That conclusion could be wrong. According to a survey by Inside Tucson Business, the average airfare to the most heavily traveled destinations from both airports is just $4 more from Tucson than it is from Phoenix.
That’s a difference that is easily made up in the nearly $120 more it costs to drive round-trip to Phoenix. On top of that, it costs $5 more to park each day at the least-expensive airport-run economy lots at Sky Harbor.
 A cost average of the top 11 flights reveals that Tucson International Airport was cheaper than Sky Harbor International Airport. |
It should surprise no one that fares have gone up. But what is surprising is the average fare from Phoenix is up 23 percent over the past year, where Tucson’s average is up 14 percent.
Much of that difference is in the airfare to Washington, D.C., the only one of the 11 cities surveyed where the cheapest airfares are less than what they were a year ago. But from Tucson, they’re down 40 percent, to $272 from $477 a year ago. From Phoenix, they’ve dropped $48 to $510 this year.
In this instance, the airlines are clearly charging a higher fare for the convenience of a non-stop flight. Our survey criteria searched fares for non-stop flights only. In cases where they were not available — from Tucson to New York, Oakland and Washington, D.C. — the survey used the lowest air fare with one connection.
A one-stop flight to Washington, D.C., from Phoenix is $231, less than half what the lowest non-stop fare is. That fare is also $41 less than a round-trip flight from Tucson but, if time is money, remember too you’re committing yourself to the same amount of flying time as if you had used Tucson’s airport, plus the other added costs of going to Phoenix.
Because it was unique, our survey looked at what would happen if we were to remove Washington, D.C., from the average. That pushed the differential to $28 higher than Phoenix, still less than last year’s average and still less than the $120 difference in drive costs.
A year ago the number of non-stop flight destinations from Tucson was 29. That is now down to 17. But every non-stop destination is still reachable by one connection and there are still about 60 flights a day departing Tucson.
Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Business Travel appears the fourth week of each month.
How we figured it
For our second annual survey comparing the differences in airfares between Tucson International Airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport we started with the 10 most heavily-traveled routes from each airport, as reported by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Top cities
We used all 10 cities from Tucson and added Minneapolis-St. Paul as an 11th destination, as we did a year ago. We figured that was fair because Minneapolis is the No. 8 most-heavily traveled destination from Phoenix and there are non-stop flights from Tucson.
Lowest fares
We conducted our search for lowest airfares on Nov. 17 using the ITA software and Southwest Airlines websites. Last year’s search was conducted on Nov. 19, 2007. Our search criteria:
• Lowest round-trip fare on any day over a 30-day period starting Dec. 12.
• Non-stop flights only, except from Tucson to New York, Oakland and Washington, D.C., where there are non-stop flights. Our search was for the lowest priced flight with one stop or connection.
The fares quoted have restrictions and require advance purchase. They do not include all taxes or other fees assessed by airlines.
Average fares
Average fares come from the U.S. Department of Transportation. They are the average of all fares paid, including taxes and fees. The data is from the second quarter of 2008, the latest that is available.
Drive costs
This year we used the government’s figure of 58½ cents per mile to calculate drive costs. As we did last year, our starting point is East First Street and Cherry Avenue at the University of Arizona, which according to David Taylor, demographer and statistician for Pima Association of Governments, is the center of population for metropolitan Tucson. From that point, Tucson’s airport is 8.6 miles away ($5.03 each way) and Sky Harbor is 111 miles away ($64.93 each way).
Time is another factor, though we didn’t try to quantify it this year. Google maps estimates the drive time from the UA area to Tucson’s airport is less than 20 minutes and to Sky Harbor is about 1 hour 45 minutes.
Airport parking
In our survey last year we calculated the cost of parking at economy section for five days. This year the difference is even greater because Tucson International Airport is running a temporary promotion that drops its daily fee by $1 to $3 per day. Economy parking at Sky Harbor costs $8 per day.
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