-- With the nation's most expensive airport, some might wonder if Rocket City residents are flying to the moon.

Airfares at

run around $150 more than the national average, making it the most expensive in the country.

In November, the Port of Huntsville and four regional chambers of commerce hosted event to celebrate the completion of a new baggage claim area at the Huntsville International Airport. According to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Huntsville is the most expensive airport in the country. (Sarah Cole/The Huntsville Times)

In the third quarter of 2012, round-trip flights averaged $522, compared to the national average of $367, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics in the

. Other airports topping the

were Cincinnati, Houston, Washington Dulles and Memphis.

The DOT noted the Huntsville market's high representation of business, government and military travelers, as did airport spokeswoman

Barbie Peek

. She also mentioned the proximity of Nashville and Birmingham, which both have low-cost carriers, is pulling away passengers.

"We feel the frustration for the community as well," Peek said in an interview Monday morning. "It's very frustrating to influence something that you don't control. We don't control how they set air fares. We're not privy to all the ins and outs of how they make decisions."

Rankings are based on round-trip ticket fares, including additional taxes and fees, for destinations within the United States. Huntsville ranked lower on the DOT list before AirTran pulled out: Between the third and fourth quarter of 2011, the city dropped from second to sixth.



The Huntsville airport monitors gaps in prices between nearby markets, which have decreased some in the past three years. In third-quarter 2009, the price gap between Huntsville and Nashville was 40 percent, and the gap between Huntsville and Birmingham was 34 percent, Peak said. Nashville's gap is now 31 percent and Birmingham's is 27 percent.

"Part of the leverage that we need to attract low air fares is a growing passenger market," she said. "That's why it's important to use your community airport."

The airport uses incentives, such as waiving operating costs for new carriers or expanding existing carriers, to get passengers off the roads to Nashville or Birmingham. It costs airlines $11 per passenger to operate in Huntsville, because of costs for terminal space rental, landing fees, loading bridges and fuel farms. Incentives for a new carrier for a year of waived operating fees and free advertising can be worth between $500,000 and $1 million, Peek said.

Low-cost carrier AirTran left Huntsville in August 2012, after a merger with Southwest Airlines brought an end to about 50 percent of the cities in which AirTran operated. The airline was the third low-cost carrier to leave Huntsville. Peek said she's hoping to talk with potential low-cost carriers and existing carriers at a roundtable in San Antonio next month. Spirit, Frontier and JetBlue are among the airlines Peak's hoping to target.