"Editorial: Diversify carriers at CVG"

Friday, October 7, 2005

Editorials
Diversify carriers at airport 
The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer

 
Delta Air Lines' bankruptcy has intensified the long-simmering debate over
whether the Kenton County Airport Board made a bad bet in hitching its star
to Delta's hub here.

Until Delta's bankruptcy and the loss of DHL's air freight hub, that debate
mainly centered on high fares that the dominant carrier could charge
passengers and on flight noise disturbing western Hamilton County and
Northern Kentucky neighborhoods. Those problems now are overshadowed by
Delta's nearly $10 billion in losses over the past four years, which have
brought job and pay cuts for Delta/Comair workers. The company's economic
troubles mean an estimated $350 million hit to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky
International Airport and the regional economy.

The airport board needs to redouble efforts to diversify the airport's
carriers. In a meeting Wednesday with The Enquirer's Editorial Board,
airport officials said that even before the Delta cuts, there was plenty of
available gate space at the airport, but with the current brutal aviation
fuel costs and airline debt, it may be more difficult than ever to attract
more carriers to Cincinnati. Delta in the past has driven out 15 low-fare
airlines by fare-matching and offering frequent flier miles.

The airport board is far from writing off Delta. Even with flight reductions
due in December, board chairman William Robinson III says Cincinnati will
still offer 500 nonstop flights a day to 120 cities - equal to Columbus,
Dayton, Indianapolis, Lexington and Louisville nonstops combined. He insists
the airport is strategically well-positioned with new runways,
"substantially below-average landing fees and relatively low debt service."

Although the runways added bond debt, Robinson credits the astute advice of
airport general counsel Wilbert Ziegler with keeping the airport from
putting its credit behind Delta's $430 million bond debt to build Terminal
3. That means the airport does not have to worry about that debt if Delta's
situation worsens, he said.

That hasn't kept Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes and County
Commissioner Todd Portune from blasting airport management. Both live near
airport flight paths, and both argue for more Ohio representation on the
board. Prominent Cincinnati business leaders have served as non-voting
advisers to the board, but it would take an act of Kentucky's legislature to
give Ohioans board voting powers.

Rhodes accuses the Kenton County Airport Board of not looking out for the
interests of the airfare-paying public, and of turning airport control and
profits over to Atlanta, Delta's headquarters city. We believe Rhodes is
overstating the case.

The airport hub is an important economic engine for Greater Cincinnati, but
Pittsburgh, St. Louis and other cities have lost their hubs through industry
downturns in recent years. The airport board here has done a good job in
managing this asset, but it must be ready with a recovery strategy if such
an event were to befall Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky.


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