to Scott Beck, president and CEO of Visit Salt Lake. Salt Lake City is a Delta hub, and as of July 2013, the airline offered 277 peak-day departures to 85 nonstop destinations. “We have benefited immensely from all of the

recent changes,” Beck said. “One of the underly- ing pieces of information that may be not intui- tive in the numbers reported is that, when it comes to meetings and conventions, we get asked about the destinations served more than [the number of] flights.”

‘Just like we’ve seen winners in the airline industry, and losers that have gone out of business, we’re likely to see airports that certainly won’t get back to the levels of service they once enjoyed.’

Some of the cuts made at Salt Lake City International Airport eliminated duplicate service to cities, so the des- tination is still being served, but there are only two flights instead of three. This is an example of how, according to Swelbar, the airline industry is making itself more efficient. “Consolidation and capacity cutting are the two big con- tributors to a more financially stable

and healthy industry,” he said. “... Just like we’ve seen winners in the airline industry, and losers that have gone out of business, we’re likely to see airports that won’t necessarily lose all of their ser- vice, but they certainly won’t get back to the levels of service they once enjoyed.”

WINNERS AND LOSERS But why are some second-tier cities experiencing drastic cuts, while others are seeing only minus- cule drops — or even increases in service? “At the end of the day,” Swelbar said, “it comes down to the local economics, which are very, very impor- tant in areas where airlines are growing and where they’re not.” For example, Charlotte Douglas International Airport has seen a 9.7-percent increase in its

Takeoffs and Landings Changes in number of flights at 10 U.S. airports

from 2007–2012 ORD Chicago O’Hare CVG Cincinnati DEN Denver LAS Las Vegas MEM Memphis MCO Orlando PIT Pittsburgh SLC Salt Lake City SFO San Francisco SJC San Jose

−7.4%

−64.4% +0.6% −18.9% −40.6% −18.9% −39.7% −22.8% +20.9% −33.2%

SOURCE:Modeling Changes in Connectivity at U.S. Airports: A Small Community Perspective, MIT International Center for Air Transportation

Mike Butts,Visit Charlotte The fact that Charlotte has been a low-cost facility for airlines to operate has ‘helped us grow as an airport hub. The [airport’s] management team runs it like a business; they understand that both passengers and airlines are customers.’

flights from 2007 to 2012. It’s the world’s sixth- busiest airport in terms of aircraft movements, and the eighth-busiest U.S. airport, with 41.2 mil- lion passengers passing through in 2012. The US Airways hub, currently undergoing a $400-mil- lion expansion, could get even busier if it remains a hub for American after the two airlines finalize their merger. “Charlotte has been diverse and vibrant from an economic perspective,” said Swelbar, who notes that the airport has also been a low-cost facility for airlines to operate. That’s not an accident. “[Those low costs] have helped us to grow as an airport hub,” said Mike Butts, executive director of Visit Charlotte. “The [airport’s] management team runs it like a business; they understand that both pas- sengers and airlines are customers.” And sometimes it’s just lucking out with the right assets. Denver International Airport has seen a 0.6-percent increase in flights from 2007 to 2012. In terms of aircraft movements, it’s the fifth-busiest airport in the United States and the 11th-busiest in the world. Besides having a vibrant local economy, Swelbar said, Denver International also has the ideal geographical asset of providing a good connecting point both domestically and internationally. The airport already offers nonstop service to 23 international destinations, and in June, United launched Denver’s first nonstop flight to Asia — on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner

— to Tokyo-Narita International Airport. “We were very fortunate,” said Richard Scharf, president and CEO of VISIT DENVER, speaking about how recent airline mergers have affected airlift at Denver International, which is United’s fourth-largest hub. “It gave us an even stronger airport with more connections and interna- tional access. The United Airlines merger [with

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