The past couple of months have seen some new announcements for added airlines and destinations previously unserved for the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Hooray! It is about time we see a little new blood flexing their muscles in our air service community.

I don’t know if anyone else has become frustrated with the “old standby” (no pun intended) carrier that has served Reno-Tahoe for many years…and might I add…has been enthusiastically supported by residents such as myself for equally as long. In anticipation of writing this blog, I thought I would do a little fantasy get-away planning to make my point. Let me set this trip planning up so that we know that everything was on equal ground. I selected a departure date just in excess of 2 weeks from this writing in hopes of finding fares that weren’t too outrageous…you be the judge! Departure was a Thursday and return the following Sunday for all inquiries. Here are my results with the destination listed first, the roundtrip airfare and the roundtrip flight time:

• Reno – Las Vegas                $329           2 Hours 35 Minutes
• Reno – Los Angeles            $166           2 Hours 50 Minutes
• Reno – Oakland                   $447           8 Hours 55 Minutes
• Reno – San Jose                 $507           8 Hours 20 Minutes
• Reno – Portland                  $299           9 Hours 45 Minutes
• Reno – Seattle                    $494           10 Hours 10 Minutes

Really inconsistent results, don’t you think? Can you guess the mystery carrier? I purposely included the last 4 destinations because this carrier has recently discontinued nonstop service to these destinations. I felt that it was important to show that they can still get us to these destinations but you will likely be routed through Las Vegas further distorting the seat demand for that important Nevada destination for business and government purposes.

Just for fun, and to further press my point of discontent, I thought I would plan a more extensive trip for my long weekend. Here are my results from that search using another major airline:

• Reno – New York La Guardia      $565      19 Hours 10 Minutes
• Reno – Kona                                 $838      23 Hours 50 Minutes

These results point to a very real problem for us that rely on good affordable air service to nearby important destinations for our market. This problem will likely only be rectified by the introduction of additional carriers to our area. Let’s hope we are on the cusp of seeing that happen. In the meantime, we will have to happily climb aboard our over-sold aircraft and enjoy our often delayed flights to our over-priced destinations. Happy flying!