Salt Lake City, like Cleveland, is playing the prestige game. It wants flights to Europe–Paris, in particular. And it’s going to pay for them. But does Salt Lake need flights to Europe? That’s not clear. What is clear is that Salt Lake has irrational hub-loss fear, and that often goes along with the sort of civic boosterism that sees no problem in throwing money at a service that would be otherwise a market loser:
The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce has pushed hard for a route to Europe.
“The chance of a direct flight to Europe would plant the seeds for many of the aspirations that we have for the business community, namely, to become a world city,” chamber spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour said.
I hope Utahns are satisfied with paying for Salt Lake’s “aspirations.”
Utah approves $250,000 for Delta flights to Europe [AP, via Today in the Sky]
[...] 24th, 2007 · No Comments Make no mistake: Salt Lake City has bought Paris service. Per my post a few days ago, state and local authorities have ponied up $1.9 million in incentives and subsidies, and Delta has [...]