I’m surprised I didn’t contribute to this thread the first time around, but I might include Tacoma, Washington, where I grew up. Sea-Tac Airport is located south of downtown Seattle, so it’s reasonably convenient when coming from Tacoma. The Tacoma airport, which is across the Narrows from downtown, doesn’t have any scheduled service.
There is a joint Army/Air Force base just a little south of Tacoma, which actually has two airports (dating from when it was two separate bases).
And south of that you have Olympia, another state capital that doesn’t have a commercial airport. There was talk of building one in the county to take some of the pressure off of SeaTac, but the NIMBYs threw a fit and the state board tasked with deciding where to build the new airport eventually decided not to decide, so I guess we better hope SeaTac can keep up with the increasing pace for another 30-40 years.
am I right to assume that Tweed Airport is more popular with travellers in fall and winter than during summertime?
This is another one of those cases that depends on how you define “has an airport”. Olympia Regional Airport already exists, and while the runway is a little on the short side for commercial operations I think it should be adequate for some regional jet flights on short routes (although I’m not an expert). I would think if some airline expressed an interest in flying there a makeshift passenger terminal could be built, or the existing general aviation terminal modified to handle scheduled passenger flights.
Why would you assume that?
How about Lafayette/West Lafayette in Indiana? Together they have 115,000 people. The nearest commercial airport is Indianapolis, which is 60 miles away. I think that’s far enough away to qualify as “not a suburb.”
Nope. Topeka Regional Airport has no airlines that fly into it. You have to fly into Manhattan or Kansas City.
Well, when do you wear tweed? And do you wear white after Labor Day? ;-D
I was waiting to see how long it would take him to figure it out. To be fair, if it was only a little less obvious I could have been whooshed as well.
Oh. It was a stupid joke. Ha ha ha.
Yet, Salina, KS has commercial flights going in/out of its regional airport and Salina only has 42,000 people in it. Salina is 112 miles to Topeka.
But Salina is listed as an Essential Air Service City, which means the Federal Government subsidizes commercial service into the area. AFAICT, Manhattan has air service because airlines want to fly there. (Of course, Manhattan also serves Ft. Riley, as well as Kansas State University).
This makes me wonder if Manhattan (population about 54,000) is the smallest U.S. city getting year-round, non-subsidized, commercial air service.
A smaller one that I can think of, offhand, is Wausau, Wisconsin (population 40,000), which is served by Central Wisconsin Airport in nearby Mosinee. It’s served by both Delta Connection (to MSP) and American Eagle (to ORD) year-round, and isn’t an EAS community.
To be entirely fair, Central Wisconsin Airport is a regional airport, and also serves Stevens Point (population 26,000, 20 miles south), Wisconsin Rapids (population 19,000, 34 miles south) and Marshfield (population 19,000, 32 miles west).
The population is only 54,000 if you’re only talking about the city itself. According to Wikipedia, the larger Manhattan-Junction City, Kansas Combined Statistical Area has a population of almost 135,000. I suspect there are plenty of airports that serve large populations but are technically in small towns.
Edited to add, @kenobi_65 makes a similar point.
It gets into semantic definitions, but the commercial airports serving Seattle (pop 750,000) are outside its city limits in other city jurisdictions. However, our humble little floatplane harbor on the lake (Kenmore Air Harbor Seaplane Base) does do regular commercial passenger service, so it could be considered a disqualifier.
That is a very good point – the proper way to measure the population an airport serves is by the population of its catchment area, not just the population of the city it’s in.
IIRC, Manhattan started out as an EAS city, but the service proved so successful that the airline was able to continue flying there without the subsidy.
Would Chico, CA make the list? At the time this thread was started it may have had passenger service but I believe currently it does not. One would have to drive about 60 miles north to Redding for that. Chico has about 100k people and Butte County about 200k.
Montpelier VT does have an airport (the Edward F. Knapp State Airport) about 5 miles away. It has had sporadic scheduled air service over the years (but not now). Burlington (39 miles from Montpelier by car) and Rutland (67 miles away by car) are the only Vermont airports with scheduled/commercial air services.
By the U.S. Census department’s definitions, the largest “Metropolitan Statistical Area” (MSA) without an airport is the greater Bridgeport, CT area, with a 2023 estimated population of about 950k.
However, it was debated upthread whether Bridgeport is really just part of the greater NYC area. The U.S. Census Department accounts for this by defining “Combined Statistical Areas” (CSAs) that encompass several metro areas. The largest MSA without commercial air service that’s not in one of these CSAs appears to be Ocala, FL, with a 2023 estimated population of about 410k. Ocala International Airport does exist, but it hasn’t had commercial service since 1987 and it is unlikely to start up again any time soon. Residents of Ocala either drive to Gainesville, 50 minutes away, which has a few flights a day to big hubs; or about 1.5 hours to either Tampa or Orlando, which have many more flights to many more destinations.
Nexus of suckitude, remember?