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I think travel between HQ and HQ2 has to be a nonstop flight for it to be viable. The cities sorted by number of nonstops to Seattle per day: Los Angeles 23 D

I think travel between HQ and HQ2 has to be a nonstop flight for it to be viable. The cities sorted by number of nonstops to Seattle per day: Los Angeles 23 Denver 18 Chicago 14 Dallas 12 Washington, D.C. 7 Atlanta 6 Newark 6 New York 6 Boston 5 Austin 3 Nashville 2 Philadelphia 2 Raleigh, N.C. 2 Indianapolis 1 Toronto, Canada 1 Miami 1 Columbus 0 Pittsburgh 0 Montgomery County, Md. ? Northern Virginia ?

nsnick 9y ago
Pittsburgh has flights to Seattle. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2017/11/15/alaska-airlines-adds-pittsburgh-its-route-map/867625001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/... Also, Northern Virginia is the location of Dulles. Montgomery county would also use Dulles or BWI which has 3 flights per day. Interestingly, with traffic, Washington D.C. is not within 45 minutes of Dulles so Washington D.C. is probably just looking at Reagan which has 1 flight per day to Seattle.
- apcragg 9y ago
  The silver line will to IAD will be open by the time HQ2 is being built. That puts it ~35mins by Metro when leaving the city. IAD is a huge international airport as well and has much smoother infrastructure than National Airport.
phildougherty 9y ago
There may be some chances for an improvement at Pittsburgh airport with the announcement of $1.1bn in major renovations being funded: http://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2017/09/12/Pittsburgh-International-Airport-Allegheny-County-Authority-board-vote-plan-new-landside-terminal/stories/201709120131 http://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2017/09/12/... I could see Southwest adding a PIT -> Seattle non-stop in a hurry if needed.
jrs95 9y ago
If this were true, why would cities that don’t have this even be on the list?
drak0n1c 9y ago
If necessary, it wouldn't be too expensive for Amazon to partner with an airline to sponsor/subsidize more frequent flights between Seattle and their HQ2 city - for airlines the difference between an axed money losing route and a money making route can be in the low five figures or even less. Airlines have done these kinds of deals before.
jonknee 9y ago
Getting a new route or two added is a lot easier than finding a good location to build. Especially with Delta expanding its Seattle presence so much.
srinivasan 9y ago
Of all the issues to be considered, this is the easiest one to fix and so should be the least important consideration at this stage. A fairly busy airport already exists in every case, so all they have to do is provide a revenue guarantee for one daily nonstop flight to Seattle. This is very common in the industry to entice airlines to open new routes. This requires no new infrastructure, and would only be needed prior to HQ2 being fully operational. At that point, the airline would be selling enough tickets that the revenue guarantee wouldn't be needed anymore.

nsnick 9y ago

Pittsburgh has flights to Seattle. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2017/11/15/alaska-airlines-adds-pittsburgh-its-route-map/867625001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/... Also, Northern Virginia is the location of Dulles. Montgomery county would also use Dulles or BWI which has 3 flights per day. Interestingly, with traffic, Washington D.C. is not within 45 minutes of Dulles so Washington D.C. is probably just looking at Reagan which has 1 flight per day to Seattle.

apcragg 9y ago
The silver line will to IAD will be open by the time HQ2 is being built. That puts it ~35mins by Metro when leaving the city. IAD is a huge international airport as well and has much smoother infrastructure than National Airport.

phildougherty 9y ago

There may be some chances for an improvement at Pittsburgh airport with the announcement of $1.1bn in major renovations being funded: http://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2017/09/12/Pittsburgh-International-Airport-Allegheny-County-Authority-board-vote-plan-new-landside-terminal/stories/201709120131 http://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2017/09/12/... I could see Southwest adding a PIT -> Seattle non-stop in a hurry if needed.

jrs95 9y ago

If this were true, why would cities that don’t have this even be on the list?

drak0n1c 9y ago

If necessary, it wouldn't be too expensive for Amazon to partner with an airline to sponsor/subsidize more frequent flights between Seattle and their HQ2 city - for airlines the difference between an axed money losing route and a money making route can be in the low five figures or even less. Airlines have done these kinds of deals before.

jonknee 9y ago

Getting a new route or two added is a lot easier than finding a good location to build. Especially with Delta expanding its Seattle presence so much.

srinivasan 9y ago

Of all the issues to be considered, this is the easiest one to fix and so should be the least important consideration at this stage. A fairly busy airport already exists in every case, so all they have to do is provide a revenue guarantee for one daily nonstop flight to Seattle. This is very common in the industry to entice airlines to open new routes. This requires no new infrastructure, and would only be needed prior to HQ2 being fully operational. At that point, the airline would be selling enough tickets that the revenue guarantee wouldn't be needed anymore.