Love is in the Air...

Love is in the air – literally. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I was inspired this week to research airports with a romantic theme.

LUV – Langgur, Indonesia
Wings Air, a subsidiary of Indonesia-based Lion Airlines, is the only airline that currently offers service to Langgur, Indonesia. Four weekly flights link this city in the Molucca Island archipelago with the city of Ambon on Ambon Island, also a part of the Moluccas. No one ever said that love was easy to find!

LOV – Monclava, Mexico
Monclava is not feeling the love this Valentine’s Day. In past years, Monclava enjoyed nonstop service to Monterrey and Piedras Negras – both in Mexico – as well as Houston, Texas. But when Continental ceased operation to Monclava in September 2008, LOV was left without scheduled commercial air service.

KIS – Kisumu, Kenya
Kisumu is located on the eastern edge of picturesque Lake Victoria in Kenya. Flights on East African Safari Airlines, JetLink Express and Kenya Airways link Kisumu with Kenya’s capital of Nairobi. In addition, Royal Daisy Airlines provides nonstop service between KIS and Entebbe/Kampala, Uganda.

HEA – Herat, Afghanistan
This is the closest airport code I could find to heart – certainly an important part of Valentine vocabulary. Service from HEA is offered to Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul on both Ariana Afghan Airlines and Kam Air, and to Mazar-I-Sharif on Ariana.

CPD – Coober Pedy, Australia
If Cupid is real, perhaps he lives in Coober Pedy, a town in the state of South Australia. If so, he can fly on Regional Express to Adelaide five times per week.

CUP – Carupano, Venezuela
It is also possible that the elusive, mythical Cupid lives in South America. If so, he can reach Caracas on Avior Airlines – the service is twice daily.

VTE – Vientiane, Laos
Although history shows that St. Valentine came from Rome, Vientiane is today’s Valentine – airport style. VTE is served by five airlines that provide an average of 17 daily departures to 11 cities. In addition to six domestic Laotian destinations, passengers can reach VTE nonstop from Bangkok, Thailand; Hanoi, Vietnam; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Kunming, China; Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

DAL – Dallas, Texas (Love Field)
So, the airport code itself doesn’t exactly inspire romance. But Love Field is perhaps one of the most well-known airports in the world. Ninety percent of the flights at Love Field are operated by Southwest Airlines – more than 120 daily departures to 16 cities. American Airlines (service to Chicago/O’Hare) and Continental Airlines (service to Houston/Bush) also fly to Love Field.

Of course, this analysis doesn’t discount cities such as Loveland, Colorado; Valentine, Nebraska; or Heart’s Desire, in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. But these cities don’t have airports yet!

Super Bowl Update
Finally, a Super Bowl update. If you followed my posts throughout the month of January 2009, I attempted to predict the winner of Super Bowl XLIII based on various air service scenarios. Of my three original predictions, only one remained viable going into the big game on Sunday, February 1. Unfortunately, my projection that the team with the most service by Southwest Airlines would take home the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy was not correct. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in the last seconds of the game. Maybe next year.

Source: Official Airline Guide (OAG) Schedule Tapes for February 2009 only, unless otherwise noted.

OAG contributor Laura Jackson was just two weeks old when she took her first flight on Piedmont Airlines. In junior high school, she developed a business plan for her own airline. Today she manages strategy and policy issues at one of the world's busiest airports and provides original content and aviation industry analysis for OAG.