Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Delta, AirTran could move flights from Atlanta if can't reach suitable new lease agreement

Is this necessarily good news for O'Hare Airport?

Not really. The airlines are chaffing under the high costs of doing business at the Atlanta airport. If they can't maintain competitive costs on fees they pay, they will have to take some of their business elsewhere, according to the Associated Press.

The reason this isn't good news for O'Hare is that to support the cost of its expansion, the city will have to raise the fees its charges airlines, to perhaps the highest in the nation. The fees will be so high that the price of tickets for flights at O'Hare will have to be raised, making the airport less competitive. Undoubtedly, this also will play into airline calculations determining which airports they want to us.

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