Marketing Campaign Begins TODAY!
Posted on March 28, 2008
Filed Under General
From the Trib:
A campaign urging local businesses to buy Allegiant Air tickets for
employee incentive programs will be unveiled Friday at
Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
Rubenstein Associates of
Liberty has been hired to conduct the marketing campaign, which county
officials are touting as ‘‘the first area co-branding and
co-promotional program with Valley business and industry.’’ The Western
Reserve Port Authority, which oversees the airport, set aside $27,500
for the effort.
Promotions for the campaign will be run on
television and the Internet, Lee Ann Heltzel, a spokesperson for the
marketing consultant firm, said.
Businesses that purchase
tickets will have a variety of choices, from flight tickets only or a
package coupled with a hotel and entertainment, airport officials said.
Most flights through August from the airport in Vienna to Orlando
Sanford International Airport in Florida range from $59 and $99,
according to the Allegiant Air Web site.
‘‘Allegiant has been doing well,’’ Trumbull County Commissioner Daniel Polivka said. ‘‘We want to keep it strong.’’
Polivka said that as a commissioner, he supports the effort
wholeheartedly. Trumbull and Mahoning counties support the airport with
excise taxes on motel and hotel use.
Officials have pointed
out that if the vacation air service continues to get a good response
from the community, it helps the Port Authority’s efforts to attract
other kinds of flights. The airport has been seeking an airline to
offer business travel and other types of daily passenger service.
The idea of encouraging area companies to buy Allegiant Air tickets was
conceived by John Masternick, chairman of the Port Authority. He had
bought two hotel/airline package tickets to Orlando to give away at his
Windsor House employee banquet. It generated so much excitement among
his staff, he said, that he recommended the concept to the Port
Authority.
Not only would it help Allegiant, but it would benefit companies by boosting morale, the chairman told the Port Authority.
‘‘John’s thoughts were that any methodology we can use to fill seats
with Allegiant Air and keep the ridership up would help increase other
activity at the airport,’’ Steve Bowser, director of aviation at
Youngstown-Warren, said. ‘‘That’s what we’ve done (with the campaign).’’
Bowser has said airport representatives regularly talk with Allegiant
and other airlines about expanding service there. Passenger loads,
though, are not the only consideration, he noted.
The profit
Allegiant can make from the flights is reduced despite high ridership,
Bowser has said. That’s because it must keep its pricing competitive
with airlines operating out of nearby airports such as Akron-Canton, he
noted.
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