Clearly, this is not happening in Orange County. A 1996 study by Las Vegas found that John Wayne flights had the highest percentage of empty seats of any of the 41 airports around the country that fly there. Let s be absolutely clear about what is going on. Seats remain empty at John Wayne because the County and Newport Beach cling to an out-dated plan to artificially limit the airport. Free market pricing and the laws of supply and demand have been repealed in Orange County.
Airlines have little incentive to cut fares to fill their planes.
If they do start to fill them, the County will cut their seat allocation. The County and Newport Beach can change their agreement. If the 1985 agreement isn t changed, it will expire in 2005. Meanwhile we pay for this violation of the basic rules of airline economics in several ways. Ask any travel agent.