Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 11, 1994 TAG: 9410110108
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CLAUDINE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's why the airport has launched a $50,000 advertising campaign to boost hometown loyalty among travelers.
Through the end of this month, the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission is buying advertising space and time to promote the theme "Things Are Really Taking Off." It will be evident in newspaper ads by this weekend, as well as on a billboard erected Thursday near the airport and on radio and television commercials being broadcast this week.
The campaign also includes ads in regional editions of Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, and Sports Illustrated.
"We are trying to make people feel good about the airport," said Mark Courtney, director of planning and market development for the airport commission. "We are trying to tell them that they don't have to go down to Greensboro [N.C.] to get better fares."
At least not for leisure travelers. For vacationers, Courtney said, fares on USAir flights from Roanoke are very competitive with Continental Airlines service from Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro.
For example, a round-trip ticket between Roanoke and Tampa, Fla., costs about $159. The fare between Greensboro and Tampa is about $158, he said.
Increased demand for flights at Roanoke has meant an average 47 percent reduction in leisure fares to the most popular destinations in recent months, Courtney said.
But for business travelers, who account for 61 percent of Roanoke's air passengers, a round-trip ticket to New York could cost $308. The same trip leaving from Greensboro on Continental could cost $218, a 29 percent saving.
Business travel prices in Roanoke are no match for Greensboro fares, and Roanoke airport officials say they are not in a market that can compete with them.
"There was no way that Roanoke could support" the level of passenger traffic it would take to convince airlines to offer highly competitive business fares, Courtney said. "We simply do not have enough people for that."
A study this year by the Virginia Department of Aviation found that 2.4 percent of Roanoke residents take flights out of Greensboro, about a two-hour drive away.
Although Courtney said he hears people say they would rather drive to Greensboro, a study by the Roanoke airport commission found that the airport is serving more passengers than it did last year.
In August, the airport handled a total of 68,189 passengers - both arriving and departing. That was an increase of 16 percent over August 1993. In the first eight months of this year, 492,798 passengers flew to and from the Roanoke airport, up 17 percent from the corresponding period last year.
As of Oct. 3, the airport offered 98 daily flights, with a total of 4,400 seats.
Even faster growth and higher passenger counts at Greensboro's airport are attributed to competition between Continental's low-price, no-frills Continental Lite service and USAir.
Continental cranked up the competition another notch Monday by announcing savings of up to 30 percent off tickets purchased by Oct. 21 for travel throughout the United States and on certain international routes through Feb. 10.
by CNB