Uber Shuttle For Rural Communities Losing Essential Air Service

Submitted 7 years ago

Small rural airports - survival for cities as Essential Air Service - need a replacement

SeaPort Airlines shutting down Tuesday night, officials say
In an email sent out Tuesday afternoon, Sieber said SeaPort had at a Tuesday hearing filed a motion to convert the case from Chapter 11 reorganization to Chapter 7 liquidation.
A Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee was put in charge of liquidating the company's assets.

My comment --
My experience with local airline service precedes overnight FedEx service when you could only get urgent computer replacement parts via airline service.
Also surrounding airports at Fayetteville and Springfield were only a small step up over HRO. Branson had a small airport connected to S of O.
Now with all the changes in NW Arkansas with Walmart , Tyson's, and J B Hunt there is an airport at XNA with many US non-stop flights. Branson is a tourist destination justifying a new airport and better connections. Little Rock has Southwest Airlines who significantly reduces cost.
Many times rural communities focus on leisure travel, while the real economic impact is the commercial traveler. Companies like FedEx prefer locations with airline access.
Essential Air Service due to reasons mentioned above will only get tougher.
Airlines, even with substantial government subsidies are unable to survive.
Communities will be forced to develop new strategies, and become very creative.
With an on-demand economy, there has to be a rethinking.
Much better analytics on making case for air service - critical analysis on local air traffic - use of local airline versus going out of town. Impact on local economic growth.
Air service will have to consider other models - one of the more interesting is a Uber approach. Biggest need is a shuttle service to XNA and LIT and even MEM.