Questions for Steve Bowser..

1. KYNG received $575,000 to attract an airline to fly 3-5 times per day to a regional hub. In the application to the DOT; the airport posted a time-line of sorts. In that time-line, for February 2008; you were to be working on a revenue guarentee with an airline. Is there a revenue guarentee being worked out, and if so, do you feel it will be finalized by late March like the time-line projected?

2. In September 2007, the Vindicator ran an article that stated "Bowser said he spoke with an airline last week about service to
Youngstown-Warren, and those talks will continue. It has not had a
strong presence in this region like Continental Airlines in Cleveland
and U.S. Air in Pittsburgh, he said."

Steve, have those talks continued since September?

3. We’ve been following the marketing director/consultant searches on this blog since September. Originally, the airport was going to hire a director, but as time wore on it appeared they would hire a marketing consultant, such as Landrum and Brown out of Cincinnati. Is the Port Authority still looking to hire a marketing director/consultant, and if so; how soon could they be hired?

4. The Airport Master Plan has been approve, or so we think, for a few months now, but we have not seen it go public? Has it gone public, and if so, will it be posted on the airport website?

5. Allegiant Air has been doing pretty well out of the Youngstown-Warren Regional on its flights to Orlando-Sanford International Airport. Has there been any effort whatsoever to get additional flights to Orlando-Sanford or to Tampa or Ft. Lauderdale? Is there anything we can do to encourage Allegiant to fly to Youngstown?

6. Would you be willing to work with this very blog to start a subscription based e-newsletter in which YNG/BLOG would send out a monthly newsletter on projects at the airport as well as deals on Allegiant flights. Airports like Akron-Canton, Rockford, and St. Pete do this and it’s very successful. This would be one way to spread the word about KYNG every month, as well as get valuable opinions from local travelers on what destinations they would like to see offered out of KYNG. This would cost the airport NOTHING, this blog would handle this entire campaign with our own money! Please consider!

7. The $4.50 Passenger Facility Charge was needed to improve our current facilities. I believe the first project was to purchase additional chairs for the gate holding area. Have those seats been purchased and installed? Also, when will the construction of restroom facilties begin in the gate holding area and where would these restrooms be constructed?

Thanks,

Fly Youngstown Blog

Back in Town, Can Blog Again!

I was recently out of town which prohibited me from blogging on here for a few weeks. Thanks to Karlb737 for posting something while I was gone. I do plan to post a lot more again. I’m expecting to have a blog around 4-5pm on Monday or Wednesday this week with Steve Bowser in our chat. The second I find out about the day and time, I will post it on here so you guys can all join us.

If you know you can’t make it, post some comments in here and I will relay them to Airport Director Steve Bowser. Thanks! 

A Concept On Drawing Airlines To YNG

By Karl:  Last month I touched on a topic relating to the creation of passenger flow to the Youngstown-Warren Airport.  I pointed out that even a small start in the right direction I would consider a success.  This time I wish to specifically focus in on techniques that are being used at another airport to acquire airlines to it.  First we need to read a rather recent short article which includes exactly what we are looking for: 

Airport Has Its Second-Best Month In January

http://www.businessrockford.com/breaking/x1224706883

Now this article talks a lot about the airlines and cities that can be traveled to from this airport but that is not our focus today. 

Today we will only look at what techniques the airport management are using to achieve their goals of additional air service.

1.  “Bob O’Brien has been so busy wooing airlines……” 

This would indicate to me that you have to go out and seek the air carriers of choice.

2.  “O’Brien is in Mexico this week meeting with airlines at a route-planning conference. While the focus is primarily service to Mexico and the Caribbean, he’s also speaking with European carriers looking to shuttle both passengers and cargo here.” 

There is a lot in these two sentences.  He is attending a route-planning conference with a focus of two specific destinations, and because it is a conference where you might possibly achieve multiple things at one time he is checking with carriers overseas about passenger and cargo considerations. 

3.  “You start these relationships and see where they go,” O’Brien said. “What we need to do at this early stage of development is to go to as many highly popular destinations across the U.S. and across the Caribbean so we can cause Rockford to appear to be a whole bunch bigger than it really is.”

Notice his statement where he sees the need to develop relationships in this area.  And he calls this an early stage of development which would indicate this is a step by step process.  Also he is after highly popular destinations.

4.  “Today, he met with two European carriers and a Central American airline. On Tuesday, he meets with Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways. He’s also had brief conversations with German airline Lufthansa.”
Note here how he has set up a schedule with several well known airlines for specific talks.

5.  “To do that, he’s telling airlines not just about Rockford”

He is presenting a wider span of geography than just the city the airport is in.  He wants to draw in the surrounding cities as well.

6.  “He said he’s gotten a warm reception, with several airlines asking him to make an offer on starting service here.”

Now this is the value of this specific approach.  This kind of reception I must admit even surprises me a whole lot.  Maybe it has something to do with the airline meeting a representative of the airport face to face.  Back to this approach he is using:  It is systematic.  It moves forward and slowly develops.  It may go anywhere.  I reference this statement to explain what I mean:

“You start these relationships and see where they go……”

In other words while this process is allowed to develop and yes it is systematic because it is planned not everything that is ahead can be seen right away.

Fellow YNG blog members unless some proven system such as this is utilized nothing will happen here at YNG.  But all of this requires work outside of the terminal with a approach in mind.
 

Sorry for it being so quiet!

I’ve been very busy lately starting a brand new blog and a brand new Ohio HS Stadium website. In that time I forgot to post on here and I do apologize! I will be flying in the next week a few times out of neighboring airports and I plan to have some photos and bring some new idea’s to the table for YNG.

 FLY YNG

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