Clement Zhang, Managing Director, FlightBI
A Rhode Island traveler planning a trip to Denver finds a round-trip fare of $527 from Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport (PVD) and $306 from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). Looking at airfare alone, the choice seems obvious: driving to Boston saves $221.
But airfare is only part of the cost of choosing an airport.
When round-trip driving, parking, and the economic value of the traveler’s time are included, the comparison changes. In one recent calculation, the estimated total trip cost was $632 through PVD versus $691 through BOS. Despite an airfare that was $221 higher, flying from PVD saved an estimated $59 overall.
Putting a Dollar Value on Convenience
Airports have long marketed themselves as closer, easier, and more convenient than larger airports in surrounding markets. The challenge is that these benefits can feel abstract when travelers are comparing them with a clearly displayed airfare.
True-cost analysis reframes the question from “Which airport has the cheapest flight?” to “How much cheaper would the competing airport’s airfare need to be before the entire trip is actually less expensive?”
Driving and parking costs are relatively straightforward. Time is more challenging – and potentially more powerful. Additional driving, security screening, terminal processing, and walking all consume time. Assigning an economic value to those minutes allows airports to translate convenience into something travelers can directly compare with airfare.
In the PVD-BOS example, the estimated value of the traveler’s time was $41 through PVD versus $141 through BOS – a $100 difference invisible in an airfare-only comparison.
The Data Behind the Calculation
Credible true-cost analysis requires more than adding mileage and parking to an airfare.
Consider security screening. Rather than assigning every airport a fixed security-time assumption, historical MyTSA security wait-time observations can be weighted by hourly airport passenger throughput, giving greater importance to the periods when passengers are actually traveling. Driving distance and time vary by traveler origin. Parking rates vary by airport and trip duration. Airport processing times differ. These inputs also change over time.
Collecting, integrating, and regularly updating these data points is what turns a simple web calculator into a meaningful decision tool.
From Passenger Leakage to Traveler Action
Airports already invest considerable resources in understanding catchment areas and passenger leakage. But knowing where passengers leak does not necessarily change their behavior.
A personalized true-cost comparison can bring that analysis directly to the traveler, showing what choosing the local airport may be worth for their specific trip. Connecting the result to flight search can then shorten the path from understanding that value to acting on it.
The interaction creates another opportunity: customer intelligence. Aggregated engagement data can help airports understand where interested travelers originate, which destinations they search, when they intend to travel, party size, parking duration, and where the airport’s true-cost advantage is strongest. Airports can use those insights to better understand demand and refine future marketing.
At FlightBI, our work analyzing airport catchment areas and passenger leakage led us to explore how these traditionally separate activities could be connected.
The opportunity goes beyond another “fly local” message. Airports can identify leakage, quantify the value of flying local, communicate that value to individual travelers, provide an immediate path to flight search, and learn from how travelers respond.
That creates a feedback loop between market intelligence and traveler engagement – and turns airport convenience from an abstract marketing claim into a measurable, actionable value proposition.
Clement Zhang has 26 years of experience building IT solutions and consulting in the travel and transportation industry. He is the founder of FlightBI, served as Director of Business Intelligence at Cirium and Vice President at MergeGlobal, and holds an MBA from Georgetown and a Ph.D. from Xi’an JiaoTong University.
DISCLAIMER
This article was provided by a third party and, as such, the views expressed therein and/or presented are their own and may not represent or reflect the views of Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), its management, Board, or members. Readers should not act on the basis of any information contained in the blog without referring to applicable laws and regulations and/or without appropriate professional advice.