How Huntsville’s Airport is Flirting with Southwest Airlines
In the immediate aftermath of being voted the nation’s best small airport, Huntsville International Airport focused its attention in one direction: Southwest Airlines.
The airport over the weekend did some heavy duty social media flirting with Southwest, the nation's largest low-cost carrier that does not operate in Huntsville.
Just call it a modern-day love story.
“18 days from today will be the Day of Love -- Valentine’s Day,” the airport tweeted from its account Monday afternoon. “All the hearts, all the love and all the kisses but @FlyHSV doesn’t want to wait another minute to show @SouthwestAir what you could mean to us ... we have so much LUV to give. #HSVWantsSouthwest #NeverGiveUpOnLUV.”
Make no mistake. Hearts are pounding at Huntsville International for Southwest Airlines to start operations at the state’s second-busiest airport.
In a public pursuit to grab Southwest’s attention, the airport is planning a wave of social media messages. In fact, Monday’s message is the first of a series of messages targeting Southwest leading up to Valentine’s Day.
Yes, a modern-day cyber love story.
It started Sunday night.
“You know what … We’ve decided that from now until Valentine’s Day at least once per day we are going to be showing @SouthwestAir how much we could LUV them.” And among the hashtags included in the tweet: #HSVWantsSouthwest.
It’s an effort for the airport to ride a wave of momentum it perhaps has never seen – being voted the best small airport at a time when Huntsville is experiencing dizzying growth. And there was a certain symmetry as well as Southwest was voted the nation’s best airline in the USA Today online polls that spotlighted the airline industry.
Which the Better Business Bureau of North Alabama noticed.
Of course, any airport's recruitment of Southwest or any other carrier would be far more sophisticated that bombarding its social media timelines. But it's also a public tap on the shoulder, a flirtation, that could lead to that magical spark.
That’s reflected in the airport’s social media timeline being bombarded itself over the weekend with calls for bringing Southwest to Huntsville. And the airport’s Twitter account only fanned the flames of flirtation with Southwest.
For its part, Southwest responded to a couple of messages about Huntsville to its Twitter account over the weekend:
"Hey, Ricky! While we don't currently have plans to offer service to Huntsville, you never know what the future holds! Still, we'll be glad to welcome you onboard when your travel includes the cities we serve."
The biggest issue for Huntsville and Southwest, perhaps, are Birmingham and Nashville. Birmingham’s airport about 95 miles to the south and Nashville’s airport about 124 miles to the north are already homes to Southwest. The airline also operates out of Memphis to the west and Atlanta to the east.
The key to overcoming that issue, the airport said, is to #StopTheDrive. That translates to a call to Huntsville-area travelers to stop flying Southwest out of Birmingham and Nashville and, if the airline sees the decline in customer ZIP codes from the Huntsville area, that could lure them to Huntsville International.
Then again, to look at the map of cities where Southwest operates is to see an airline not necessarily concerned with what appears to be overlapping service areas.
Still, the online vote has catapulted Huntsville International into a spotlight that would not have been available if not for its successful social media campaign that pushed it into the top spot.
"Just getting the word out among the community and everybody energized about the airport helped us out," said Rick Tucker, the airport's CEO. "There was a lot of communication there helping people understand what it takes to get more service, lower the fares, and so it was a good education piece. It was good educationally for our community to learn more about us.
"At the same time, we're getting the word out. We all know what kind of growth we're seeing economically here and it's this is another way to let the nation and world know what a great place our region is to do business."
And as for potentially capturing the attention of airlines that don't currently operate at Huntsville International?
“I’m confident,” Tucker said, “that our marketing people who work daily with all of the airlines that currently serve us, the ones we’re trying to attract, I’m sure they’ve already sent this out to them to let them know that we’re No. 1.”
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