Less than 17% of seats on scheduled flights in Georgia are offered by low-cost airlines

Summary

Low-cost carriers (LCCs) account for 34% of total domestic capacity in the United States, although there are large differences between states.
Georgia is one of the top five states in air traffic and is characterized by very low low-cost capacity, largely due to Delta’s dominance at ATL.
The lack of a secondary airport in Atlanta and the absence of major vacation destinations also contribute to Georgia’s low-cost airline presence.

Low-cost carriers (LCCs)* in the US have experienced a robust recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic, with Southwest, Spirit and Frontier all reporting double-digit capacity growth in 2023. As a result, LCCs now account for 34% of all seats on US scheduled airlines. That’s more than double the share LCCs had just 15 years ago, but considering that LCCs have more than half the capacity in most European countries, there’s still plenty of room for growth.

What’s going on with Georgia?

The market share of low-cost carriers varies considerably by state in the US. Data from aviation analytics provider OAG shows that low-cost carriers already account for two-thirds of the total market in Nevada. In Florida, the second-largest domestic air travel market, traditional airlines are under threat as low-cost carriers quickly account for half of total capacity.

Top 5 US states for domestic air travel
Condition	Annual flights	Legacy carrier	Cost-effective
California	141,593,162	63.9%	36.1%
Florida	135,220,035	53.8%	46.2%
Texas	131,407,633	67.5%	32.5%
new York	99,720,320	74.9%	25.1%
Georgia	66,126,331	83.1%	16.9%
Source: OAG

Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines planes at PHX shutterstock_2402735225

Photo: Photos from around the world | Shutterstock

But one of the top five US states in terms of domestic air travel stands out: Georgia. Although Georgia is the eighth-largest economy in the country and is home to the world’s busiest airport, its share of low-cost carrier capacity is just 16.9%, less than half the national average. Why is that?

Low-cost airlines account for only 34 percent of US airline capacity

The United States is in line with the global average in terms of the capacity mix of low-cost and traditional airlines, with low-cost airlines growing faster than traditional full-service airlines.

The Delta Effect

The first and most important reason Georgia is so different from other states is that its commercial air traffic is dominated by a single airport: Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). ATL has been the world’s busiest airport for a quarter century, accounting for 97% of all Georgia arrivals and departures. And the reason for this huge difference is that it is home to Delta Air Lines, one of the world’s most significant legacy airlines.

ATL has been Delta’s largest hub for decades, and the airline completely dominates traffic there. In July 2024, the airport averaged over 2,200 flights per day, and Delta accounted for more than 80% of that traffic. For comparison, Atlanta is also one of Southwest’s top 10 hubs, but traffic at the airport is less than a tenth of Delta’s. Frontier, as the second-largest low-cost carrier in ATL, offers less than half of Southwest’s capacity.

A hub like no other

Therefore, ATL and the “Delta Effect” are the main reasons why Georgia has such low low-cost penetration despite the strong (and growing) presence of Southwest and, more recently, Frontier at the airport. This situation is unlikely to change any time soon, as ATL is the mega-hub every other global airline dreams of being.

The city is exceptionally well-connected, with over 700 direct flights departing from ATL. But more importantly, over 80% of the U.S. population lives within a two-hour flight radius of ATL, making it the ideal transfer hub whether you’re flying east-west or north-south. On any given day, up to 80% of the nearly 300,000 passengers who fly through ATL are connecting, giving rise to the joke, “When you die, whether you go to heaven or hell, you’ll have to transfer through Atlanta.”

No secondary airport

With so much traffic at one airport, however, one wonders why Atlanta does not have a second airport. After all, most other large US cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Miami or Chicago have a second or even third major commercial airport. Crucially, these second airports often become hubs for low-cost airlines. Think of Southwest at Dallas Love Field (DAL) or Chicago Midway (MDW), Sprit at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) or Allegiant at Orlando Sanford SFB700

However, for several reasons, it is unlikely that Atlanta will ever get a second airport:

Although ATL is the busiest airport in the world, its current infrastructure of five runways and seven terminals is more than sufficient.
ATL also offers plenty of room for expansion, whether it be through the construction of a sixth runway or additional terminals. In addition, an expansion is far less expensive than building a completely new facility.
The other airports in the Atlanta metropolitan area are public transportation airports with significantly shorter runways that are not suitable for expansion.
A second airport would have to be located in the suburbs of Atlanta, which play a crucial role in local and national elections and would be a hot topic for the governor of Georgia.
Perhaps most importantly, Delta is strongly committed to keeping ATL alone and, somewhat surprisingly, Southwest, the second largest airline, agrees.

No notable leisure destinations

The third reason Georgia has so few low-cost airlines is that unlike Florida, California or Nevada, there are no well-known vacation destinations that attract low-cost airlines. Orlando or Las Vegas are central destinations in the network of all low-cost airlines in the US, as they carry price-conscious passengers on their vacation trips, but Georgia has nothing comparable.

Savannah/Hilton Head (SAV) accounts for almost all of Georgia’s commercial air capacity outside of Atlanta. Although it’s a charming colonial city known for its historic buildings separated by cobblestone streets and green parks draped with Spanish moss, it’s not a leisure metropolis. Still, the legacy airlines have a stranglehold here, with Delta, American and United accounting for 76% of all flights to and from SAV.

American Eagle Embraer en route to Savannah

Savannah Airport: The runway with the gravestones

These are graves from the 19th century.

Even as low-cost carriers take a larger share of capacity in the rest of the world, Georgia will likely remain unchanged. Aside from the expansion that Southwest and Frontier can achieve in ATL, which will likely be more than offset by Delta’s growth at its most profitable hub, Georgia will remain a bastion for traditional airlines.

* There is some debate about what defines a low-cost flight and whether airlines like Southwest are still considered low-cost carriers. For this analysis, an airline is considered a low-cost carrier if it competes primarily on price, operates a single family of aircraft, equips its aircraft with the maximum number of seats, and/or charges for additional services such as preferred seating.