The battle over airfares and passengers

Tim Bradshaw knows the perception is out there.

"We have twelve years of perception we have to educate people about," the director of the Eastern Iowa Airport said during a February 8th interview at his office.

Bradshaw came to Cedar Rapids from Louisville, Kentucky in 2010.  We sat down with him to go into how his airport is working to stay competitive, even as plenty of fliers drive past CID on their way to other airports.

"We have some leakage to Moline (MLI) or Chicago.  Some people will even drive to Chicago to get a good fare."

In the airport business, leaders count the number of "enplanements", the industry term of departing passengers.  Bradshaw said CID has 427,000 enplanements during 2011.

To read more form Chris Earl's story, click here.

Here are the Top 10 counties from our non-scientific but time-consuming and calorie-burning count (based off 1,700 vehicles):

County

No. of Cars

Percentage

Linn

528

31.0

Johnson

415

26.1

Black Hawk

217

13.6

Dubuque

48

3.1

Benton

37

2.1

Buchanan

30

1.8

Bremer

27

1.6

Iowa

24

1.4

Cedar

21

1.2

Jones

20

1.1

Non-Iowa

68

4.0

**Note on the table: The license plates with Hawkeye/Panther/Cyclone plates were not counted.  That probably made up another 100 "uncounted" vehicles.

The Airfares Themselves

More proof that prices for airfares are often moving.  We have tracked specific routes for this story over different days.  These are round-trip fares through a search of the travel website Orbitz.  We picked a April 16 departure and April 22.  Note: On some of the Allegiant fares, the departure date may be a day before/after April 16.  The prices listed do not include baggage fees, online convenience fees, etc.

 

10 am - noon

noon - 2 pm

2 pm - 4 pm

Monday

Home Ec

Math

Geography

Wednesday

History

Social Studies

P.E.

Friday

Music

Peace Studies

Sleep

To: Los Angeles (LAX)

Jan. 27

Feb. 11

Feb. 17

Feb. 21

Cedar Rapids

$512

$507

 $371

$313

Moline

$523

$480

 $518

$527

Des Moines

$331

$326

 $322

$310

To: Phoenix

Jan. 27

Feb. 11

Feb. 17

Feb. 21

Cedar Rapids

$253*

$253*

 $253*

$231*

Moline

$372

$243*

 $243*

$260*

Des Moines

$320

$350

$350

$335

To: Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW)

Jan. 27

Feb. 11

Feb. 17

Feb. 21

Cedar Rapids

$313

$301

$359

$275

Moline

$199

$421

$281

$277

Des Moines

$311

$248

$357

$355

To: Tampa *OR* St. Pete.

Jan. 27

Feb. 11

Feb. 17

Feb. 21

Cedar Rapids

$240*

$240*

$240*

$240*

Moline

$222*

$243*

$222*

$222*

Des Moines

$249*

$292*

$292*

$292*

To: Miami (MIA)

Jan. 27

Feb. 11

Feb. 17

Feb. 21

Cedar Rapids

$539

$511

 $549

$549

Moline

$395

$397

 $405

$417

Des Moines

$388

$433

 $433

$434

*Represents a "low-cost" carrier, such as Alliegant or Frontier