A Concept On Drawing Airlines To YNG
Posted on February 15, 2008
Filed Under General
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.
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I think I might start a website entitled SteveBowserMustGo! This is the exact reason why we have the wrong people involved at the airport. The port authority and their board members have no clue of how to even go about this. Networking is the key. Not working as a team to get there is their biggest problem. Steve Bowser wants to do it all himself but in actuality all he is doing is procrastinating, being reactive not proactive and hoping another airline will just show up here because of what a hotspot our community is. Get a good leader on the board (not John Masterdick) and a good networking business man to replace Bowser. Great post Karl. STEVEBOWSERMUSTGO!