OAG Travel News

As Hurricane Gustav bears down upon the Gulf Coast of the United States, it’s hard to ignore the timing.  This weekend is the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a storm that forever changed this historic city.  And accompanying the dramatic changes to the city are significant changes to the city’s air service.

In July 2005, New Orleans enjoyed nearly 160 daily departures to 43 domestic and international destinations.  By July 2008, air service levels had fallen by nearly 20 percent to only 128 daily departures to 38 domestic destinations.  By December 2008, these numbers will fall to 120 daily departures – a 25 percent decline from pre-Hurricane Katrina levels – and 33 nonstop destinations.  Today there are no longer any international destinations served nonstop from New Orleans.

Southwest Airlines still ranks as the largest carrier in New Orleans with an average of 36 daily flight departures.  But over the past three years, Southwest’s service has declined by 33 percent, and the number of nonstop destinations served by Southwest from New Orleans has fallen from 17 to 11.  Service to three of these cities – Indianapolis, Oakland and San Diego – has not been replaced by any other carriers.

The only other low-cost carriers to serve New Orleans are AirTran and jetBlue.  AirTran has maintained service to its Atlanta hub, while jetBlue is one of the only bright spots in the city’s air service portfolio.  In May 2008, jetBlue began daily nonstop service between New Orleans and Boston, one of the only new destinations to be added to New Orleans’ air service network since Hurricane Katrina.*

Carriers that have discontinued all service to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina include Air Canada (Toronto), Frontier (Denver), Midwest (Kansas City) and Taca (San Pedro Sul, Honduras).  Another blow to the city’s air service came this summer when ExpressJet announced that it will end all branded flying as of this fall.  This will eliminate nonstop service from New Orleans to five additional cities – Austin, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Raleigh/Durham and San Antonio.

Other major service changes include United’s cancellation of nonstop New Orleans-San Francisco service, leaving Los Angeles as the only city on the West Coast with nonstop service to New Orleans.  Delta ended its longtime New Orleans-Orlando service in August 2008, leaving only Southwest serving this market nonstop.  In fact, nonstop service between New Orleans and Florida is down by nearly 30 percent over the past three years.

Amazingly, nearly 18 percent of all nonstop flights from New Orleans today go to one city – nearby Houston.  Continental provides 12 daily flights to its largest hub at Houston/Intercontinental while Southwest provides 10 daily flights to Houston/Hobby.  This percentage of service between New Orleans and Houston is consistent with pre-Hurricane Katrina levels. 

In terms of legacy carriers, the only airline to increase air service over the past three years is Continental.  Service to Houston and Newark has increased by one daily flight each, while service to Cleveland has declined by one daily flight.  American’s overall air service is down only slightly, but the carrier has increased frequency to St. Louis while canceling service to New York/LaGuardia.  Northwest’s service has perhaps declined the most dramatically, with only one daily flight remaining to Detroit and Minneapolis, down from three and two daily flights, respectively.  Three-times daily service to Northwest’s smallest hub Memphis remains unchanged.

The population in New Orleans was reduced dramatically following the storm, and today the population has recovered to approximately 70 percent of pre-Hurricane Katrina levels.  Clearly, the size of the local population is a key consideration for airlines when evaluating air service – with less people, a non-hub city requires less flights.  Comparing June 2008 with June 2005, passenger traffic at New Orleans is down nearly 20 percent.  This is consistent with the decline in flight capacity as well as population as detailed above.

According to a 2004 report by the University of New Orleans, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport provided an annual economic impact of over $1 billion to the local economy and supported over 12,000 jobs.  Clearly, air service is one of the critical foundations for long-term economic growth.  This is especially true for a city such as New Orleans that relies heavily on tourism and convention-related visitors to support the local economy.  This report was written before the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina and the resulting decrease in population as well as damage to infrastructure to support tourism and conventions.  With Hurricane Gustav closing in fast on the Louisiana coast, the effects of yet another devastating storm will certainly play out in future air service decisions by the airlines serving New Orleans.

Source: Laura Jackson for OAG

Note: Includes only scheduled commercial air service; Comparisons for July 2008 compared to July 2005, unless otherwise noted.

Source: Official Airline Guide (OAG) Schedule Tapes; www.flymsy.com; USA Today.

*All other new service initiated since Hurricane Katrina has been discontinued as follows: Delta operated once-weekly nonstop Boston-New Orleans service in February, March and April 2008; Between May 2007 and November 2008 ExpressJet operated New Orleans-Austin; Between February and September 2006 United operated New Orleans-San Antonio service (previously unserved); Between April 2007 and September 2008 ExpressJet operated New Orleans-San Antonio service.