Tri-State Airport to Promote Upgraded Charlotte Service

February 20, 2004

Tri-State Airport to Promote Upgraded Charlotte
Service
Huntington Herald Dispatch, WV

Now that Tri-State Airport has at last received its
wish for better aircraft on flights to Charlotte, it
plans an ad campaign to promote it.

The Tri-State Airport Authority on Thursday approved
$50,000 for a promotional campaign for the Charlotte
service. The campaign will use newspaper advertising,
billboards and perhaps some television commercials to
let the traveling public know about the improvements.

On April 4, US Airways Express will upgrade the
aircraft on the Charlotte flights from 19-seat
airplanes to 37-seaters. Not only will the aircraft be
larger than those now in use, but they will also have
flight attendants and restrooms, both of which the
19-seaters lack.

Many people who fly out of Tri-State have complained
about the 19-seaters.

Beckie McKinley, marketing director for Tri-State
Airport, said she will ask US Airways for help in
promoting the new aircraft. She said she hopes to get
some money for advertising, but she would prefer lower
fares for the first month of service as a way of
getting people to try the service. 

Also on Thursday, Lucy Rollins was re-elected
president of the airport authority, as were other
officers of the airport’s governing board.

Re-elected to their posts were Jim Booton, first vice
president; Cal Kent, second vice president; Thomas
Ferrell, treasurer; Kevin Gunderson, secretary; and
Larry Salyers, assistant secretary. Salyers is the
airport’s general manger.

Also on Thursday, the airport authority approved a
contract with Mark Sixel of Sixel Consulting Group in
Eugene, Ore., to prepare a community meeting on air
service development and to write an application for a
federal grant that could provide $500,000 to $1
million to improve service. Sixel bid $7,500 plus
expenses for the two projects.

The community meeting is to be sometime in April.

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