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Sarasota Bradenton International Airport officials called AirTran Airways executives Jan. 20 with some good news: The airline was due $250,000 — payout from the airport's fiscal year surplus rebate program.
AirTran executives called airport officials hours later with their own, not-so-good news: The airline will cease service at the airport, where it has run six daily nonstop flights since 2004. AirTran's last flight at the airport, known by its SRQ call letters, will be in August.
A Southwest Airlines subsidiary, AirTran carried 25% of 1.4 million passengers who flew through SRQ last year. That tally is worth about $1 million in food and parking revenues. The airport's annual budget is $22 million.
Local airport officials are now in a jam. They need to recruit a replacement airline without appearing desperate. One strategy: Use incentives and subsides, the Gulf Coast du jour to attract new businesses.
Indeed, the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority approved an enhanced incentive package Jan. 23. The landing fee break it provides for new airlines will rise from $5 to $7 per passenger, for one. The board further agreed to put more money into an airline marketing assistance program. Those are both common incentive programs in the airline industry.
Common, however, doesn't always make a panacea. Last December, for example, SRQ spent $125,000 on a billboard for AirTran to advertise its nonstop flight from Sarasota to Milwaukee. That flight is one of the six that will be gone come August. AirTran also flies nonstop to Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago and Indianapolis.
A Southwest official cited SRQ's seasonal traffic and its proximity to larger airports it already serves in Tampa and Fort Myers for the departure.
Still, airport President and CEO Rick Piccolo says AirTran will still pay SRQ about $1 million a year through 2014, part of the contract to lease gates. “I don't want to diminish it,” Piccolo tells Coffee Talk, “but it's not catastrophic.”
The airport, meanwhile, will increase its marketing presence in fast-growing international locales, from Brazil to China to India. Airport executives will also talk to counterparts at a host of airlines, including JetBlue, Delta and Spirit.
The pitch, says Piccolo, is AirTran made money of its flights at SRQ, so another airline can, too. “Given the size and scope of the operation here,” Piccolo says, “this is a good opportunity.”
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