Good news, bad news

The good news: according to the Albuquerque Journal, the airport at Santa Fe has finally been given the go-ahead for commercial jet flights.

The bad news: nobody knows if the airlines that were interested in flying to/from Santa Fe are still interested in doing so, considering how the economy has changed in the 14 months since flights were originally set to begin.

Stay tuned...

Good news, bad news

Given its size restrictions and limitations, we weren%26#39;t looking at anything much bigger than smaller, regional shuttle, less than 75 seat, type planes to begin with.

I%26#39;m sure the market for that type of traveler is pretty dismal right now. Maybe some business class travelers from the immediate couple of states, but hardly the typical TA type vacationer who can take advantage of ABQ%26#39;s larger size and bigger choices to promote more competitive pricing.

Even ABQ Sunport is seeing some rollbacks on service and flights being dropped.

On the really good news front for travelers, a poorly written, freshmen NM senator introduced 10% lodging tax surcharge bill appears to have been tabled and hopefully permanently dispatched with extreme prejudice in our legislature.

If passed, it would have made the total lodging tax in some localities like within Santa Fe city limits over 25%.

Good news, bad news

Delta was going to operate from LAX via their ExpressJet commuter. Since they no longer have an affiliation with ExpressJet and they are wrapped up in their merge with Nortwest, that seems to be that. The other carrier would have been American Eagle from/to Dallas and I believe they are still considering it.

Since American Express flies almost entirely smaller, jet props, I doubt many travelers would choose to fly from D/FW direct to Santa Fe, when they can fly in comfort (relatively speaking) on an MD-80, or 737 into Albuquerque, and take an hour%26#39;s drive to Santa Fe.

Now if Santa Fe were a two hour drive from Albuquerque%26#39;s airport...that might make a differece. Seems the entire prospect is moot for now however.

If the time comes, when a large percentage of Santa Fe bound travelers, take the RailRunner from the Sunport into Santa Fe, the ';need'; for direct flights would probably be even less attractive.

I think the reasoning behind getting commercial flights into SF may have been political more than anything practical. I seem to recall reading somewhere that SF was the only state capital in the US without commercial air service-- but in the long run, it doesn%26#39;t make much sense with other alternatives available.