Winning Low Cost Carrier Service

Recently, we at Seabury APG have been fortunate enough to be involved with three clients who have secured major air service wins. These new service announcements have generated calls from several of you to find out the ‘secret’ to attaining similar new services. Seabury APG has always emphasized that the best path to success for generating new air service combines strong analytics and airline relationships with meaningful community support. And, as was seen in all three recent cases—procuring game-changing air service is often as much about strong community involvement as it is about route forecasts and quantitative analysis.

While the story for all three airports is slightly different for each, the outcome—SUCCESS--has been the same. In Huntsville, AL (HSV) Rick and Barbie pursued AirTran for years, and did a tremendous job of rallying the critical support throughout their entire region that the carrier needed to launch service. In this classic example of air service development being a marathon not a sprint, what finally made AirTran service a reality for HSV was a well-funded community support initiative combined with a $1M Small Community Air Service Development Program grant. The result is AirTran service twice daily to Baltimore and once daily to Orlando.

• To read the grant application written by Seabury APG, click here
• For more information on the new Huntsville service click here

Charleston, SC (CHS) and Greenville-Spartanburg, SC (GSP) have similar stories. The case for Southwest service to both communities is compelling, and each could cite positive quantitative analysis, but as importantly, each built a broad base of support for Southwest service across their respective communities, and each city responded by contributing exceptional financial and political resources to make Southwest service a reality. In fact, understanding the economic benefits of Southwest service for their state as well as their respective communities, Charleston and Greenville/Spartanburg partnered to help create state legislation that would complement local air service development funding with state economic development funding. While the bill ultimately stalled, the strong demonstration of creativity and local community support was enough to win Southwest over so that both Charleston and Greenville/Spartanburg will be getting service from the carrier starting in 2011.

• For more information on the new Charleston service click here
• For more information on the new Greenville-Spartanburg service click here

For more information on Seabury APG’s Airport Consulting practice click here