Oklahoma City welcomes new United San Francisco service
The ribbon for United’s new service to Oklahoma City from San Francisco was cut by John Aynes, Managing Director United Express Operations, and Mark Kranenburg, Oklahoma City Airports Director. This is the second route to launch between the airport and California this year.
The airport serving Oklahoma City in the US state of Oklahoma is named after the famous cowboy and entertainer Will Rogers. This week, Will Rogers World Airport welcomed a new United Airlines service from San Francisco operated by Skywest using a CRJ700, which is the airport’s second new service to California this year after American Airlines began daily flights to Los Angeles in April, a route which United already serves. In the last two years, the airport has also lost just two services, American to St Louis (a route still served by Southwest), and Delta to Cincinnati.
Passenger numbers at the airport have been unusually stable during the last decade, varying between 3.2 million and 3.7 million. Last year, traffic rose by 2.4% to 3.47 million, the same number as the airport reported in 1999.
Source: FlyOKC.com
So far in 2011 (January through July), passenger numbers are up 2.3% to just over two million. Figures for July itself were up 2.5%.
Southwest leading airline serving eight destinations
Analysis of current schedule data shows that six airlines serve the airport (assuming that Continental and United are still considered separate airlines). One notable absentee is US Airways, which does not serve the airport from any of its hubs.
| Airline | WDF | WDS | Routes (WF) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest | 135 | 18,255 | Baltimore/Washington (7), Dallas Love Field (31), Denver (19), Houston Hobby (24), Kansas City (14), Las Vegas (14), Phoenix (14), St Louis (12) |
| American Airlines | 89 | 9,380 | Chicago O’Hare (33), Dallas / Ft Worth (49), Los Angeles (7) |
| Delta Air Lines | 111 | 7,938 | Atlanta (34), Detroit (16), Memphis (20), Minneapolis / St Paul (22), Salt Lake City (19) |
| United Airlines | 85 | 5,468 | Chicago O’Hare (31), Denver (33), Los Angeles (7), San Francisco (7), Washington Dulles (7), |
| Continental Airlines | 65 | 3,790 | Newark (7), Houston Intercontinental (57) |
| Frontier | 21 | 2,188 | Denver (21) |
| Source: OAG Max Online for w/c 5 September 2011 | |||
Fares rise relative to national average
Data from the US Department of Transportation’s Office of Aviation Analysis reveals that average fares from the airport have risen since the end of 2007. In early 2008, average fares were significantly below the national average, but rose during the year such that in 2009 and 2010 average fares have been around 4-5% above the national average. This reflects the fact that although Southwest is the airport’s biggest customer, LCCs (Southwest and Frontier) still account for under 50% of the airport’s weekly seat capacity.
Source: US DOT Office Of Aviation Analysis
OKC service to SFO reflects two things. The Norcal transplants moving to OKC for work and the low taxation creating a great talent pool to choose from..