Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport Director Rob Barnett has lofty goals for the regional airport, and while he has made important strides in his short time in the position, there is still a long way to go.

To aid in his efforts, Barnett employed Volaire Aviation Consulting to perform a retention and leakage study to break down the airport's overall impact in the region and highlight which areas that Barnett and airport officials need to focus.

The study focused on a sample of 33,208 tickets in 253 zip codes in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois in the year-end quarter of 2019. In this catchment area, domestic travel accounts for 89.1% of air traffic and international traffic accounts for 10.9%, totaling roughly 2.8 million passengers. Of that, the airport captured 1.5% of domestic travel and virtually no international. The focus moving forward is on the domestic traveler, Barnett said.

"I would like to see us grow to 25% or even 50%," he said. "It will take time, and we have to remain focused on what we have and growing what we have. We know that Southwest (airlines) won't offer flights out of our airport, but we know that Allegiant Air is expanding and we have the Nashville route opening up, hopefully earlier than expected. The survey showed us that we are doing things the right way, but we need to be more aggressive with recruitment and retention. The top priority is to expand routes."

While Cape Air has added Nashville to its traditional St. Louis route, which will aid Barnett in touting Owensboro-Daviess County's virtues in a new and constantly expanding Nashville market, a major focus of route growth will be set on Allegiant, he said.

"We are looking at asking Allegiant about expanding destinations," he said. "We make Allegiant money as it is. They are having full airplanes and our load factor is good. We are also one of their least expensive airports to run in and out of. We have done a good job in communicating at a better level and have proven time and time again that we are one of their top performers. We receive awards from them consistently."

An exciting prospect in growing alongside Allegiant is the airline's construction of the Allegiant Sunseeker Resort in Charlotte Harbor, Florida.

"They are not just an airline," he said. "They are a travel company. You can book everything in one shot on their website. If you look at their master plan, especially with the resort, they are going to continue to grow and expand routes."

As the airport's services expand into new and dynamic markets, like Nashville, Barnett hopes to levy Owensboro and Daviess County's rich musical history, food, sights and sounds to not only allow the area's citizens to take advantage of other areas but make the airport a focal point for tourism. Now that they have the numbers, he said, those goals are even more tangible.

"Our marketing strategy will differ," he said. "Cape Air is a new kid on the block in Nashville. They have pretty big footprint in St. Louis. They are cultivating relationships and we look at all that is involved. It is crazy how much is going on in Nashville right now. It is an economic boon and I think our community will take advantage of it. Now that we have the numbers we have a better understanding and a document that supports our travel patterns and marketing, and I think it will make us adapt our plans. I think that Volaire did an excellent job in helping us in developing a plan for our future."

Jacob Mulliken, 270-228-2837, [email protected]

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©2019 the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.)

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