Airport Launches Marketing Pitch Aimed at Growth

EGG HARBOR

Campaign capitalizes on more hotel rooms, expansion plans in Atlantic City

ATLANTIC CITY International Airport wants desperately to be bigger, and is waging a marketing campaign that emphasizes the area's increase of hotel rooms, planned expansions at the airport and passengers' difficulty navigating busier rival airports.

"Realistically, over the next 18 months I'd like to be able to announce two new carriers in addition to more service from the existing carriers," says Sharon Gordon, director of communications and marketing for the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which owns the airport.

Currently, the airport has two major carriers, Spirit Airlines and Delta Air Lines, running a total of 14 flights in and out of the airport every day.

Gordon says she is talking with airlines at Newark Liberty International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport in an effort to convince them to run some of their flights out of Atlantic City, where there is less congestion for the aircrafts on runways and for passengers in the terminal.

"We're working in concert with the Philadelphia and Newark airports," says Gordon, who notes, for example, that Continental Airlines in Newark could benefit by getting closer to passengers in South Jersey. And Newark Airport could benefit by relocating some flights to reduce overcrowding at its facility, she says.

Gordon seems to have more ammunition than ever as she wages the airport's long-running battle to convince airlines that Atlantic City Airport is a place they should be. The arsenal includes an explosion of new hotel rooms planned for the nearby gambling resort to attract air travelers; a new $24.5 million parking garage under construction that will more than double parking at the airport to 2,700 spots; and a $13.5 million planned expansion of the runway apron that will create space for more aircraft while freeing up space to eventually double the number of gates from seven to 14.

"This destination has arrived and the prospect for (attracting new) air service to Atlantic City has never been better," Gordon says.

But getting airlines to move to Atlantic City isn't easy.

"The greatest barrier to our marketing efforts is our proximity to Newark and Philadelphia airports," Gordon says. "We have overlapping markets, and the major airlines say they are already serving those markets. In their minds, they are comfortable in New York andPhilly."

It costs an airline $7 million to move to a new airport, and it's risky, Gordon says.

Here's her pitch to airlines in a nutshell: "You can save money and still capture the market. You can avoid congestion and air-space capacity issues. We are between New York and Philly and we have less congestion."