Airline Chooses Lauderdale Airport Over Miami Because of Superior "Demographics"

Now there's a word you want to be careful with when explaining an investment in Broward County over one in Miami-Dade. But that's the word that Virgin America CEO David Cush used to justify his airline's decision to make Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport a destination rather than Miami International. USA...

By Thomas Francis

August 11, 2009

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Now there's a word you want to be careful with when explaining an investment in Broward County over one in Miami-Dade. But that's the word that Virgin America CEO David Cush used to justify his airline's decision to make Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport a destination rather than Miami International. USA Today's travel section asked him,

So, why Fort Lauderdale and not Miami?

"We liked the demographics of Fort Lauderdale," Cush says in a phone interview with Today in the Sky.

Let's pause there and look at the recent census data. It shows that Broward County is 48 percent white, 25 percent black, and 23 percent Hispanic. Miami-Dade is 62 percent Hispanic, 20 percent black, and 18 percent white.

After the jump, the CEO goes for the save.

(Cush) points out that Fort Lauderdale's catchment area - or area from which an airport can draw customers - stretches from Palm Beach to the north to the northern portion of Miami-Dade County to the south.

Plus, Cush adds, the cost of operating at Fort Lauderdale "is quite a bit less expensive than Miami."

Virgin flights start at FLL in mid-November.

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