Thursday, August 21, 2008

Business Opportunity, Free for the Taking

In a comment at the last post, Jefferson Provost tosses out a business opportunity waiting for someone to step up: Run a non-stop bus service from Pittsburgh to the Cleveland Airport. Have an Airport pickup point, a North Hills pickup point (Wexford?), a Downtown pickup point (the Hilton?), a South Hills pickup point (somewhere near the Heidelberg interchange on I-70?), and a pickup point out east somewhere (the Monroeville Mall?).

With the fare differential between PIT and CLE for many nonstop flights, would people pay to ride to CLE, rather than save money by sitting in connecting airports, waiting for delayed flights? I bet they would.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My advice - Get the US Airways Club membership and also upgrade so you have access to United Red Carpet Clubs. You will not gripe about the layovers any more and you will be able to get more work done than if you were driving all the way to Cleveland. You also won't have to drive 2.5 hours home after your trip.

Jefferson Provost said...

If you're riding the bus, then you're not driving. If the Club membership was able to get me to my destination faster, then maybe...

Also, a two-hour layover adds a lot more than two hours to the total flight time. A typical nonstop flight from PIT to the west coast is about five and half hours. My wife and I have had several flights between PIT and the west coast in the last year (11 different flights between us, I think) and the typical gate-to-gate time has more like 9.5 hours (or more), w/o any flight delays.