[isangpogi]

I know we all want Boise to Idaho Falls service, me included, but it's a difficult case to make. Here's why: The culture in Idaho Falls is much more aligned to Salt Lake and Utah than it is to Boise and the rest of Idaho. There is some government travel and a little bit of business travel, but would that be enough to sustain air service? To give an example of the culture in IF, Utah Ave is a major thoroughfare linking the retailers on 17th street to Downtown, I-15 and US-20. Idaho Ave, on the other hand, is a residential side street. I feel like we are trying to link two sections of the state who each want to pretend the other doesn't exist.

45 minutes south and even closer to Salt Lake, Pocatello is more closely tied to Boise than IF is because of Simplot and Idaho State University. Pocatello's lower LDS presence I'm sure plays a part in this as well. I feel one could make an easier argument for Pocatello to Boise air service, but then Pocatello is only a three hour drive from Boise.

Here's what I'm getting at: The only way BOI-IDA service will ever work again is if Idaho Falls passengers could connect in Boise to other cities. Even then, it's a difficult case to make because Idaho Falls passengers can connect though Delta's huge SLC hub. It's an even harder case to make when many E. Idaho air passengers are just driving to SLC and catching a plane there.

So a legacy carrier doesn't make much sense because of Delta's huge presence just over the border at SLC. Boise will never be able to compete with that. A few months ago, I suggested that a Delta Connection or United Express Embraer turboprop could work out but it seems those are being phased out. Legacies are shedding even their smaller Regional Jets because they are too expensive to run.

A tiny regional outfit has been tried but their cost per seat is high, and they are serving a very small group of people who must fly, not drive between Idaho Falls and Boise. A regional outfit also would not be able to provide customers with opportunities to connect onward. If they did work out a code-sharing agreement with a legacy, they would be facing the same problem that any other carrier would: Why connect through Boise when it's more convenient to connect through SLC?

So finally, this brings us to low-cost carriers. BOI-IDA wouldn't fit Allegiant's business model of shuttling weekenders from small towns to epicenters of tourism. The route would need daily service to appeal to that small demographic. Spirit would have to enter both markets and running a thin route like BOI-IDA wouldn't fit into their model either.

So what about Southwest? They can make thin routes like BOI-GEG work twice a day, would it be too far of a stretch to serve BOI-IDA? It could work into their point-to-point system to reopen BOI-SLC on Southwest. They could fly BOI-IDA-SLC. Between BOI and IDA pax going to SLC this could work. This would be great for both Boise and Idaho Falls passengers, giving Delta some much needed competition after milking the SLC-Idaho market. I wouldn't mind sitting on the ground in Idaho Falls for 30 mins if it saved me $$ over flying Delta nonstop. The route also allows Idaho Falls passengers to connect further in either SLC or Boise, depending on scheduling. Connection options would be key to reopening BOI-IDA since it doesn't seem there is enough local demand to fill a plane.

Southwest's BOI-SLC flights performed well while they were still going, add in some BOI-IDA passengers, and plenty of IDA-SLC traffic and I think this could really work. Southwest would even get leisure travelers on these flights, something that was cost-prohibitive with SeaPort. Southwest would also be bringing back 737 service to Idaho Falls, absent since Delta went to only RJ's between there and SLC.