"Kentucky airport asks for residents non-stop support"

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Airport wants your non-stop support
LETTERS COULD MEAN MORE JET FLIGHTS
By Risa Brim
The Lexington (KY) Herald Leader


If you want non-stop service from Lexington to Minneapolis, pick up a pen or
sit down at a keyboard and start writing.

Blue Grass Airport is calling on Central Kentucky residents to wage a
letter-writing campaign in support of jet flights to Minneapolis in hopes
that it will persuade transportation officials to give the port money to
land the service.

The airport, along with Commerce Lexington and the Lexington Convention and
Visitors Bureau, are applying for a $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department
of Transportation.

The agencies have pledged a total of $75,000 in matching funds, which will
be used primarily to advertise the service.

Airport spokesman Tom Tyra said letters from business and community leaders
and airport customers would give Central Kentucky "an edge" over other
communities applying to the grant program, which awards as much as $20
million to small communities that have found innovative ways to increase
competition among airlines and lower fares.

Area residents are urged to write letters to the department by June 15. The
department is expected to announce awards in October.

"There was a similar effort about a year ago to show support for non-stop
flights to D.C., and there was tremendous support from the business
community," Tyra said. "It is crucial that we get that same level of support
or better. Community support is going to be a determining factor and I
believe it will set us above the other communities competing for the funds."

Tyra said the $150,000 will be given to the airline providing the service to
offset start-up costs.

Northwest Airlines, the No. 2 airline at Blue Grass, has written a letter
promising to provide the non-stop service as early as next spring if the
application is approved. The letter was included with the grant application,
Tyra said.

The effort comes as the Lexington port braces for the loss of low-cost
carrier American Trans Air on June 1.

Local travel and business officials fear the loss will drive up ticket
prices.

ATA offers 136 daily seats to Chicago, 107 of which go on to cities in the
West, including Seattle and San Francisco, Tyra said.

The West Coast, he said, has become a hot destination for Blue Grass Airport
customers.

In 2000, 15 percent of flights from Lexington went to West Coast cities;
that has risen to 25 percent.

Tyra said the airport will be mailing packets with information about the
grant and letter templates to chambers of commerce, hotel and motel
associations and other groups in Central Kentucky.

Blue Grass Airport is calling on Central Kentucky residents to write letters
to the U.S. Department of Transportation in favor of non-stop jet service to
Minneapolis.

For more information and to submit letters electronically, visit
www.bluegrassairport.com.

To submit comments by mail, send letters to: Docket Management System, U.S.
Department of Transportation, Room Plaza 401, 400 Seventh Street SW,
Washington, D.C. 20590-0001. Include docket number OST-2004-17343 on your
letter.


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