Quote:
Originally Posted by SDCAL
I think saying "we aren't a business destination" is a blanket statement without much relevance unless you specify what you're comparing it to. Maybe we aren't compared to NYC or SF, but we are compared to smaller cities. I've had to travel internationally for business many times and we are a biotech hub. We aren't Silicon Valley, but we still have business needs here otherwise the BA and JAL flights wouldn't be successful. I guess the gist of what I was getting at, and it's just my opinion here, our airport authority comes off as desperate on occasion. They seem like they would take anything from any airline just to add to their routes. My preference would have been if they tried to attract a Lufthansa-Frankfurt flight - that's an airline I've flown a lot, it's a good base not just for Europe but for CA to India flights, and it's a good mix of business and tourist travelers. For all I know, maybe they did and it wasn't feasible. Just speaking personally here, if I had either business or pleasure travel planned to Switz. or Germany, I'd book Swiss or Lufthansa out of LA or SF and take a codeshare there from SD instead of taking these smaller airlines. Again, personal preference - I guess people have to weigh what's more important, taking your preferred carrier or having a direct flight
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Apologies, allow me to be less concise. We are not a significant enough business destination. Our main industries are defense (domestic), tourism (primarily domestic, especially when you factor Mexico), and biotech (Boston and SV are higher on the totem pole). Qualcomm, by itself, does not make us a major telecom center. If we were a major financial, federal (D.C. status) or technology center that was not near the second largest city in the U.S., then maybe we would be getting more international business travelers, and thus more international routes.
And I don't believe our Airport Authority is acting desperate by accepting and touting these airline options. They are constantly reaching out to major airlines to attract new routes. Periodically, there are articles on how they're speaking with airlines from Europe, Asia and South America to link SD abroad. But the reality of the situation is, because of our economic and geographic position, SAN cannot afford to be picky. We're getting tourist-focused airlines because we are a tourist-focused town. If we were the headquarters of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, I'm sure Lufthansa would be running daily's to Frankfurt.
I would love to take major national carriers out of SAN to any number of destinations. But unless San Diego develops a more dominant and diverse economy (and LA slides into the Pacific), we will be transferring out of LAX or SFO for quite some time.
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