(SEE UPDATE BELOW)
AirTran stopped flying between Atlanta and Savannah in October 2008, leaving Delta as the only carrier offering nonstops between the two Georgia cities.
According to an article in the Savannah Daily News, round trip fares ranged from a low of about $108 in 2002 to a high of about $200 in 2006.
With a monopoly on the nonstop market, Delta’s now charging about $450 for a 21-day advance purchase mid-week fare between ATL and SAV. One-stop roundtrips on US Airways (via Charlotte) are going for about $295 (journey time is 3+ hours).
Compare that to Jacksonville (140 miles south of SAV), where Delta and AirTran compete in the nonstop market to Atlanta, and both offer round trip 21-day advance fares of just $179 (when we checked on Jan 18).
When AirTran announced its 2008 departure, Savannah city leaders braced for fare increases of about 35 percent. Instead, they’ve more than doubled. That’s prompted city leaders, concerned for local tourism and business interests, to send a letter to Delta CEO Richard Anderson asking the carrier requesting a review of the fare structure between Atlanta and Savannah.
While they wait for an answer, more travelers than ever are hitting the roads again for the monotonous 4-5 hour, 200-mile drive.
City leaders are also hoping to convince AirTran to return to the market. But to make it commercially viable, AirTran is asking for a subsidy of $2 million per roundtrip flight, per year.
UPDATE: 1-27-2010: Delta responds to request to review fares but makes no changes. Claims fares are competitive. Local authorities plan try again. Here’s the article.
I travel to Savannah every two weeks and have been since October 2008. I use the Saturday night stay to bring the trip down from ~$600 per trip to ~$200 per trip. My trips in late February and early March are about $270 each. This is all up from about $150 last year when Airtran was still flying there. We are just about at the point it is less expensive to drive, reimbursing for mileage at $0.50 per mile. But for me, I will continue to fly because of the amount of work each trip generates and the time I would lose driving to and from Atlanta. And the drive ranks just above I-10 through west Texas. Boring.