“The issue is, how do we keep them here in a situation where airlines are dumping a lot of smaller planes and reducing capacity?” said Michael Boyd, president of Boyd Group International Inc., an aviation industry consultant. “You want to keep what you have. Airlines aren’t growing.”
Dayton International has largely managed to hold onto its business. Its passenger traffic for 2011, through October, was down 1 percent from the same time in 2010. The total at the end of October was 1,065,211, on track to be in the range of the 1,264,650 who boarded flights in Dayton during the full year in 2010.
To the south, the rival Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport has lost more than two-thirds of its daily departures in six years as its dominant carrier, Delta, has reduced operations there to focus on air service junctions in Detroit, New York and elsewhere.
The Cincinnati airport’s operating budget for 2012 projects that passenger traffic there will drop by 10 percent from this year’s levels.
Airline representatives are telling Dayton airport officials that the carriers anticipate reducing flying capacity by two to three percent in many markets, said Terrence G. Slaybaugh, Dayton’s director of aviation.
“It’s the only way they can control their costs,” he said. “As long as fuel prices stay high, we’ll see more of that in 2012.”
Boosting flight service is particularly critical as airports seek to appeal to business travelers, a consistent source of revenue for the air travel industry. Business travelers account for about 60 percent of the Dayton airport’s passenger traffic.
Southwest Airlines’ acquisition of AirTran this year holds promise for Dayton’s air service. AirTran, now a Southwest subsidiary, is typically one of the busiest airlines at Dayton International.
On June 3, 2012, AirTran will begin offering nonstop service from Dayton to Denver. Travelers from Dayton could connect at Denver with Southwest flights to West Coast destinations, Slaybaugh said.
That same day, AirTran will stop serving Knoxville, Tenn.; Miami; Bloomington/Normal, Ill.; Charleston, W.Va., and Washington Dulles International Airport. AirTran, which is coordinating its flight schedules with Southwest, said that service to those markets is no longer practical because of the economy and high fuel prices.
“At some smaller airports, Southwest has concluded that it doesn’t make sense for them to be there,” said George Hamlin, president of Hamlin Transportation Consulting in Fairfax, Va.
By reducing the numbers of airplanes they fly, carriers are knocking some smaller markets off the commercial air service map, Hamlin said.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Katie McDonald declined to comment on her company’s future plans for air service.
Delta’s new daily service from Dayton to New York LaGuardia, starting in March 2012, is part of the airline’s plan to beef up service to and from LaGuardia. Those two daily flights will complement US Airways’ current three daily nonstops from Dayton to LaGuardia.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews. com.
About the Author