Airfares compared: How Sioux Falls flights stack up

The days of more than four in 10 Sioux Falls passengers driving to Omaha to save money on airfares might be over.

An informal comparison of Sioux Falls fares for September finds there’s not that much difference among regional destinations — at least when it comes to the cheapest available seats.

“It’s not gospel truth, it changes day to day, but you have to understand these are the lowest fares out there,” said Dan Letellier, executive director of the Sioux Falls Regional Airport.

Letellier did the research himself, plugging in departures and arrivals between Sioux Falls and the 28 top destination cities from here. He looked at the most preferable fare — usually one connection, but he chose a nonstop flight as the comparison even if the ticket cost a little more.

Then, he compared the same trip flying in and out of Fargo, Omaha and Minneapolis.

Here’s what he found for a trip planned for September:

The average round-trip fare in Sioux Falls to the top 28 destinations was $344, which was $13 more than Omaha and $51 cheaper than Fargo. Minneapolis was $94 less expensive, likely because of more ultra-low-fare competition, Letellier said.

Keep in mind, it’s typically less expensive to fly in September and that he often had to choose less popular days of the week and stay through a weekend to achieve the fares. Still, the analysis largely looked at legacy carriers American, Delta and United and included Southwest in other cities.

“Average fares on Southwest Airlines out of Omaha were very close to what our fares were,” he said.

“Omaha had a lot of nonstop service and low fares … and then with the pandemic, a lot of that went away. They had nonstop flights to the East Coast, so it got trimmed back, and it’s slowly rebounding.”

While the analysis didn’t directly look at Allegiant and Frontier, which fly to fewer destinations in Sioux Falls with less frequency, the low-cost competitors factor into the overall equation, Letellier said.

Frontier, for instance, plans four or five flights per week in the fall for Sioux Falls, and on days those operate to Denver, United likely will adjust its fares.

“The one most impacted is typically Minneapolis where you have Spirit and Sun Country and Frontier and even Alaska Airlines and Southwest, all with very low fares,” he said.

Still, a four-hour drive each way to save might be more than Sioux Falls travelers are willing to schedule. And the three hours south to Omaha might be a thing of the past.

Going back to 2010, “there were well over 45 percent of what we consider Sioux Falls travelers driving down to Omaha, so almost half our community was going to Omaha,” Letellier said. “Then, we were able to get American in here, Frontier added service in 2011, and back then they went every day and they really did dramatically impact fares across the board.”

While the last study done on so-called leakage was about five years ago, if it were done today, “I think we’d certainly be in the 85 to 90 percent” of passengers flying out of Sioux Falls, he said. “I’d be confident to say that.”

Here’s a look at how fares have trended in the past few years:

“Fares are much less than last fall but a bit higher than they were in 2019,” Letellier said. “That can be associated to increased fares due to inflation.”

The data is helpful for those recruiting visitor events to the city, said Teri Schmidt, CEO of Experience Sioux Falls.

“We need this data,” she said. “The number of people flying in has made us a competitive market for fly-ins — our business climate, the number of corporate travelers coming in and out of Sioux Falls — we’ve seen an increase in the corporate market.”

Airfares factor into the decision of where to host a convention, she added. Post-pandemic, though, many organizations are opting for two regional conferences instead of one large one because those seem to be drawing fewer attendees.

“When we’re competing against Minneapolis, Omaha, Des Moines, Milwaukee, airfares are always compared,” she said.

As for the often-asked question “What about Southwest?” it’s not entirely out of the question but not necessarily an easy addition either.

“They typically don’t fly anywhere with less than 10 flights a day, they’re all 737s, and they may go to four or five cities,” Letellier said. “You need a pretty big population base to support that number of seats. Could they come to Sioux Falls? Potentially, but there’s a trade-off … more than likely you’d trade Southwest for certainly Allegiant or Frontier and probably fewer network flights to Chicago and Denver.”

While the airline is testing some markets served with less frequency, the number of available pilots is still an issue industrywide, and Sioux Falls likely needs more gates to support increased service, especially with planes staying overnight.

Design plans for the concourse expansion are moving forward, though. The airport is working through selecting a design team, “and we want to make sure we try and position ourselves and get far enough along in the process to apply for (federal) funding while it’s still available,” Letellier said.

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