Quote:
Originally Posted by texboy
I totally agree on the "stop focusing on Austin" part.... BUT.... you have to recognize that there is a city to the north that is taking at least SOME potential passengers .... and has somehow created an airport with 50 destinations for a city of less than a million and metro less than 2 million.... at some point we have to take a page out of SOMEONE's book that's been successful.... and say "hey, it worked for them, why not for us?"
And we aren't talking about just San Antonians that might be using ABIA, we're talking Seguin, New Braunfels, Universal City, San Marcos that SAT could be pulling from alot more.
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1) Yes, we are loosing “some” passengers to ABIA. However, it is far less than other posters would like to realize.
2) I'm a realist...Austin is not as “small” as "we" may think. As San Antonians, we need to realize we now have a venerable challenger 80 miles to the north. Austin’s MSA is (as of July 1, 2015) estimated to be 2,003,898, or about 370,000 less than SA’s (with three fewer counties than us). This number is based off of the U.S. Census Bureau’s estimated growth from 2010-2014. Also, the “city” population is inconsequential. If you want to use the “city” population argument, let’s look at this: based on 2014 estimates, Miami (the city of) is about 470,000 people smaller than Austin; Denver by roughly 250,000; San Francisco by about 50,000, etc., etc., etc. In fact, only 10 cities in the U.S. are bigger than Austin by “city” population. Our problem is that we do not recognize that fact. The sooner we do, the better off we will be. We look like an arrogant bastard if we don’t – why would Austin even want to speak with us on certain issues if we think of them that way?
3) I agree that we need to “look” at what others are doing to succeed. But, we do not need to dwell on it. We need to see how we can mold our own ideas into what has been successful in other cities and employ that here.
4) I apologize for not being more clear…when I speak of San Antonians, I speak of anyone living within our metropolitan area. Seguin, NB and UC are apart of that area. San Marcos is in Austin’s Metro area and is actually only a few miles from ABIA (thus, not, IMO, apart of the discussion). And, again, I don’t think AUS is “pulling a lot” from SAT. I have not seen any statistics to prove otherwise.
*Do you think AUS has ~400 passengers per day from our area (the SA metro area)? I don’t.