Mapping U.S. Cities Losing Air Service  

Paul Kedrosky has an intersting post on US cities losing airline services as a result of rising fuel prices. See the original for a larger image.

Airlines are in the middle of radical service cuts. Not just increasing prices, but reducing the amount of air service to large and small cities in the U.S. It is partly because of a weakening economy, partly because of higher oil prices, and partly because of the market simply being over-supplied with airlines.

Whatever the cause, the upshot is the same: Less service in future. We all know this, or have at least heard it, but it has taken my friend Rick Seaney at FareCompare to really make it visceral to me. Because Rick has published a post detailing all the cities seeing material decreases this year in air service, as much as 40 % or more in some large cities, as well as some smaller cities losing commercial air service altogether -- the newly "can't get there from here" places.

In short, Toyota has sold more Prius cars in the first quarter of 2008 than all other major manufacturers have sold hybrids combined in the same period.