Study: Airport captures more local passengers

The study, conducted by aviation consultant The Boyd Group, estimates the airport’s leakage at 12 percent. That’s compared to the standard 30 percent that officials had seen for years, most recently in a 2005 study.

“This is a very pleasant surprise,” airport Director of Aviation Gary Cyr said in a news release. “The leakage improvement tells me customers are deciding the difference in (ticket) price isn’t worth the drive to airports in Kansas City, St. Louis or Tulsa.”

The study cites two main reasons for the improvement: the addition of low-cost airline Allegiant Air service in April 2005 and the addition of Delta service to Atlanta in December 2005.

While airport officials were at first skeptical of the drastic reduction in leakage, they point to a resident market survey conducted in 2006 that suggested about 85 percent of resident commercial airport customers flew out of the Springfield airport on their last flight.

“When I read that finding back in 2006, I dismissed it. I assumed it was an anomaly,” said airport Director of Marketing Kent Boyd in the release. “After all, it wasn’t an aviation study. It was a marketing study using different methodology. As it turns out, we now have two studies that validate each other.”

The airport expects the improved leakage numbers to help attract other airlines to the airport, according to the release. Airlines typically look for strong capture rates when considering new service.