Sunday, February 28, 2016

Direct Flights To London, Anybody?

Indianapolis has to be home to some of the most ignorant economic development planners in the world. Thanks to the ample supply of capital our corrupt politicians feed them, they stay busy scheming up ideas to spend the money that yields zero benefits for the general public but always manage to funnel public dollars into the pockets of whoever's turn it is to feed at the public trough.

The latest scheme revolves around the abysmal failure of the very costly airport terminal at Indianapolis International Airport to attract more flights. Much to their chagrin, flight traffic in and out of the airport declined after the new terminal opened, which I'm sure had nothing to do with the higher costs airline carriers had to pay to cover the costs of the new terminal.

You may recall these geniuses came up with the idea of subsidizing a direct flight from Indianapolis to San Francisco, ostensibly for the convenience of a handful of people who got very rich off the spam e-mail business known as Exact Target. Airlines were unwilling to commit to a direct flight because the numbers just weren't there to support one. State economic development officials agreed to guarantee $1.5 million in annual revenues to United just for making the direct flight option available.

Now the IBJ tells us these economic developer wonders have "their eyes laser-focused across the pond in a quest to land a new international nonstop flight across the pond." It's difficult enough to find a direct flight for a Florida vacation, but these fellows believe a direct daily flight to London would be the "boon" the airport needs to succeed. Naturally, the plan involves yet another plan to subsidize British airways to the tune of some untold sum to make daily non-stop flights to London available. "It would be incredibly beneficial," the airport's CEO tells the IBJ. "We can demonstrate a need. I think the chances are very good."

The head of the IEDC, Vic Smith, claims the idea for a subsidized, non-stop flight to London came from businesses like Eli Lilly and Rolls-Royce, as he complained from Sydney about the roundabout way he was required to fly first to Chicago and then San Francisco before flying on to Australia. Smith says his travel experience was "a perfect example of why we need international connectivity." A spokesman for Rolls-Royce says the direct flight to London would be beneficial to the company's employees as long as long as it's "competitively-priced." What's that mean? All of these companies have private corporate jets they fly around their executives all the time. Costs couldn't be a concern or they wouldn't spend so much of their shareholders' money avoiding commercial airline carriers. The IBJ should understand that. It ran a story a couple of years ago talking about how much competition there was among Indianapolis area airports to provide flight service for all of these corporate-owned jets.

I don't think this has anything to do with what local businesses are requesting; rather, it's all about these eggheads wanting more convenient flight connections for their pleasure travel and has nothing to do with business. Smith had one-stop options for his flight from Indianapolis to Sydney. He chose a 2-stop flight for personal convenience. Indianapolis is not an airport hub. You can't expect direct flights to every destination, but because the airport isn't a hub, you're probably able to get cheaper airfare when you travel, if less convenient. It's too bad that the people who populate these economic development agencies don't believe in free markets. I sometimes think they would be happier living in China based on the government command and control they insist upon in the name of economic development.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any chance they just want to make it easier for big wigs to get the Colts game in London on Oct. 2? Then by the end of the year everyone will discover daily non-stop service isn't profitable from Indianapolis (even with subsidies).

Gary R. Welsh said...

Interesting thought, which would be even more interesting if the inaugural flight coincided with that game. Pence will tell the IEDC to approve the subsidy and then lead a delegation of the usual suspects to London to see the game in person, conveniently planned just a month before the November election to showcase Indianapolis as an internationally-connected, world class city.

Anonymous said...


PENCE MUST GO

Anonymous said...

had the same thought, this coincides with the whole nfl London thing; we're world class!!! yipppeeee!! I remember moving here in the mid 90s and circle center mall was opening and that's when the whole 'world class city' thing started (despite pumping raw sewage into white river); I vividly recall saying to a friend at the time 'sounds like a good phrase to make me want to hold onto my wallet'; fast forward 20 years, its worse than I ever could have imagined . . .

Anonymous said...

How many International fligh
ts are there...

Pete Boggs said...

Indy can be a Whirled Caste or Classist City!

Anonymous said...

Don't forget it gives Indy hacks bragging rights over other mid tier cities- to say we have non stop service to London. More of the same inferiority complex.

Anonymous said...

"How many International flights are there..."

Scheduled Direct Flights ... None.

Anonymous said...

I'd be curious to know how much they're going to have to pay out to backstop this flight. I mean, they had to pay out to backstop the UAL flight to SFO and SFO is actually a market that there might be a reason to fly nonstop to. I'd also love to know what FEDEX's deal with IND looks like. Do they get priority for slots? I assume they do, because I can't imagine they didn't ask for it and I also can't imagine that our insecure "power brokers" didn't capitulate, just like they always do.

Like just about everything else in this town, our airport is totally mismanaged. With so much business in places like Lafayette and Fort Wayne now, IND should be marketed as a Chicago reliever. It's a low traffic airport (132 daily passenger flights vs. 600+ in SLC and 400+ in RDU...airports with similar runway configurations) but I've never heard that. As a Chicago reliever, it might make sense to roll the dice on some nonstops, but lets be honest here. We're marketing Indy to the airlines. They're not coming to us. That means we're gonna have to pay if we want the flights. Like everything else in the Indy business community, it is a fabricated fable.

Anonymous said...

Indy will always be the "country cousin" of Chicago.

Anonymous said...

The Colts NFL London game is the only one of the three that isn't sold out. Wonder if the NFL is "encouraging" Indiana/polis during this week's Combine to make sure it is.

http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/NFL

Anonymous said...

What about customs? Will they not be required to have a customs staff?

Anonymous said...

This strikes me as an opportune time for some "enterprising" soul in the mainstream media or blogosphere to do a little research on the direct IND-SFO flight, how well it is doing, and whether the subsidy has had to come into play, or whether or not the free market has done its job....my guess as to who might be likely to do such a job would be the IBJ from the MM, or Gary or Paul Ogden from the Blogosphere....but certainly it is a public records issue since public dollars are involved -- do you think the IEDC and the Airport Authority (for data on flight sales) would be forthcoming? Just wondering...

And in response to a few other postings wondering what are the non-stop International destinations from Indpls, there are two (as far as I can tell) Cancun and Toronto.

RhondaLeeBaby69 said...

There is already a customs office as it is an international airport and there are non-stop flights to/from Canada and Mexico.

Anonymous said...

RR has a lot of employees here who have to travel to the mothership, England, and who are regular slobs like the rest of us, stuck in the back of the bus.