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This doesn't have to be true. Many large airports have smaller regional airports nearby that have the capacity to handle passenger traffic. For example, I liv

This doesn't have to be true. Many large airports have smaller regional airports nearby that have the capacity to handle passenger traffic. For example, I live in Olympia about 60 - 90 minutes south of Seattle (and about 30 minutes from Tacoma). The airport here is large enough to accommodate 737s, and even did have passenger service for a few years with smaller turboprops, but now doesn't. Efficiency desires are leading to larger, centralized airports which then run into capacity problems while regional airports languish.

koenigdavidmj 12y ago
And on the other hand, Paine Field in Everett just got approval for commercial service: http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2015/03/02/snohomish-council-narrowly-approves-commercial-air.html?page=all http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2015/03/02/snohomish... Though I'll grant that this is probably an exception, not a rule, and that it just barely got approved.
bedhead 12y ago
It doesn't have to be, but it probably will be. I'm in Chicago and even our second airport, Midway, is showing signs of pressure. I can think of a handful of other second tier airports in major cities in similar positions. I think this is going to become a very heated topic over the next 25 years. The general public has been groomed to believe that cheap airfare on a several-hundred-million-dollar vehicle with incomprehensibly good safety standards is a birthright, so when the cost of air travel starts going a lot higher, people are going to freak out. We can make all sorts of tweaks to alleviate the problem (load efficiency, bigger planes, more seats/plane, longer hours of operation, etc) but at some point the inherent limits of a fixed number of runways, gates, and slots is going to catch up to us, and that's when the price of a ticket for many particular routes is going to go vertical.

koenigdavidmj 12y ago

And on the other hand, Paine Field in Everett just got approval for commercial service: http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2015/03/02/snohomish-council-narrowly-approves-commercial-air.html?page=all http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2015/03/02/snohomish... Though I'll grant that this is probably an exception, not a rule, and that it just barely got approved.

bedhead 12y ago

It doesn't have to be, but it probably will be. I'm in Chicago and even our second airport, Midway, is showing signs of pressure. I can think of a handful of other second tier airports in major cities in similar positions. I think this is going to become a very heated topic over the next 25 years. The general public has been groomed to believe that cheap airfare on a several-hundred-million-dollar vehicle with incomprehensibly good safety standards is a birthright, so when the cost of air travel starts going a lot higher, people are going to freak out. We can make all sorts of tweaks to alleviate the problem (load efficiency, bigger planes, more seats/plane, longer hours of operation, etc) but at some point the inherent limits of a fixed number of runways, gates, and slots is going to catch up to us, and that's when the price of a ticket for many particular routes is going to go vertical.