New Air Service to Southwest Florida

Story in the Blade this morning: http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/09/11/New-Toledo-to-Florida-flights-on-port-agenda.html

Meeting is on going right now. Allegiant's bus was just in another city this morning and announced a new route for that town. Seems like they are lining up to the do the same in TOL next week.

Why do they think this will thrive when all other attempts for service out of Toledo Express have failed?

You do realize that Direct Air, before they ran into financial issues (due to high fuel costs in other cities), operated a load factor between 89 and 96% full? Before the company shut down, they were reporting growth for the year around 5% over last year. So the route itself was very successful, but the company itself was a mess.

This is an established route that has a few years of proven success for Toledo and will be overall low risk for the operator coming in to do it.

So why do they think this will thrive? It has in the past. It is just a matter of getting a stable, quality operator to run the flights.

All other attempts for service from Toledo have failed? Perhaps some additional education on American's service for several decades and Allegiant's service going on 7 years should be taken into consideration. Allegiant which operates to other Florida airports from Toledo routinely is filling 90% of their seats. Not to bad and I wouldn't call that a failure.

Now I will follow up with say the operator for the flight will make all the difference. The company selected to manage the flights has past ties to Vacation Express. This is a virtual airline setup like Direct Air so this is more high risk than working out an agreement with Allegiant Air directly or say Frontier.

Frontier has started several Florida only markets recently and the Port could have worked out a way to get Frontier to do this. They could have then had the brand introduced to allow them to start Denver service to utilize the federal grant for that service. Cities like Harrisburg, PA have gone this route and have been very successful with Frontier.

I first flew out of Express in April of 1957 and it was a very big deal. We used to go to the restaurant at the airport on Sundays and watch planes land and take off.

These past years have not been real productive, IMHO, for flights in and out of Toledo. The federal government now considers it closed and will pay for flights to and from DTW.

I would love a successful airline or two here. But the PA brings in those who are on the fringes of insolvency and some shut down before first flight.

Would different leadership at the PA make any difference?

I get a vague sense we've had this conversation before...

I don't think the PA leadership really matters at this point. It is more so removing the airport from their control and allowing a team that is actually concerned about air service development to take over. Toledo is one of the few airports left that secured a grant for Frontier service that the airline hasn't already announced new service for.

The main thing in addition to getting a new team in place is securing funding to help take some of the risk out of the airlines' corner. It worked with American providing a revenue guarantee for a fourth flight and it remains and doing well. There are methods to assist airlines in starting up operations without putting tax payers at a disadvantage.

Though of course there are cases where tax money has gone to a revenue guarantee (RG) and has worked wonders. Panama City, FL setup a RG for Southwest to start new service there. The program was ended after 4 months because the airline was already profitable. Wichita, KS approved a RG that will allow them to get transitioned from AirTran to Southwest opening up new destinations and more competitive air service. Branson, MO setup an RG program to get airlines to fly into the new airport there. Southwest just announced last week they are replacing all AirTran service with their own and opening up new cities.

I'm focusing a bit on Southwest right now because obviously they are the airline everyone wants in their hometown. They keep fares reasonable and provide numerous nonstop destinations on 737s. As of right now Southwest now operates to Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Akron in Ohio. Toledo could very well work for them without impacting their operations at Detroit. Southwest could very easily operate flights to Chicago, Baltimore, Orlando, Tampa, and Denver and do very well. The catch is going to be setting up a revenue guarantee that will have to be from $6 to $8 million to help launch service.

At the end of the day though Toledo's two remaining carriers bring hope. American is negotiating to add 220 additional aircraft seating 70 to 90 passengers. These are your CRJ-700/900 and also the popular Embraer EJet line (170/190). They will likely have first class cabins and do wonders for increase yields in Toledo with the business passenger. The other thing it will do is open up the ability for a suitable aircraft to restart (possibly) service to Dallas that struggled under weight restrictions with the 50-seater they had before.

With Allegiant they are adding newer A319 aircraft to the fleet that will have the legs to reach places like Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles from Toledo. If customers continue to show strong support for them, this will make it easier for them to add new markets with the new aircraft.

The biggest thing hurting TOL right now is just an inefficient terminal facility and poor leadership that continues to scapegoat everything under the sun for their short comings.

dead horse...beating stops

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/09/28/Deal-to-secure-seasonal-flights-to-Fla-unlikely.html

TOL remains in a rut.

A better project would be to have a scheduled shuttle bus service to DTW from a centralized place....downtown Greyhound or Westfield.

Gunz - that would be a waste of money. Who is going to use that? I sure as hell wouldn't. Would need hourly service at best. More convenient to just drive and park somewhere.

Nothing like another airport coming to you with the deal and then backing out after you do what they ask...

Harvard Business School needs to do one of their famous case studies on TOL.

I'll bet a classroom full of students would have 10x better ideas than the room full of useless jerkoffs currently "leading"...

Many moons ago there were airport shuttles to DTW. One was at the Sheraton on Secor and you could leave your car there for free. I used that service many times while visiting my daughter in NM.

This town has taken many steps backwards in so many areas. It is no wonder our young people leave as soon as they can find a job. Sad.

Stop re-electing the same people over and over? Toledoans only have themselves to blame for it remaining in a rut.

As far as the new air service. The agreement was a deal with a second city approached Toledo to sign on with them. Toledo did...the other city backed out once the vote had taken place. Nothing has been confirmed, but it isn't hard to connect the dots.

Which team of union democrats are we on now, A, B or C?

As an independent voter I try to vote for the best person who is qualified. I will admit that the recent republican candidates leave a lot to be desired no matter what office they seek.

I have voted for George Sarantou many times but now feel he is running for any office so he can stay in politics. And Joe the Plumber is not a viable candidate for any office.

I know nothing of A, B, or C democrats. But one party rule, no matter the party, is not good government.