Airports seek cheaper flights

WEST BAY, FL — As Airport Authority officials say they are close to announcing a new low-cost carrier for the airport under construction here, two other Northwest Florida airports are stepping up their own campaigns.
   
For years, the Northwest Florida Regional Airport in Okaloosa County and Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport, along with the Panama City-Bay County International Airport, have been courting low-cost carriers.
   
Risk mitigation and funds to support an airline’s operations is one way airports are attracting, or in some cases keeping, carriers, especially low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines, which are considered to be the golden goose of air travel.
   
That strategy apparently is in practice in the Florida Panhandle. A Pensacola newspaper reported the airport there launched a campaign to have supporters pre-pay their fares through a $2 million travel bank.
   
A Pensacola News Journal columnist also opined, without attribution, that the St. Joe Co., which donated 4,000 acres for the Panama City-Bay County International Airport now under construction, had agreed to donate $10 million to entice Southwest Airlines to the airport for its opening May 18, 2010.
   
St. Joe officials could not be reached for comment Friday, but Joe Tannehill, chairman of the Panama City-Bay County International Airport Authority, said an offer like that would be news to him.
   
“Wow,” Tannehill said when told about the report. “I haven’t heard about that.”
   
Tannehill said he could not discuss negotiations with air carriers that might locate at the airport. “I’m honor-bound,” he said.
   
However, Tannehill said the new Bay County airport would be the “best choice” for any airline looking to expand.
   
“We are working very hard with several airlines and we think we have a lot of momentum,” he said.
   
‘Go down swinging’
   
Okaloosa’s airport is intent on attracting a low-cost carrier, as well.
   
“There are good things about each of the airports and there are bad things,” said Joe Fagundes, owner of the Thrifty Car Rental and Dollar Rent A Car businesses at Northwest Florida Regional. “We’ll bring a faster, more secure market that will allow Southwest to succeed quicker. We have a chance to make a difference for generations to come. The community needs to step up.”
   
Fagundes is leading the effort to bring Southwest Airlines to Okaloosa County. He already has gotten support from the county’s Tourist Development Council, Economic Development Council and the four chambers of commerce in the county.
   
He said bringing Southwest to Okaloosa would result in tens of millions of dollars in annual economic stimulus from added flights, new jobs and new businesses that could come to the area.
   
“Southwest is the largest domestic carrier,” said Greg Donovan, the county’s airports director. “They certainly have a component of their services that’s missing here as a low-cost carrier. We would certainly love to add them or expand the existing services we have from the existing airlines.”
   
Fagundes has scheduled a meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the second-floor conference room at Northwest Florida Regional. Representatives from the county’s chambers are expected to attend and business owners who want to contribute to the local initiative are invited.
   
“(Southwest) opens up this area a lot broader, to a lot more people, and a lot more jobs, and a lot more economic development, and a lot more tourism, and a lot more dollars, and a lot more gas tax, and a lot more retail tax, and a lot more people buying homes or opening up businesses here,” said Okaloosa County Commissioner Wayne Harris, who also is executive director of the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce. “It goes on and on, the potential is enormous.
   
“It’s normal. We compete with Pensacola and with Bay County,” Harris added. “We’ve got to compete. I would rather go down swinging than not step up to the plate.”
   
Money matters
   
Tannehill dismissed reports that several chambers of commerce in Okaloosa County might mount an effort to lure a potential airline away from Bay County.
   
“I think there might be a certain amount of desperation there,” he said.
   
As part of the effort to bring Southwest to Northwest Florida Regional, Fagundes is seeking pledges of $150 a month from business owners to support the airline. The pledges will be collected only if Southwest comes to Okaloosa. A Web site has been set up at www.southwesttovps. com for businesses to submit pledge forms.
   
Fagundes said pledges already have started to come in. They have ranged from $150 to $500 a month for five years to larger one-time contributions. The Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce has pledged $2,000 a year for five years.
   
Dan Rowe, executive director of the Bay County Tourist Development Council, said he could not comment on other airports’ efforts to bring in low-cost carriers.
   
The Bay TDC’s efforts are focused on how best to use receipts from a newly passed fifth cent of the county’s tourism bed tax, estimated to bring on about $2.2 million a year. The extra penny on every dollar spent on short-term lodging has been dedicated to help bring a lowcost carrier to the new airport.
   
“We are continuing to work on that,” Rowe said.