Airport ads spotlight direct flights

Security isn't a big worry for travelers at Reno/Tahoe International Airport, but they wish the airport offered direct flights to more locations.

Armed with those two findings from a new survey, the airport's marketing effort in coming months will focus on making sure airline customers know about the places they can reach easily from Reno.

The survey conducted in late September and early October found that airline customers in Reno give priority to safety but they think the airport is doing a good job with security.

Nearly as important as security, survey respondents said, is the ability to catch a plane that conveniently takes them where they want to go.

On that score, they said, Reno/Tahoe International falls short.

"This truly changes our direction," said Tom Medlen, director of marketing and air service development.

"This was a dramatic finding for us."

The upshot is an advertising campaign developed by Reno's Rose-Glenn Group that emphasizes the destinations that can be reached by nonstop and onestop flights from Reno.

The campaign, which launched modestly in print venues during the holidays, will be rolled into broadcast outlets during the next month or so.

The airport's last big advertising effort, which wrapped up in the spring of 2003, was sought to allay consumers' worries about the safety of air travel.

The airport's advertising also will pay increasing amounts of attention to affluent, educated consumers, particularly those in their 30s and 40s.

Lorna Shepard, vice president and director of account planning at Rose- Glenn, said the survey conducted by the agency found that 81 percent of those with household incomes greater than $75,000 had flow from Reno/Tahoe International within the past year.

But the rest of the population isn't exactly staying home.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they've flown from the airport in the past year.

The telephone survey covered airport users from the Truckee Meadows, Carson City, the Lake Tahoe area and Susanville and Quincy in northeast California.

About 45 percent of those who flew within the past year said they used the airport for business travel.

Medlen noted, however, that the survey covered only people who use the airport for outgoing flights.

Visitors to Reno, who account for about 70 percent of the airport traffic, are much more likely to be leisure travelers.

The airport is studying ways to get more data about incoming passenger traffic.

The survey found that San Francisco International Airport is the most serious competitor for Reno-area travelers.

A quarter of those surveyed said they've used an alternate airport.

Of that group, 55 percent had used the San Francisco airport, citing lower-cost flights as well as the availability of more service.

Given the competition from San Francisco and Sacramento, Medlen said airport officials were heartened by the generally high marks the facility received from consumers.

"If we were running a pigsty, people would leave us.

They're not," he said.

In fact, passenger traffic at the airport last year rose 1.7 percent (nationally, traffic fell 2.7 percent) and totaled 4.6 million.

Last year was the first time since 1997, when Reno Air was sold to American Airlines, that passenger traffic was up.

About half the survey respondents, meanwhile, said they chose in the past year to drive to a city where they might have flown.

The biggest reason? It's cheaper to drive.

Security worries were far down the list.

Medlen said the airport plans to conduct similar surveys on an annual basis to track patterns among consumers.