Europe tends to have public transport and long-distance car hire services that make an outlying airport capable of being used to visit a "nearby" much larger ci

Europe tends to have public transport and long-distance car hire services that make an outlying airport capable of being used to visit a "nearby" much larger city. In the US, outlying airports are those of third- and fourth-tier cities that don't generate a lot of traffic on their own, and are located distant from points of interest. In the US, a tourist flying to such a place has little options besides renting a personal car. In the past, I've hypothesized [1] that the sole reason low-cost airlines like RyanAir can even fly to such outlying European airports is because there's significant competition among lesser airports desperate for business and the (supposed) positive knock-on effects that will result. This encourages them to provide subsidies, discounts, or other perks to airlines, because losing commercial air service would be a more severe economic blow. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13438412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13438412