WASHINGTON --
Eastern Pennsylvanias Lehigh Valley has a new hometown airline --
managed by an Atlanta tour operator that is chartering the aircraft
from Pace Airlines. The airport is providing a call center, and
Lehigh Valley is providing the name.
The Lehigh Valley
Airport deal -- or something like it -- could portend the future
for midsize and particularly smaller airports, which may become
increasingly desperate for service as the legacy carriers pull out
and steel themselves for battle in their bigger markets.
It is nothing new
for such airports to offer incentives to attract service, but the
Lehigh Valley Airport package raises the bar in its aggressiveness
and creativity.
Lehigh Valley
Airport made its arrangement with Aviation Advantage, an Atlanta
company created to take advantage of what it believes will be a
growing number of such opportunities.
In fact, Cary
Evans, Aviation Advantages executive vice president and COO, said
it soon will announce another deal with four airports -- three of
them immediately and a fourth to be added a month later -- for a
scheduled charter service branded as Southern Skyways.
Under the Lehigh Valley
deal, the airport is providing some incentives that are typical, in
kind if not amount, to create the regularly scheduled public
charter service to Fort Lauderdale and St. Petersburg,
Fla.
The service will
begin March 24. Aviation Advantage is contracting aircraft, crews
and maintenance from Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Pace Airlines, which
specialized in charter services for sports teams, tour operators
and corporate shuttles but may be best known for its flights as
Hooters Air.
Southeast used to
provide service from Lehigh Valley to Fort Lauderdale and St.
Petersburg but ceased all of its operations at the end of November.
No airline presently at the airport has filled in, and the airport
has tried unsuccessfully for years to attract service from
Southwest, which ultimately spurned it for Philadelphia.
The airport, like
many, has offered incentives to attract more service.
For the Lehigh
Valley Air service, the airport is contributing $460,000 for
marketing efforts in the first year, including television and print
advertising. It also waived landing fees for six months, saving
Aviation Advantage about $100,000.
The airport
provides its own ground handling service at reduced rates and jet
fuel at cost, a benefit also being used by the airline
TransMeridian.
But the new and
unusual, if not unprecedented, twist is the reservations
service.
The airport is
spending about $30,000 for computers, furniture and other supplies,
created a Web site and will staff the call center with as many as
six employees per shift.
Lehigh Valley
Air, and any other airlines that are interested, will be charged a
fee for the service, but it is intended only to cover costs, said
George Doughty, executive director of the Lehigh-Northampton
Airport Authority.
Its not really a
business we want to make a big profit on, Doughty said. But when
people call Lehigh Valley Air, theyre talking to someone in the
Lehigh Valley, not Bangladesh. Thats pretty cool.
That will help
provide some local flavor to the airline, which took a hometown
name for a reason.
Doughty said the
airport asked Aviation Advantage to use the name of the region,
figuring that will help market the service to the
community.
Whats next?
Doughty said he hopes the Lehigh Valley Air service will prove the
viability of the two Florida markets and, perhaps, convince a
scheduled service airline such as US Airways to add the
route.
If that happens,
he said, the Lehigh Valley Air service would be switched to another
city, such as Fort Myers. Other
destinations also are possible.
As for the
prospect of the Lehigh Valley Air model working at other airports,
Doughty said he isnt sure. His airport had the advantage of some
well-established routes and a 12-county area that provides a
potential customer base of 3.6 million people.
The ultimate test
of this will be how the consumer responds, said Howard Mann, senior
manager of international and public affairs for Airports Council
International-North America. Its going to be pretty interesting to
see how it works out, Mann said.
To contact
reporter Andrew Compart, send e-mail to [email protected].