Hey, isn’t this Darrin’s new job as Director of Lower Airport Fees and Parking Lots.
U.S. Sen. John Thune says he has urged Delta Air Lines and United Airlines to improve service and cut fares for flights at Sioux Falls Regional Airport.
Thune says officials from both airlines have agreed to evaluate ways to lower prices and make flights more convenient.
Thune says up to 45 percent of air travelers from Sioux Falls drive to Omaha or Minneapolis to catch flights because of the high prices charged for flights from Sioux Falls.
The Republican senator says airlines also do not offer enough direct flights from Sioux Falls to other cities.
Do you think there is a little Rep vs. Dem thing going on here? Berry, Berry, Interesting.
L3wis, Home Rule T-shirts are here. Check your e-mail.
Is this Smith’s junior high school picture?
No kidding! I drive to Omaha simply because I refuse to pay an extra 100-200 dollars per seat; I thought SF was a major airport but apparently it is not.
I go to Omaha too.
Sometimes I use Allegiant from here to Las Vegas or Orlando then on via another airline. Show your AAA card and get a huge discount at yellow spot north end parking place. Omaha bag claim is much faster and less hassle through security.
From Omaha use Southwest or Frontier (super cheap). Airtrans has a non-stop to Milwaukee. Sometimes, connect there to east coast (avoid Chicago nightmares and fares).
Minneapolis Humphrey Field has 4 discount carriers. It’s a good option but 4 hours there and only 3 to Omaha.
He wants them to “improve service and cut fares” and offer more “direct flights from Sioux Falls to other cities”?
I guess Republicans really don’t know any more about how businesses operate than the Democrats do. I suppose he’ll team up with Schumer to make baggage fees illegal and stop them from charging for in-flight peanuts and headphones.
Then when they all go bankrupt we can bail them out (again).
I guess Republicans really don’t know any more about how businesses operate than the Democrats do. I suppose he’ll team up with Schumer to make baggage fees illegal and stop them from charging for in-flight peanuts and headphones.
Then when they all go bankrupt we can bail them out (again).
Maybe, just maybe, if they offered a service that actually justified the cost of a plane ticket, people wouldn’t complain about them so much.
As it is, passengers (read: paying customers) are treated like cattle by airline employees who obviously hate their jobs and TSA goons who love their jobs a little too much.
If it wasn’t so damned expensive to start an airline, we’d have more competition and better service for the price.
My point is that they can’t offer a bunch of direct flights out of Sioux Falls to more places and bring prices down. Thune urging the airlines to do things isn’t going to magically make those things economically feasible.
If it were possible, someone would be doing it already. Allegiant is able to keep prices low because they fly to mostly vacation destinations and people are willing to schedule their vacations around the flight schedule.
The only way you’re going to have more direct flights out of Sioux Falls is to have those flights once or twice a week.
If someone needs to be in San Francisco for a business meeting on Wednesday, having direct flights to there on Sunday and Thursday isn’t going to do them any good. They wouldn’t be able to have more frequent flights, because they wouldn’t be able to fill up the planes and the ticket prices would be astronomical.
At some point we’re going to have to admit that Sioux Falls just isn’t that big of a city.
Didn’t you know; If we build it, they will come!
Every few years one of our politicians “urges” the airlines to lower fares or offer more options. When a new flight is added or a new carrier comes to town they seem to get all the praise… but when we lose a flight or a carrier pulls out of town they don’t seem to take any of the blame.
Simply “urging” an airline to do something won’t magically make it happen. You need real ideas that offer something more than generalized statements. The fact is, Sioux Falls is (in the scope of things) a small city an as such simply does not have the population to support direct flights.
The airlines are not charging more in Sioux Falls out of spite or just because they don’t like the name Joe Foss… they do so because it is based upon economics and the potential revenue.
As Sioux Falls grows our options will increase, but it will never be due to what a politician says from his mahogany desk in Washington.