The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
Omaha got a bad rap during the airport authority’s site-selection process.
When economists needed a city to cite as a loser if the Miramar airport wasn’t built, they leaned on the Nebraska city. That’s because San Diego stands to have fewer new non-stop routes to places like Omaha, they said, if the predicted constraint hit Lindbergh Field. (That will happen between 2015 and 2022, the authority has said.)
Richard Carson, a UCSD economics professor and Miramar opponent said this in a March interview: “The person who wants to fly nonstop from here to Omaha clearly is the loser — because they’ll have to spend a couple more hours in an airport waiting somewhere for connection.”
Seth Young, an associate professor in the college of business at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, who was hired by the airport authority to refute Carson, had this take on Carson’s position: “At the end of the day, the citizens of San Diego have less frequent service and higher fares to fewer cities.”
Which brings us to three press releases the airport authority has sent out today and Friday. Those Nebraska-bound travelers are OK for now, it seems.
ExpressJet Airlines has begun offering non-stop service between San Diego and the following cities: Bakersfield, Fresno, Monterey, Boise, Colorado Springs, Spokane, Oklahoma City, Tulsa — and Omaha.