By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – A report by the U.S. Transportation Department finds low-cost air carriers drove down fares by as much as 25 percent in five years at upstate New York's four major airports.
From 1996 to 2001, airfares at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport dropped 24 percent. BNIA was once the second most expensive city in the nation for air fares. It now ranks 73rd. Comparing the second quarter of 1996 to the same period of time in 2001, the number of travelers using BNIA rose from 653,870 to 1.11 million. For all of 2001, 4.6 million travelers flew into and out of the airport.
"For way too long, upstate travelers have been at the mercy of the major carriers, but with AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest, we've now seen what airfares should start to look like in Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany," said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY.
According to the federal transportation report, airfares at Albany had also dropped by 24 percent; Rochester by 14 percent; and Syracuse by 4 percent.