[daru1]

Vested interest in both...

New Orleans is just going to be ridiculous for a while, and there's no oil boom coming from the gulf until the lease sales have started to yield gains for the industry. In other words, more of our (my hometown) gas is coming from much further away than it did before the storm. Couple that with the overriding theme that people that have money are the ones flying the planes, so they'll pay for it anyway attitude, and you have what's going on there.

Austin faltered in 2004, if anyone remembers Alliance... great prices at first, but once the airport figured they weren't making much off of GA and the 'Hey, KGTU might as well be called Austin Regional attitude...' it was only a matter of time. It's a very sad affair, I moved from Galveston in 2004, and it was way cheaper to fly here than in the HGX area. My, how times have changed. You can't get in a 180hp+ airplane at KAUS for less than $139/hr. Compare that with the $85/hr I was paying in 2004, that's a pretty big increase I'd say.