You are so right about the E concourse. It is also very crowded. I have to use that concourse since CHO is my jumping off point to go see the family and the one I return to.
@@barharmie_aviation I’m not against longer distance flights from ANYWHERE, but a 1.5 hour drive from an airport doesn’t need a connection. My guess the load factor on this route is low and that it’s subsidized by the South Carolina tax money so that the state legislators can easily get around and get points.
@@afcgeo882 SBA is about 90-120 minutes away from LAX. They offer flights to LAX from SBA on United. It’s easier for locals than driving to a bigger airport. Plus parking is usually pretty cheap if it cost anything at airports like this. In addition, this airport isn’t far from USC so it’s easier for college students who don’t have cars, and I believe there is a military base not far from there. Those are some factors that would come in for this, but I’m not sure on the main reason. CAE also has flights to DFW (which I was on after), LGA, and DCA from what I remember, so it makes sense to have a flight to American’s 2nd largest hub since it’s nearby.
@@barharmie_aviation What are you talking about? There are no military bases near Santa Barbara and USC’s campus is in Los Angeles. This is very much another route that should not exist and has a fixed fare of $179 it appears (r/t), all year long. Yes, it makes sense to fly to far away destinations, but not to airports within an easy drive.
The entire Piedmont fleet is made up of Ex-Envoy E-145s. That plane was built in either 1998 or 1999. The is no wifi on the 50 seat fleet. As far as I know none of the single cabin 50 seat aircraft flying for the big 3 US carriers has wifi. My father flew the 145 the las 9 years of his career at Envoy and there were plenty of long routes. LGA-XNA was flown with the 37 seat E-135. At 3:30 wheels up i'm sure alot of people were ready for that flight to be over.
@@airfreak75 United’s CRJ-550s have WiFi. I used to fly the ERJs all the time on Continental and they were my favorite regional aircraft. They’re FAR more comfortable than the CRJ-200s or anything turboprop.
