FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
AIRLINE UNSERVED REPORT
2) HOW DO YOU READ THE REPORT?
3) IS THERE A MINIMUM DEPARTURES?
4) WHY INCLUDE AIRPORTS THAT ARE SEASONAL?
6) THERE ARE DOTS MISSING FROM THE MAP?
7) THE RANKING DOES NOT MATCH TRAFFIC VOLUMES?
8) WHY HAVEN'T THESE ROUTES BEEN ADDED?
2) HOW DO YOU READ THE REPORT?
This report shows, for a specified target month in the future, what are the largest domestic and international airports the specified airline does not have scheduled flights planned. Largest is defined as all stage adjusted O&D revenue for any airline flying domestic U.S. service and flights to and from the U.S. on any airline. Revenue and traffic from domestic flights in foreign countries are not considered in the ranking. O&D demand/revenue data is used for the most recent period of reported data encompassing the same month as the target period. For example, if the target data is October, that falls in the 4th quarter and ranking O&D demand/revenue would be used from a prior year from the 4th quarter. BOLD indicates an airport that is not for sale in any future month. Airports not shown in Bold are not for sale in the target month, but are for sale in other future months. This can happen for several reasons: a) the airport is seasonally served but not during the target month, b) service to the airport is ending prior to the target date, or c) service to the airport is beginning after the target date.
3) IS THERE A MINIMUM DEPARTURES?
Becasue there are often charters listed in the published schedule, we have elected to use minimum flight levels. For a month an airport must have at least 4 operations on the airline checked to appear as served. In determining whether the airport is served for the entire selling period of many months, an airport must have at least 6 operations over the whole period to appear as served.
4) WHY INCLUDE AIRPORTS THAT ARE SEASONAL?
It is a judgement call whether an airport is seasonally served or just being deleted. This automated report can't make that decision accurately, so if the airport is not served in the target month it will appear on the list. However, if the airport is for sale in other future months it will not be shown in Bold to indicate that.
5) WHY NOT MORE AIRLINES?
The airlines selected are the most relevant to the standard report format. Including airlines that don't fly or barely fly international would mean the international list is not as useful.
6) THERE ARE DOTS MISSING FROM THE MAP?
Only the 20 largest airports in the Domestic and International category are shown to reduce clutter.
7) THE RANKING DOES NOT MATCH TRAFFIC VOLUMES?
The ranking is based upon stage adjusted revenue for flights to, from, or within the United States. For U.S. airports it includes both domestic and international data, but for foreign airports it only captures U.S. travel. Stage adjusted revenue uses an industry standard formula to recalculate the fare to a standard distance, in this case 1500 miles, the neutral fare is then multiplied by traffic to create a rank. The purpose is to prevent longer destination distances from automatically being highly ranked because the fare is higher for longer flights. Conversely, shorter destinations would be under-ranked without this adjustment.
8) WHY HAVEN'T THESE ROUTES BEEN ADDED?
There are too many potential reasons to list, but among them are risk level, fit with the airline's business plan, and fleet availability. Some routes may also be too far to fly non-stop from the United States, or the airport may have a runway that is too short. Airlines also tend to fly from their hubs, if the traffic is mostly not to a hub then getting flights becomes harder in many cases. Airlines also concern themselves with point of sale penetration. If the market dynamics mean that a route is heavily weighted for sales toward the airline's hub (say 70% of the traffic is sold at the airline's hub) that is usually a much easier decision than the reverse. If 70% of the traffic on a potential route is sold at the new city to be added, that is much riskier as the carrier must quickly build loyalty there or face traffic and profitability concerns.
9) THE AIRPORT RANKINGS ARE WRONG?
It is rare that you will see airports ranked by stage adjusted O&D revenue for each airport, and only including passengers whose trips involved travel to, from, or within the United States. The ranking of the largest airports in the world are typically calculated using only onboard traffic and rarely O&D revenue. Additionally, for foreign airports, using only passengers on journeys to and from the United States also is not typical for such rankings. So, just because you may be used to seeing Chicago ORD, Atlanta (ATL), or Dubai (DXB) at the top of airport rankings, this does not use same methodology.
10) 5TH FREEDOM AIRPORTS ARE WRONG?
Flights have to operate to/from the United States to be included. If an airline operates a technical stop or 5th Freedom stop it is not included. Flights beyond Guam (GUM) or San Juan (SJU) may also not appear. Code share is not considered unless it is a regional carrier only operating under a single marketing code.