Cherry Capital Airport Study Highlights Growth Areas

Mar. 5—TRAVERSE CITY — A GPS-based visitation study commissioned by Cherry Capital Airport will be used to market the Traverse City area to carriers in Houston, Miami and Boston.

Those are the top three areas of opportunity, according to the True Visitation Estimate done by Mead & Hunt, an engineering firm based in Wisconsin.

American Airlines recently added a nonstop flight to Boston that will start up in late spring; the airport is hoping to add more flights to serve the other top areas, said Kevin Klein, airport director.

The study showed there were an estimated 36.7 million visits by car, bus or aircraft to the area in 2019, with about 7.5 million generated by people beyond a 200-mile radius of Traverse City.

Of those visits, 69,770 were from Houston; 66,670 were from the Miami area, and 39,573 were from the Boston area, according to the study.

"When you look at a market like Traverse City, it gives a larger picture of who may be flying in and who may be driving, and can we convert some of those drivers to flyers," Klein said.

The airport paid $12,495 to have the study done. It took about six months to complete, he said.

The study used GPS-based tracking data from smartphones combined with other travel-related databases to get a true picture of visitation to the Traverse City area.

The highly-accurate process identifies where a device's home is, while not revealing the owner of the device, according to the study.

Data from 2019 was used because of the impact of the pandemic, which had visitation down about 20 percent year-over-year for those coming from beyond the 200-mile mark.

Studies are done about every four years, he said, with the data used as a marketing tool to attract airlines.

This is the first time the airport has commissioned a study using GPS data, he said.

"It was great to see that information," Klein said. "It provided it in a light that was different than in the past. It gave us a new way to look at things."

The airport is in the process of adding a jet-bridge gate to service several nonstop flights recently added by American Airlines to Dallas/Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Charlotte and Washington D.C., in addition to Boston. Those flights start in May and June.

Allegiant Airlines, which added several nonstop flights to Florida in 2019, will also use the new gate. Those flights recently changed to seasonal.

The $1.4 million gate project, which included a new opening into the terminal, is funded by a federal grant. Another five gates will be added over the next several years for a total of 12, Klein said.

A terminal study is currently being done with the Federal Aviation Administration, Klein said. That study uses data to justify the use of spending federal dollars to add gates, he said.

The study should be completed this year with the first phase of construction starting in 2023-'24, with work expected to be done by 2025-'26, Klein said.

No additional runways are being added, he said.

The east-west runway was repaved and expanded by 115 feet in 2017, to a total of 7,000 feet, at a cost of $13.9 million.

The airport is transitioning to an authority governance model, which will give it more autonomy. The change is expected to be complete by October.

Cherry Capital is jointly owned by Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties; both counties have representation on the new authority board.

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