Las Vegas, Seattle top Airport Destination Poll

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The Yakima community desires expanded air travel, with a wide range of desired destinations.

Those are the results of an Airport Destination Poll the City of Yakima conducted from late April through the end of May. There were over 3,700 responses to the poll asking people which destinations from Yakima Air Terminal-McAllister Field (YKM) they would prefer to be able to fly to.

Five cities were highlighted in the first poll question. Which one of the following destinations from the Yakima, WA Airport would you prefer to be able to fly to?

3706 people answered this question as follows:

Las Vegas (LAS)        915 resp.         25%
Seattle (SEA)              912 resp.         25%
Los Angeles (LAX)      663 resp.         18%
Phoenix (PHX)            657 resp.         18%
Salt Lake City (SLT)   474 resp.         13%
No opinion                   85 resp.           2%


The poll also provided an open-ended, follow-up question: Are there any other new destinations that you would like to be able to fly to from the Yakima Airport that are not listed above? List them below:

More than 75% of poll respondents (2,814) also replied to this question. The top three cities mentioned were:

  • Portland, OR               (392)
  • Denver, CO                 (363)
  • San Diego, CA            (212)

“The City of Yakima and Yakima Air Terminal appreciate the input we’ve received from the community. With more than 3,700 people taking time to provide their input in the poll, this feedback tells us expanded air travel is very important to the Yakima Valley community,” said YKM Director Rob Hodgman. 

Though Las Vegas narrowly edged Seattle in the response to Question 1, Las Vegas received an additional 160 mentions in response to Question 2.

“Our government and private sector partners are hard at work raising the funds to guarantee the return of a second set of flights to and from Seattle,” said Hodgman. “Historically 86% of Yakima Valley residents connect through Seattle to other destinations, many of these business travelers.

“However, the Las Vegas destination is likely a leisure destination,” Hodgman added. “The reality of today’s air service marketplace is airlines require minimum revenue guarantees to start new routes. With that in mind, the Las Vegas route would likely need traveler financial support.”

Hodgman encouraged community members to contact YKM at ykminfo@yakimawa.gov if they are interested in supporting a Las Vegas flight from Yakima and/or if they would like to see a poll to gauge public interest in funding a minimum revenue guarantee for Las Vegas flights.

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