Advertising Looks to Be Revitalizing Naples Municipal Airport

Advertising Looks to Be Revitalizing Local Airport
Naples Daily News, FL

February 20, 2004

The only scheduled commercial airline service at the
Naples Municipal Airport has not gotten off to a
rousing start, and a marketing campaign paid for by
the Naples Airport Authority has kicked in to help. 

The Airport Authority on Thursday approved a contract
with Tweed Advertising to develop a campaign to
highlight the resumed service of Cape Air, which in
December began again offering its service from Naples
to Key West. 

Last spring, Cape Air, citing slow business, had
announced plans to shut down its service after
offering Naples-to-Key West service for a decade in
its nine-passenger airplanes. But the
Massachusetts-based Cape Air had a change of heart a
couple of months ago when it began offering two
scheduled daily round-trip flights to the Keys, as
well as daily round-trip flights to Miami
International Airport as part of the "Continental
Connection." 

The connection allows passengers to park for free at
Naples airport and go through customs here, then fly
on Cape Air to Miami where Continental and other
airlines offer national and international flights. 

According to figures in an "activity report" the
Airport Authority compiled, there were 509 passengers
that took off from the airport in January 2003 on Cape
Air planes. The number is up slightly this past
January, at 518 passengers. 

But there were fewer passengers arriving in Naples on
Cape Air for the same month, with 628 arriving in
January 2003 and 546 arriving this year. 

Airport officials are trying to increase the "load
factor" percentage on planes. The Cape Air planes
flying out of the airport in January were only 34.26
percent full, and those flying in were 36.11 percent
full. She said the flights to Key West are doing quite
well, but not so for Cape Air's Continental
Connection. 

"We have some challenges, and we're working on that,"
said Gail Cureton, an Airport Authority spokeswoman,
on Thursday afternoon after the authority's meeting. 

She pointed out that the number of passengers flying
out of the airport using Cape Air is up from last
year, which can be viewed as a positive. 

"Are we where we want to be? Of course not. That's why
you heard today (at the Airport Authority meeting)
that we are intensifying our effort to get the word
out through advertising, and we are looking at
additional creative ways to promote the service. But
we do have an indication, just anecdotally, that
people have seen the ads and people are calling." 

During the authority meeting, Cureton outlined the new
marketing campaign. 

The airport authority board has budgeted $50,000 for
airline service marketing and an additional $25,000
for advertising, miscellaneous publications and other
marketing communications support. 

"The air service marketing campaign is well under way,
with the stated goals of increasing awareness of the
Cape Air service among travelers and those who
influence their travel decisions," Cureton told
authority commissioners. Cureton said that news
advertisements promoting the Cape Air service are now
running each week. 

"We'll ask Cape Air to survey passengers to find out
how they found out about the service," she said. 

She said larger newspaper ads that are now being
designed will be running in the coming weeks. Their
slogan will be "Get there, from here," which will be
sandwiched between a graphic of a landmark of the
eventual destination and Naples. 

One graphic design shows the Statue of Liberty on one
side and a beach umbrella on the other. This signifies
that passengers can leave Naples on Cape Air and fly
to Miami, where they can catch a flight to New York
City on Continental. 

Cureton also said that banner ads soon will be run on
the Internet. 

The Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce also recently
featured Cape Air's service in its monthly publication
that circulates to more than 2,000 readers. "We
realize that advertising alone will not increase the
awareness of the air-service offerings at the
airport," she said. 

Cureton said that commercial terminal tenants are
planning events that could bring people to the
terminal so Cape Air can promote its service. 

Naples Airport Authority commissioner Peter Manion,
the board member who was given the task of trying to
find ways to increase commercial service, said the
slow start for Cape Air can be linked to the fact that
word has not gotten out to many that it is back up and
running. 

"Save collecting people from the streets and
kidnapping them and forcing them to fly Cape Air
flights, I think we've done just about everything that
we could do to support this operation," he told the
authority. "We're optimistic that the Cape Air
operation will fly out of here at 100 percent load
factor ... and that Cape Air will stay with us after
the season." 

Manion said he continues to have conversations with
Delta Airlines about possibly starting up a regional
jet service to Atlanta out of Naples. 

"I know I say this every time, I'm sounding like a
broken record, but we have reason to be optimistic,"
he said. "Certainly we have missed this season (for
regional service). But we've begun a full push on a
commitment to cover next season." 

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