"Alabama airport looks to boost marketing"

Friday, January 4, 2008

Airport looks to boost marketing
The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser
  

The Montgomery Regional Airport Authority's marketing committee has taken
the first major step toward setting up a marketing department for the
airport.

On Thursday it voted to ask the finance committee to find $250,000 to pay
for a marketing official and to create a customer service counter at the
airport.

Committee members said they believe hiring an independent contractor will
work better than hiring an airport employee, who would be part of the
Montgomery City-County Merit System.

The budget, approved by the authority at its October meeting, has a surplus
of $74,000, far short of what the marketing committee says it will need for
the changes.

Jerry Kyser, who heads the marketing committee and is part of the finance
committee, said he is not sure the money would be in the budget, but he said
a first step is to look for it.

He said that if the airport could not fund the entire position from its
budget then it could ask for help from other bodies, such as Montgomery City
Council or the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce.

Much of that money would be for one-time expenses. The estimate included
$50,000 to renovate the airport's game room into a customer service counter
where a marketing professional will work. It also includes money for
equipment.

Committee members said they thought it would cost about $80,000 to hire the
independent marketing official.

The committee also agreed that Phil Perry, the airport's executive director,
would make contact with leadership at U.S. Airways, which operates three
Montgomery-to-Charlotte, N.C., flights daily, to discuss ways the airport
can promote the flights.

Committee members, including Kyser and Val Bright, worried that the U.S.
Airways flight often fills only half its seats. If that does not improve,
they said, the airline may consider ending the service.

Perry said he did not have exact numbers on how full the flights were, but
he said his observation was that at least one of the three daily flights is
only partially filled.

"The afternoon flight looks lighter to me," he said. "I hate to see any
airline have substandard load factors."

Bright said the airport could not afford to lose flights at a time when it
is struggling to grow its business.

Kyser said the airport must try to keep the flights it has while it looks to
add others.

"Trying to save an airline is much cheaper than trying to get an airline,"
he said.

The committee said Perry should contact leadership at U.S. Airways about
joint advertising and marketing efforts for the flight. Perry said whatever
the airport offered U.S. Airways would be offered to other carriers as well.

Kyser said the improved on-time numbers to Montgomery, especially from
Atlantic Southeast Airlines, are a sign of progress.

"I would like to think it is moving in the right direction," he said.

ASA was on time to Montgomery with 79.4 percent of its flights in November,
and 83.6 percent of all flights to Montgomery arrived as scheduled that
month.


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