Thode: LVIA Disappointing Airtravel

Dr. Steve Thode is the Lehigh University's Real Estate Studies, and as you might have guessed, gets around quite a bit. That puts him in a better position than most to gauge this area's air travel. As an academic, he's kicked things up a notch, looking at the FAA's own passenger stats. Here's what he says in an email to Allentown blogger Michael Molovinsky and me.

I've attached the FAA passenger stats for US airports for CY 2011 and CY 2012. Note: FAA only counts enplanements, so multiply by two to get a rough estimate of total passenger traffic. Note, as well, the FAA does not count the United Bus like [LVIA Executive Director] Everett, [Airport Board Chair] Iannelli and the board have chosen to include in "their" numbers.

Even during the days when LVIA exceeded 1 million passengers (2000 and 2004), LVIA ranked around 114 nationally. In 2011, it dropped to 124 and to 141 in 2012.

Two things are worth noting. LVIA did recover from 9/11 - even though it meant the elimination of mainline service from many carriers (the rise of those 50-seat regional jets as a substitute). But, LVIA is not faring well in the consolidation going on in the industry. The Delta-Northwest merger resulted in reduced flights out of LVIA as did the United-Continental merger (no more DC flights, no more Cleveland flights, reduced service to Chicago). The Southwest/AirTran merger resulted in the elimination of AirTran service out of LVIA (Southwest sold all the AirTran Boeing 717s and flies only 737s). The USAirways-American merger (and associated financial challenges of both carriers) has eliminated the last "mainline" service at LVIA (USAirways to and from Charlotte), and may lead to the substitution of busses to PHL.

Simultaneously, United and USAirways have increased fares out of LVIA relative to PHL and Newark (not sure about Delta which doesn't have a big presence at either of those airports).

Business travel out of LVIA has always been fragile. The total traffic numbers in the early 2000s were inflated by the Doughty/Krauter regime by luring thinly-capitalized budget airlines to LVIA for leisure travel to Florida. Remember Southern Airlines? Hooters? DirectAir? All went belly-up - and often left LVIA holding the bag.

Ironically, the biggest impact may be Southwest's large and growing presence at PHL. That has forced USAirways to cut fares dramatically out of PHL which certainly hurts LVIA's ability to attract business travelers. But also, it hurts LVIA's leisure travel counts as Valley residents can now fly Southwest out of PHL to just about anywhere. Cheaply.

Someone like Dr. Thode would be ideal as a board member at the Lehigh and Northampton Airport Authority. This Board, which is too large, is composed of what seems to be far too many political appointees.

Spoken, where Larry Kauter went from LVIA, has about five times as many passengers as we have here. But it has a seven-member board as opposed to the 17-member board in Allentown.

Nine months ago, they hired Charles Everett as their new Executive Director, and Board Chair Tony Iannelli likened it to the "early stages of a beautiful marriage."

Other than selling everything that isn't nailed down, what are their plan to turn things around?

New restaurants.