The latest additions from Charlotte:

Sacramento, CA June 3 to September 2, 8:10pm flight from CLT with a red-eye return. Same dates as the seasonal Charlotte-Portland, OR flight. US Airways is also flying Philadelphia-Sacramento over the summer as well.

Tucson, AZ from June 2. This starts as a 6:15pm departure with a red-eye return over the summer but becomes a day flight (11:30am departure from Charlotte) in September.

These are two very interesting additions. Sacramento is the second largest transcon market that doesn’t currently have at least seasonal nonstop service, behind Orange County (SNA). SNA is slot restricted (NIMBY issues), which explains why Sacramento would get a flight before Orange County. Still, the Charlotte-Sacramento demand is about a third smaller than from Portland. Also, things drop off rapidly after Sacramento and then Ontario:

Destination, passengers, and daily flights:
LAX: 663 passengers/day, 4 flights
SFO: 497 passengers/day, 4 flights
Seattle: 328 passengers/day, 2 flights in summer, otherwise 1 flight
San Diego: 284 passengers/day, 2 flights
Portland, OR: 184 passengers/day, summer seasonal
Orange County, CA: 131 passengers/day
Sacramento: 118 passengers/day, soon to be announced summer seasonal
Ontario, CA: 105 passengers/day
Oakland, CA: 78 passengers/day
San Jose, CA: 66 passengers/day
Reno, NV: 56 passengers/day
Fresno, CA: 24 passengers/day
Palm Springs, CA: 24 passengers/day
Burbank, CA: 23 passengers/day
Spokane, WA: 21 passengers/day
(nothing else with 20+ passengers a day.)

Figures are total between the city pairs for 2Q07, so travel each way is about half that. Obviously, most people flying to/from CLT to the West Coast are connecting here and aren’t included above. Despite the nonstops, US Airways only has a 52 percent or 53 percent market share on CLT-LAX and CLT-SFO. Still, the Charlotte passenger figures are extremely important, as people are willing to pay a fair premium for a nonstop and having enough people do so is critical to ensuring a flight’s profitability. It’s also an indication of demand to a specific location.

(Reno is included above as it’s actually further from Charlotte than Los Angeles.)

Tucson, at 57.3 passengers a day, is even more fascinating. It’s almost to the West Coast — 1735 miles from Charlotte, Los Angeles is 2125 miles miles away. It’s also about twice as far as two markets that US Airways already serves from its Phoenix hub that feature stronger demand to/from Charlotte: Omaha, NE (913 miles, 76 passengers a day) and Des Moines, IA (815 miles, 57.4 passengers a day). And Tucson won’t just be seasonal. In fact, it becomes a daylight flight in September, with greater opportunity costs.

US Airways obviously thinks Tucson is a very strong market for it, and that it can make money by funneling passengers from Tucson through Charlotte to a variety of East Coast destinations that the airline doesn’t serve from its Phoenix and Las Vegas hubs.