"Nashville airport's ads cause discord across Tennessee"

Saturday, June 21, 2003

Nashville airport's ads cause discord across Tennessee 
By CANDICE BROOKS
The Tennessean


Nashville International Airport has changed its new statewide radio ads
after its Knoxville counterpart said the spots implied other Tennessee
airports are not as security-conscious.

Nashville International has run ads in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Jackson
purporting that Nashville has lower fares, economical parking and ''takes
security seriously.''

The ads also ran in Kentucky.

The security claims imply that other airports do not take security
seriously, but all airport security is governed by the federal
Transportation Security Administration, which is working toward security
uniformity in all airports, said Becky Huckaby, spokeswoman for Knoxville's
McGhee Tyson Airport.

No malice was intended, said Allison McAfee, spokeswoman for Nashville's
airport.

''We were merely trying to portray that air travel is safe and did not
intend to downgrade the security at any airport,'' McAfee said of the ads.

The spots have been changed to drop any mention of security, McAfee said.

The marketing campaign, which also includes billboards, has led the
Knoxville airport to fight back. The Metropolitan Knoxville Airport
Authority voted this week to spend $106,000 on a Knoxville-area ad campaign
to be launched in mid-summer, Huckaby said.

She said it will emphasize that if flyers plan ahead by at least 14 days,
they can get fares just as low as those offered in Nashville.

''If they are not going to play fair, we ought to be very aggressive,''
Knoxville authority member Arthur Seymour Jr. said. ''We need to be
absolutely truthful. Unlike Nashville, we need to be able to back up
everything we say.''

Danni Varlan, coordinator of East Tennesseans for Airfare Competition, a
nonprofit business oalition, said Nashville's airport should not be
advertising in other markets because it is bad for the state's economy and
is inappropriate.

Varlan's group, formed last year to attract a low-fare carrier to Knoxville,
estimates that the Knoxville airport loses up to 500 passengers a day to
Nashville.

Tennessee airport officials say they are losing traffic to Nashville,
primarily because of low-fare carriers such as Southwest Airlines.

Judy Graham-Weaver, vice president of marketing for the Chattanooga
Metropolitan Airport Authority, said that from a recent market analysis,
Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport loses 55% of its traffic to other airports.

She said Chattanooga tries to send the message to local travelers that when
they support other airports, they are giving $4.50 on each trip to that
airport for construction funds, instead of keeping that money locally.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dc/dcboard.php

*****************************************