DOT Table 6 Most recent quarter is Q2 CY2022. It also gives you market leader, cheapest airlines, average fare and more for particular city-pairs. You divide the passenger counts by two to get the PDEW - Passenger departing each way statistic. Note that Boston includes Providence, Worcester, and Manchester NH airports.
You used to have to download the whole chart but now you can visualize and filter data.
https://data.transportation.gov/Avi...e-Report-Table-6-Contiguous-State-C/yj5y-b2ir Below is a chart i made with the table showing the trend of Boston-Wilmington NC over the years for Q3 traffic.
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Someone on airliners recently gave top 10 unserved from Greater Boston. Omaha is #3
https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1468575&p=23524771&hilit=jplatts#p23524591
You are partially right. You are not going to get everyone of those passengers. Some may be loyal to an airline and want a specific time. Southwest is often the market leader on the route.
However, there is market stimulation (going to Boston - the other side will be business and visiting relatives only) and connections: Example AA OMA-BOS could feed JetBlue, Qatar, Iberia, British Airways, Cape Air, Cathay, Aer Lingus. Omaha Metro Area grew 10% between 2010-2020.
Lets look at 2019 numbers too. It may be more of what could have been if it were not for COVID.
Q1-59 (ouch - may not go daily in that quarter if ever launched)
Q2-99
Q3-104
Q4-86
Finally - it may just take an incentive to tip the scales: see San Antonio and Louisville.
It is not a slam dunk as with many of the top 10 unserved in the airliners link above.