For months I have wondered what IMG has been doing with the $100,000 + that we have paid them to retain and recruit commercial airlines. I have found the text in BOLD below in the agenda for next Tuesday's meeting below.
The City continues to work with aviation experts at IMG on various airport related issues, including operational strategies and the identification and marketing of the airport to increase aviation activity. IMG will continue to provide the City with analysis of potential carriers and the creation of specific marketing packages and strategies to these identified airlines. We are focusing our efforts on identifying and recruiting airlines that employ more efficient aircraft and service popular leisure destinations which were identified through the local and FAA-conducted surveys of passenger preferences........
Additionally IMG is preparing route analysis for two prospective airlines. We are working closely with Massport officials to review and make additional recommendations on those packages. Following the finalization of the packages, Massport and the City will meet with representatives of the targeted airlines to determine interest in locating at the airport.
WRRB/Telegram District City Council Forum 10/18
-
This forum is for all district council candidates; all candidates are here
today. Format: 14 total questions, 4 questions across districts (for all
candida...
6 months ago
22 comments:
Anybody know who the carrier(s)/destinations may be?
Dave from Worcester
My guess is that one of them has to be Skybus...
Three airlines. Let me think.. I say Skybus, Festival Airlines and SkyValue are the top three possibilites. I
Ok, thank you. I think with three airlines, we should atleast land one of them (Hopefully).
Dave from Worcester
Dave:
If we had the momentum of Allegiant, I really believe that we would be able to land one of these carriers.
Seriously think that Allegiant pulling out after 9 months makes us a tough sell to any of these start-ups. Premise being "If Allegiant could not make money at ORH, why will our results be different?"
Obviously the two airlines that IMG is preparing packages for may not be two these three airlines, but I got to believe that they are.
Bill
Very good point, I overlooked that fact. It will be interesting how things come out in the end.
Dave from Worcester
We have no comm service now and therefore receive no $$$ from the sale of jet fuel to a comm carrier...AND....AND ... we still are carrying ALL the fixed costs needed to remain "comm. carrier certified" (139 is it ??)...so...
We tell our targeted airlines NO JET FUEL TAX and NO LANDING fee for the first 2 years. That has go to save them a $1000 per landing and we know from Allegiants exp. that we can get them a 79% to 85% load factor dependng on which figures one choses to believe.
Now How much time and talents does it take to pick up the phone and just call these airline(s) and get them here....maybe even for this winters vacation season to fla.???
K.I.S.S.
Better idea. Instead of paying IMG a $100,000 to retain and recruit airlines, why don't we spend the $100,000 on the airlines themselves??
It truly blows me away that a fully staffed airport does not have the capability of putting together "packages" to recruit airlines.
skybus as potential, but to Columbus? That's not a major destination in my opinion. Where is Skyvalue flying from/to?
SkyValue is going to operate Gary/Chicago as a hub. They also serve William's Gateway (Phoenix), Fort Lauderdale, St. Peterburg/Clearwater, Orlando (McCoy), and Las Vegas (McCarran), but only from Gary.
Dave from Worcester
SKyValue to Gary from ORH could work.. One you could potentially sell access to Chicago or connections to Vegas, St Petes.
If I am SkyValue, I would stay away from ORH since Allegiant (the leader in Second tier airlines) could not make money at ORH.
Allegiant leaving ORH not only hurts by losing Allegiant, but the message it sends to other airlines is devastating.
Skyvalue seems more likely then. Hope mthey are working on that one. Although, I never heard of them so are they viable? Is this another start-up that doesn't have any real $$?
http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.net/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=66&ArticleID=30083
Well, SkyValue sold 889 reservations on their first day! Read the article, especially at the end.
Dave from Worcester
SkyValue if a second tier airline following the model of SouthEast, TransMeridian, Hooters and Allegiant. As you can tell three of these airlines failed, while Allegiant has flourished and has Wall Street believing in them.
My bet is that SkyValue does not have a heck of alot of money and lease their planes. If I was SkyValue, ORH would really scare me since their role model (Allegiant) failed here.
Flights to Gary/Chicago sounds more like the business target market than the vacation target market?
I thought it was concluded we'd target vacations destinations?
Would you fly Orh to gary to Vegas or would you drive to Ct or RI and get a direct flight for quite possibly less cost and less flying time and maybe a bit more driving time? I can make Prov in 45 mins now and I have to cross the city and that's after a short delay to get through the 146 constr. A sizable portion of Orhs potentail customer base is even closer to RI
Again we have to GIVE ORH to any carrier willing to come there. IMO, we have no positions of strength to negoiate from, esp after Mayor Murray & T&G spanked Allegiant on thhe way out the door.
So, basically because of the Allegiant Experience, we have eliminated the chance of airlines at ORH at least for the time being??? We should look at what we did wrong with Allegiant and correct it. We should have never bashed Allegiant for leaving the way we did.
Dave from Worcester
Jahn:
We are still targeting the leisure traveler with flights to St Petes and Vegas with a stop at Gray, if we go after SkyValue. I just don't see SkyValue flying a direct flight from ORH to St Pete's. The fact Chicago being nearby may, however, attract the business traveler. At the same time SkyValue would only fly a couple flights per week so I don't know how well it would attract a business traveler.
You ask the perfect question, do I drive to TF Green/Boston/Bradlet and fly direct to Tampa/Vegas or fly out of ORH with a stop in Gary?? Not sure until I see the price and find out whether or not SkyValue is dependable like Allegiant or undependable like PanAm.
Dave, I truly do believe we have blown any chances in the short-term to land anyone when Allegiant pulled out after 9 months. You are right, we never should have bashed Allegiant. In fact we should have worked with them and asked them what we could have done differently, worked on those deficiencies and left the door open with Allegiant.
Good point, if we had looked at why Allegiant discontinued service, we could have corrected these problems and maybe have lured them back. Instead of doing this, we took the opposite road and ruined all chances.
My perspective is from outside of the ORH area. Maybe a potential airline will look at Allegiant's departure as an opportunity to take advantage of a "secondary" airport market that is situated in a catchment area of 2-3 mil. That must be a large leisure market ripe for the picking with the correct product/destinations, business plan and dynamic partnering with the ORH airport community.
I just talked to someone who knows people at Gary Airport and ironically, Sky Value. Gary staff are very enthusiastic about Sky Value and have heard that they have had conversations with people from Worcester. They did not have, or chose not to say, with whom they have spoken.
Also, one more thing before i am done. Wouldn't it be good to attract both business and vacation customers at the same time? Please correct me if I am wrong.
Dave:
To get business travelers, we daily multiple flights. Nobody will make a commit like that.
At first all we can ask for is a couple (2 or 3) flights per week from a carrier, which means leisure. Once we can support a leisure carrier then maybe someone could commit to multiple daily flights.
The intesting thing about SkyValue to Gary is that not only could we target the leisure traveler (ST Petes and Vegas), we could get some Chicago spin-off.
Bill
Post a Comment