Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 15, 1993 TAG: 9310150115
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
The addition is part of a pattern of new flights as the Roanoke airport continues to recover passenger service it lost during the recession.
Last month, USAir said it would add two daily round-trip Boeing 737 jet flights between Roanoke and its Pittsburgh hub beginning Nov. 10.
The new COMAIR flight will use a Brazilia 30-passenger prop-jet that makes the trip in 75 minutes.
Comair and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, also operating as Delta Connection, account for 20 percent of the passenger traffic at the Roanoke airport. ASA serves Delta's Atlanta hub.
The Delta carriers rank second behind USAir, which accounts for 59 percent of the airport's passengers by the most recent count.
During July, Comair maintained the highest load factor of all airlines serving Roanoke; it filled 60.7 percent of its passenger seats.
Comair has benefited from some of the additional Delta traffic ASA has created over the past few months, said Mark Courtney, director of market development at the airport.
In November, airlines serving Roanoke provided 1,771 seats on departing planes. The number will increase to roughly 2,300 seats next month with the new flights, Courtney said.
"The key now is to continue to generate the [passenger] loads," he said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***