Appleton to Charlotte begins – 53 two-way connections available
Appleton to Charlotte began on 5 November, with the first passenger having the honour of cutting the ribbon.
American launched Appleton – Charlotte on 5 November, with this service operating once-daily using Embraer 175s.
With non-stimulated point-to-point demand of 8,300 in 2019, rising to almost 18,000 if Green Bay is included, this route will of course rely on connections over American’s second-largest hub.
Analysis using OAG’s connections tool reveals that 53 two-way connections will be available, including seven destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico and – fundamentally – 16 in Florida.
This is based on the week starting 12 November, a maximum four-hour transit, and circuity of no more than 50%.
Appleton had approximately 158,000 passengers to these 53 destinations last year, booking data obtained through OAG Traffic Analyser reveals.
Based on the service’s schedule, 53 two-way destinations will be available, including 16 in Florida.
Appleton’s top-10 destinations very leisure-focused
Of these 53 destinations, the top-10, by indirect passengers, were unsurprisingly very leisure in nature: Orlando; Tampa; Fort Myers; Fort Lauderdale; Raleigh Durham; Miami; Savannah; Jacksonville; New Orleans; and, despite non-stops, Atlanta.
Allegiant serves Sanford, St Petersburg, and Punta Gorda for Orlando, Tampa, and Fort Myers, but the main airports remain unserved.
An estimated 82% of the 158,000 flew via a hub, especially Atlanta (39%) and Chicago O’Hare (35%), with Detroit a distant third (14%).
Crucially, American had a low 12% share of traffic to these 53, well behind Delta (63%) and United (25%). Clearly, the introduction of Charlotte will mean that the carrier will be able to grow its share of traffic from the Wisconsin airport to these destinations.
Will American begin Green Bay to Charlotte too? Even though it is just 37 miles away from Appleton, the airport had almost the same passenger volume to these 53 destinations last year. And on a P2P basis, Green Bay now remains the largest and closest unserved market from Charlotte.
American’s Charlotte service supplements its existing Chicago O’Hare route from Appleton.
When analyzing data for this region there is an effect that can skew demand too. Many residents of WI actually take up FL residence when they get older, but fly from MKE for nonstop service (more so prior to Allegiant, but still pretty common). When they book the tickets they use their FL addresses and fly into MKE and then drive. As such, there is no data source that captures them in leakage studies. Demand for Orlando (Villages retirement) Tampa and particularly Fort Myers (Naples) is much much higher. For example, in the 30 miles surrounding Green Bay 1,001 snow birds that are WI residents own second homes in Fort Myers. That number skyrockets when you include the WI people that are now FL residents. If they use MKE and a FL address they are not captured in passenger numbers from GRB or ATW catchment areas.
Hi Michael. Good to hear from you. This was based only on traffic to/from Appleton, so is perfectly valid in terms of connectivity. But I agree 100% about area demand with leakage for overall demand.