Build And They Will Not Come

A Star story about the problem with fewer flights and drastically higher fares for flights at Indianapolis' International Airport tries its best to sugar coat a serious problem facing the city's airport. The reality is that the three-pronged public investments in a new airport terminal, expanded convention center and new football stadium have proven not to be the panacea touted by their proponents. The new airport terminal has never seen the level of flights experienced at the old airport terminal. The story blames fewer flights at the new terminal on the loss of local airline ATA after it went bankrupt, failing to point out that much higher fees on the airlines to pay for the new airport terminal's $1.1 billion cost coincided with ATA's demise.

A USA Today study found that Indianapolis' airport has lost one-third of its passenger flights since 2005, while airfares have risen 23% in inflation-adjusted dollars. It's not just the loss of ATA that has contributed to fewer flights. Northwest cut back the mini hub it had been growing at Indianapolis' airport after its merger with Delta in 2009. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation had to take the drastic step of providing an annual guarantee of $1.5 million just to coax United Airlines into adding one non-stop daily flight to San Francisco. "City officials now hope that United’s competitors don’t respond by offering cut-rate fares on competing one-stop flights to San Francisco, undercutting the gamble that the IEDC has taken with public money," the Star report says. Yeah, competition that yields lower airfares is the last thing we want, eh?

A spokesman for Visit Indy says it is trying to lure more visitors to the city by convincing them that hotels, restaurants and taxi fares are cheaper in Indianapolis than other cities. “It’s a new message we have been able to deliver to key meeting planners,” Gahl said. More than a few would quarrel with Gahl's claim, particularly due to the fact that the city's taxes on hotel, restaurants and car rentals have been increased to among the highest levels in the country to help pay for all of these added amenities the folks at Visit Indy assured us would attract more visitors if we built.