Ticket prices weren't the only change Southwest brought to the Triangle. The study reveals an even more dramatic change in the number of passengers. On 14 RDU routes flown by Southwest, the number of passengers increased by an average of 92 percent for all carriers. The largest increase was to Baltimore, where traffic from RDU increased by 273 percent for all carriers. We always see the average fares go down by our presence.
Lower fares entice more travelers especially leisure travelers to drive further to an airport.
That, in turn, has generated new fare-driven passengers for all carriers at RDU, says Mike Boyd, an analyst with The Boyd Group in Colorado. Additionally, leisure travelers might choose air travel over an automobile trip if ticket prices are affordable. Because other airlines generally meet the fares of competitors, all carriers benefit from the increased traffic. Boyd says RDU travelers should be aware that fares to cities not served by Southwest remain generally the same as before the carrier arrived in the market. When Southwest arrived, locally based Midway Airlines was seen as the airline most likely to experience an erosion in business.