Bucking the Air Service Trend

AIR SERVICE 101: Know the Market

According to Mitchell International airport director Barry Bateman, passenger numbers were up 3 percent year over year for 2008. “We started seeing double-digit declines last September; we are down maybe 11-12 percent year-to-date,” says Bateman. Barring any unforeseen events, the director says the airport will begin to see an upturn in passenger numbers in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Air service data, available from the Department of Transportation, shows the airport’s top markets. Says Bateman, “We look at that data and determine which carrier would normally fly there out of this market, and we go after them. It’s really tough to convince airlines to overfly their hubs; that’s not in their vocabulary.

“We are always analyzing our markets; it’s a constant process.”

In terms of what carriers want to know about Milwaukee before introducing or expanding service, Bateman says a lot is driven by what the current fare structure at the airport is.

“Right now the fare structure is low, and that’s not enticing to carriers,” says Bateman.

Carriers also want to know about the city; how many companies are headquartered in the area, city demographics such as employment and household income, and how much discretionary money potential travelers have, he says.

“Airlines are also very interested in what competing airports are doing, and what kind of passenger leakage an airport has to its competing airports,” says Bateman.

Expanded Alliance

An alliance between Delta Airlines and Midwest Airlines extends Midwest’s long-standing marketing agreement with Northwest Airlines to the new Delta, which acquired Northwest last year.

In March, Delta Airlines and Midwest Airlines announced a multi-faceted agreement which includes reciprocity between their frequent flyer programs, new joint marketing efforts, and expanded access to airport lounges throughout North America.

It is expected that the new codeshare agreement will go into effect in June 2009, while the frequent flyer portion of the agreement will go into effect later this year.

The addition of Delta’s route system to the previously available Northwest network increases the number of frequent flyer destinations available to Midwest customers to 379, according to a press release.