happened to the airlines, including an oil price shock followed immediately by a severe recession. And despite that, Portland and Sacramento are both back this year again, with a nonstop to each during the summer.
And what would be a sign of an improving economy and US Airways hub here doing well? Having these flights operate year around…
Bonus swine-flu update: US Airways continues to not operate its CLT-Mexico City flight. CLT-MEX remains off the schedule through at least mid-August.
