Commuter Airlines in the U.S.: Their Development, Distribution, and Locational Implications

Commuter Airlines in the U.S.: Their Development, Distribution, and Locational Implications I. E. QUASTLER* The pewod since 1964 has seen the rapid development of an essentially new type of scheduled airline in the United States, the commuter air carrier.1 These airlines, also known as third-level air carriers , operate scheduled services with planes with a certified gross takeoff weight of less than 12,500 pounds.2 The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) defines commuter air carriers as those airlines, operating such small craft, "which perform, pursuant to published schedules , at least five round trips a week between two or more points."3 There has been a rapid growth in the number of such airlines; they increased from 12 in January 1964 to 240 in November 1968.* ß Dr. Quastler is an assistant professor of geography at San Diego State College 92115. This article was developed from a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association at San Fernando Valley State College, June 12, 1969. 1 A small number of such airlines preceded 1964. The former official Civil Aeronautics Board designation for these airlines was scheduled air taxis but is now commuter air carriers. The somewhat less awkward term commuter airlines is used most commonly in this study. 2 A few exemptions to operate larger planes have been granted by the Civil Aeronautics Board. Domestic trunk and regional carriers are considered the first- and second-level airlines, respectively. 3 Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Commuter Air Carrier Operators as of September, 1969 (Washington, D. C: Government Printing Office, 1970), p. i. The data in this publication are based on the 153 operators who returned a CAB questionnaire for the quarter ending September 30, 1969. 4 Ibid., p. 6. The data after 1965 include operations in Alaska and Hawaii. It should be noted that the data base changed somewhat between 1968 and 1969 and that comparisons between these years should therefore be considered as only approximate. 99 100ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS Since that time the number has declined and only 167 were enumerated on September 30, 1969.° This decline of nearly one third was not, however, as substantial as these numerical changes seem to indicate ; mergers and the withdrawal of small operators were frequent during this period. For example, between November 1968 and September 1969, the average number of planes per operator increased from 5.3 to 5.6e and the average number of seats per plane increased from 8.4 to 10.2.7 As a result the number of seats in the third level aircraft fleet decreased by only about 20 percent, from 10,647 to 8,769.8 In the same period the number of relatively large and highly productive turbine-powered planes increased from 122 to 200.9 In addition airlines within the industry continue to report high traffic growth rates as they have for several years. Individual airline traffic results for 1970 commonly show increases of 30 to 100 percent in number of passengers carried compared with the same period in 1969.10 The purpose of this study is to account for the rapid development of the third-level airline industry, to examine its evolving locational patterns, and to suggest ways these airlines are likely to influence the location of economic activity in the United States in the future. Bases of Growth and Functions Many factors account for the rapid growth of the commuter airline industry since 1964. The increasing level of per capita income in the United States has been a major factor leading to a higher eval5 Department of Transportation, op. cit., p. ii. 6 Ibid., p. 6. 7 Ibid., p. 1. 8 Ibid., p. 2. 9 Ibid., p. 2. 10Executive Airlines, for example, carried 200,000 passengers between January and June, 1970; this represented a 118 percent traffic increase in its New England division and a 65 percent increase in its Florida-Georgia operations compared with the same period in 1969. See Aviation Daily, July 13, 1970, p. 59. In 1968 the Federal Aviation Administration estimated die annual commuter patronage at 1.5 million persons. See 1969, p. 2. In fiscal 1970 the industry carried 4.1 million passengers in the...