Flight plan

Declining passenger flows, seats and flights force airport officials to work harder.

A decline in service to Reno-Tahoe International Airport has thrown its air service development department into high gear not only to stop the trend for airlines to pull back but also to expand and enhance service.

"Nearly every major airport in the country is experiencing fewer flights and smaller planes,'' said Tom Medland, director of the airport's marketing and air service development department.

"We compete for airline service into our community with just about every major airport, and there are about 446 of them actively soliciting for air service. We have always been very aggressive in that regard. We have stepped that up."

In June, 445,018 passengers passed through the airport, 2.4 percent fewer than the same period last year. Nationally, 3.7 percent fewer Airport Authority, attributes the passenger decline here to the 8,160 seats lost when Northwest Airlines stopped flying here in September.

"We're doing our best to attract air service in the face of amazing factors affecting the number of seats available," Kulpin said.

John Heimlich, chief economist for the Air Transport Association, an industry trade group based at Washington, D.C., said airlines had 1.3 percent fewer seats available nationwide in 2006 compared with 2005. International capacity was up 4.7 percent.

"There's been a realignment of capacity and there are fewer seats available domestically," Heimlich said.

However, Heimlich said, "Airlines will not shy away from demand if the cost of serving the airport or community are attractive."

And that's what Medland's team strives to show when putting together road shows to bring more service here.

For example, Medland said a couple of years ago the airport wanted Delta Airlines to fly non-stop from Atlanta. To convince the airline of the wisdom of providing that service, Medland's department prepared a business case including Department of Transportation data.

"Using that data we analyze such things as routes, profitability and passenger forecast," Medland said. To that mix, it also puts together an incentive package to sweeten the deal.

"We probably spent five years talking to Delta Airlines to present our business case and convince them to take a good hard look at Reno," he said describing how the squeaky wheel gets attention.

From there, Medland said, the airline performs its own analysis of the proposed service taking into account the value of the incentives such as marketing support or fee waivers the airport might offer.

"We usually promise the airlines we will help them launch new air service by promoting it (the new service) here as well as at its point of origin," Medland said.

Soliciting airlines is nothing new.

"All airports are looking to get more service or new service It enhances not only the airport but the city and the region," said Anthony Black, a spokesperson for Delta Airlines in Atlanta.

"We're continually talking to all the airports we serve and work ... to enhance the service in that market. But we're going to serve (an airport) using the right size (plane) for the market."

A Southwest Airlines spokesperson in Dallas said airports have always been "very savvy and quite persistent" in bringing service to their regions including gifts to get their attention and offering incentives to start or expand service in a region.

"We've had representatives bring a hometown brand of ice cream to hold an ice cream social in our offices (in Dallas). It was very clever and it gets our attention," said Beth Harbin, Southwest Airlines spokesperson, "But we can't just pick a market because of what an airport wants us to do. It has to be profitable."

Delta's Black agreed saying incentives were only one factor involved in the decision.