Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport Courts Business Fliers

Local Airport Courts Business Fliers 
Kalamazoo Gazette, MI

Sunday, February 29, 2004 

    
They account for 80 percent of the more than 446,000
people who traveled into and out of the county-owned
airport last year. So, as the airport prepares to
spend $32 million to build a new terminal building,
business travelers will continue to be its primary
focus, airport and county officials say. 

"We're not saying we don't pay attention to the
leisure-travel sector," said Peter Battani, deputy
administrator for Kalamazoo County, "but we have to
look at where the bread and butter is." 

Airport officials say business travel has helped the
airport navigate through tough economic times. While
most U.S. airports saw declines in passenger traffic
during the last few years and traffic for the average
U.S. airport was down by an average of 7 percent in
2003, local air traffic was down a comparably modest
2.2 percent, said Karen Stimson, marketing director
for the airport. 

"We are holding our own in a very tough market,"
Stimson said. "Local companies want to support the
airport." 

Company ties 'top-notch' 

Helen Schlientz, deputy executive director of air
service and marketing for the Capital Region Airport
Authority in Lansing, said Kalamazoo Airport Director
Kenneth Potts has an "amazing relationship" with area
businesses and through economically difficult times
has "managed to hold on and do well with its business
travel." 

She said, "There's a very strong business coalition,
and the county as well as the city plays a strong hand
in that." 

Stryker Corp., the maker of hospital beds, human
replacement joints and other medical products, is the
airport's biggest corporate client, Stimson said. It
books 15,000 to 20,000 flights per year. 

Schlientz said the Kalamazoo airport's ties with
Pfizer Inc. in Kalamazoo and Portage and the Kellogg
Co. in Battle Creek are also "top-notch." 

To continue that, look for Kalamazoo's new airport
terminal to include a business center that provides
Internet access for traveling businesspeople, a
conference room that can be leased for meetings and
other amenities. Among other things being considered
are improvements in parking, such as sheltered parking
spaces. 

The new terminal project is expected to begin in
March. 

But the challenges the airport faces are less than a
puddle-jumping plane ride away. 

Challenges on the horizon 

The Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport is
nearly surrounded by regional competitors who have
low-cost carriers to draw passengers away from this
market. 

"We are very unfortunate to be the island in the
middle of all the sharks who are picking away," Eldor
C. Quandt said of the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek airport's
position with the Gerald R. Ford International Airport
to the north in Kent County, the South Bend
International Airport to the south in Indiana, the
Capital Region Airport in Lansing to the east and
Midway Airport to the west in Chicago. 

The areas from which they draw passengers overlaps
that of Kalamazoo. And the nearest competitor, Ford
International, was the only regional airport to see
its traffic grow last year. Its traffic rose 3 percent
last year and some 9.5 percent since 1999. 

Quandt, who is director and adviser of Western
Michigan University's Tourism and Travel program, said
there are about 593,000 air travelers that Kalamazoo's
airport could potentially draw from in all of
Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties and portions of
Allegan, Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Eaton
and St. Joseph counties. 

Of that potential market, about 55 percent typically
fly from the Kalamazoo airport, according to the Boyd
Group, a consulting group that tracks information in
the airline industry. Quandt said that percentage
isn't bad, but 65 percent would be much better. 

The erosion of the leisure market, independent
travelers and families headed on vacation, is another
concern. 

Travelers are willing to drive 

The loss of other Kalamazoo-area passengers to other
airports is "heavily oriented" to the leisure
traveler, Quandt said. 

"They know they can leave from South Bend or Grand
Rapids and pick up more nonstop flights," Quandt said.
"The leisure traveler plans extra time." 

Among those being drawn to other airports is Paul
Sylvester, the president and chief executive officer
of Portage-based Manatron Inc. He says he is as tight
with his company's money as he is with his own. So
when he is traveling -- for business or at his leisure
-- he is looking for deals. 

"The primary issue is cost," Sylvester said. "I would
much rather fly out of Kalamazoo because it's easier
to check in and it's five minutes from my office and
20 minutes from my house." 

But he said he is willing to drive elsewhere to catch
a plane, and when traveling on business, he has
generally been using Ford International Airport in
Kent County or Detroit Metropolitan Airport. 

"In our business, we watch our dollars pretty
carefully," he said. "We don't just get a ticket for
whatever it costs. It drives me crazy when I'm asked
to pay $1,000 for a ticket when I know I could pay
$300 somewhere else." 

Maintaining an identity 

Hanging on to travelers like Sylvester and growing the
airport's leisure market are among things a new
airport task force will consider, airport officials
said. But Potts said trying to grow leisure passenger
traffic by doing such things as attracting low-cost
airlines, is not a top priority. That is tough in a
market where 80 percent of the airport's annual
revenue is business travel. 

"Why should we make the effort to go after something
that's so elusive?" he said. "We're not going to be
something we're not." 

For those who keep an eye on fares and take advantage
of them, good deals are available from the
Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport for
leisure travelers, Potts has said. He said some are
rates that beat other regional airports. 

But businesspeople have traditionally been willing to
pay more to fly from here in order to get where
they're going as quickly as possible and conserve
their time. Quandt said airlines have nothing to gain
by lowering their fares to attract a larger leisure
market if they know the majority of customers in the
market, business travelers, will pay a higher fare. 

Realistic expectations 

Potts offered no apologies for focusing on business
travel and "following the money." 

"When you look at what our role is, we offer
convenience," he said. "(Pfizer Inc.) is less than 10
minutes away, and Stryker's headquarters is just down
a little ways from our parking lot." 

Kenneth Fischang, executive director of the Kalamazoo
County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said
convenience, and having an easy-in, easy-out,
"user-friendly" passenger terminal is a major selling
point with convention and meeting planners. 

Fischang is among representatives of various groups
who depend on the airport and say it is the county's
most important economic-development tool. 

"It's vital to the whole community's future," he said.
"Our best way to help the airport is to bring in big
conventions and meetings and the business travelers
that are going to drive it." 

Airport officials are also forming an Air Service
Development Task Force to look at the airport's
position in relation to its regional competitors,
Battani said. The task force will include
representatives from the business,
economic-development and tourism areas in Kalamazoo
and Battle Creek, he said. 

What's on others' radar 

Schlientz of the Capital Region Airport Authority in
Lansing, said Capital City Airport's passenger
traffic, about 534,704 passengers compared to
Kalamazoo's 446,340 in 2003, represents about 60
percent business travel and 40 percent leisure travel.


Airport officials in Lansing are continuing to foster
ridership by both groups with the addition of a
business center, which offers Internet access and
other services, and charter flights to Las Vegas via
Allegiant Air. 

Ford International's passenger traffic, about 1.9
million travelers last year, has been almost evenly
split between business and leisure travelers, said
Bruce Schedlbauer, marketing and communications
manager for that airport. 

Leisure travel there receives a boost from the
presence of low-cost carrier ATA, formerly American
Trans Air, which has been serving the airport for more
than 30 years. 


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