{"id":5803,"date":"2012-03-20T12:44:23","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T18:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=5803"},"modified":"2012-08-07T10:02:22","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T16:02:22","slug":"soaring-fuel-prices-mean-fewer-flights-from-boise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/20\/soaring-fuel-prices-mean-fewer-flights-from-boise\/","title":{"rendered":"Soaring Fuel Prices Mean Fewer Flights For Boise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5814\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Travelers hustled toward the security line at the Boise Airport this week.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Airport-Security.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5814\" title=\"Airport Security\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Airport-Security-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Airport-Security-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Airport-Security-620x449.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Airport-Security-220x159.jpg 220w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\"> <\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Travelers hustled toward the security line at the Boise Airport this week.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A story in today&#8217;s news drives home the large forces at play when Southwest decides &#8212; <a title=\"Flight Cuts Hit Midsize Cities As They Try For A Turnaround\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/20\/flight-cuts-hit-midsize-cities-as-they-try-for-a-turnaround\/\" target=\"_blank\">as it recently did<\/a> &#8212; to stop making flights from Boise to Seattle, Salt Lake and Reno.\u00a0 The International Air Transport Association, a trade group representing major passenger and cargo lines, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/airlines-group-dims-profit-outlook-to-3-billion-in-2012-as-fuel-prices-rise\/2012\/03\/20\/gIQA3cbuOS_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">says industry earnings will probably drop to $3 billion this year<\/a>.\u00a0 That&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/03\/21\/business\/global\/Fuel-Expense-Is-Forecast-to-Erase-62-Percent-of-Airline-Profits.html?ref=business\" target=\"_blank\">a more than 60 percent decline<\/a> from last year&#8217;s net income of $7.9 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The price of oil is the key factor in that projection of lost profits.\u00a0 Oil is now trading at about $107 a barrel.\u00a0 If the price were to spike to $150 a barrel, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/airlines-group-dims-profit-outlook-to-3-billion-in-2012-as-fuel-prices-rise\/2012\/03\/20\/gIQA3cbuOS_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">AP writes<\/a>, &#8220;the industry\u2019s diminished profit forecast for 2012 could turn to losses of more than $5 billion.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/20\/flight-cuts-hit-midsize-cities-as-they-try-for-a-turnaround\/\">Flight Cuts Hit Midsize Cities As They Try For A Turnaround<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/16\/as-airlines-drop-flights-boise-business-leaders-target-air-service\/\">As Airlines Drop Flights, Boise Business Leaders Target Air Service<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/15\/analyst-fewer-flights-from-boise-cant-be-good-for-business\/\">Analyst: Fewer Flights From Boise Can\u2019t Be Good For Business<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/08\/ChalkBoard_JeffreyCoolidge_getty-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/recession\/\">Defining the Recession<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Last week, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2012\/03\/13\/southwestair-idUSL2E8ED3LQ20120313\" target=\"_blank\">Southwest said<\/a> it does not expect to turn a first quarter profit, due to high fuel prices.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/news\/2012-03-13\/delta-joins-southwest-in-forecast-cuts-as-fuel-costs-surge\" target=\"_blank\">Delta predicted<\/a> lower earnings.<\/p>\n<p>This morning, we <a title=\"Flight Cuts Hit Midsize Cities As They Try For A Turnaround\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/20\/flight-cuts-hit-midsize-cities-as-they-try-for-a-turnaround\/\">reported<\/a> on the local effects of airlines&#8217; cost-cutting.<del><\/del>\u00a0 The story points out that a reduced number of flights in and out of Boise <a title=\"Analyst: Fewer Flights From Boise Can\u2019t Be Good For Business\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/15\/analyst-fewer-flights-from-boise-cant-be-good-for-business\/\">could <del><\/del>affect state commerce and business recruitment efforts<\/a>.\u00a0 Local business leaders and airport officials are on-guard against that possibility.<\/p>\n<p>Airlines have little choice but to fly fewer and fuller flights, in light of high fuel prices.\u00a0<a title=\"Flight Cuts Hit Midsize Cities As They Try For A Turnaround\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/20\/flight-cuts-hit-midsize-cities-as-they-try-for-a-turnaround\/\"> Midsize airports &#8212; like Boise&#8217;s &#8212; have been disproportionally affected<\/a> by the resulting flight suspensions.\u00a0 Aviation analyst Michael Boyd points out that in some places cuts have been devastating.\u00a0 &#8220;Newport News, Virginia lost almost half of their service when Southwest Airlines decided to pull one of their subsidiaries out,&#8221; he says.\u00a0 &#8220;Kaboom, half.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, Boyd says, Boise is faring well.\u00a0 Nevertheless, there will be 20 percent fewer seats leaving Boise this summer than last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A story in today&#8217;s news drives home the large forces at play when Southwest decides &#8212; as it recently did &#8212; to stop making flights from Boise to Seattle, Salt Lake and Reno.\u00a0 The International Air Transport Association, a trade group representing major passenger and cargo lines, says industry earnings will probably drop to $3 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[68,176,46],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9705,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803\/revisions\/9705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}