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Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Friday the
13th turned out to be a lucky day for Daytona Beach International
Airport, with the news that AirTran Airways, a low-cost carrier,
will begin service in January.
County officials hope the new airline will revitalize the airport,
which has taken a nosedive in passenger traffic during the past
year.
AirTran will start with three daily flights to
Atlanta on Jan. 12, with one-way advance-purchase prices starting
at $59, not including taxes and security fees. The airline plans to
add another Atlanta flight and a daily flight to Baltimore, with
one-way fares starting at $79, on Feb. 15. All the flights will use
117-passenger Boeing 717 jets.
Passengers can start buying tickets now, airport
officials said.
County officials, who have been wooing AirTran and
other airlines for years, offered financial incentives to land the
carrier. Stephen Cooke, the airport's director of business
development, said the airport will waive AirTran's landing and
rental fees for a year, saving the airline about $395,000. The
airport also will spend up to $200,000 in marketing support.
'This represents more than a decade of effort
to bring a major discount air carrier to the Daytona airport,'
said U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, who joined Volusia County
Council members at the airport for the announcement Friday.
'This is very exciting for the community, the consumer and the
new carrier.'
'Steve, sorry it took us so long to get
here,' Kevin Healy, AirTran vice president of planning, joked
to Cooke.
'What a great, exciting Friday the 13th,'
Councilwoman Joie Alexander said.
Officials said the arrival of the new airline would
put an end to a persistent problem for residents who have to drive
to Orlando, Sanford or Jacksonville for lower fares. Dennis McGee,
airport director, said AirTran is responding to a strong pent-up
demand in the area in the face of reduced seat inventory and
escalating fares in Daytona Beach.
In August, the county-owned airport lost passengers
for the 11th month in a row, with 40,943 people using the airport,
a 21 percent decrease in traffic compared to August 2005. Cooke
said he doesn't have the final passenger figures for September,
but knows there was at least a 20 percent drop compared to
September 2005.
The downward spiral can be attributed primarily to
cuts in the numbers of seats offered by bankrupt Delta Air Lines.
In August, Delta's available seats were down 43 percent from
the year before.
Cooke, who met with six airlines in June, said he
won't let up on his recruiting efforts. He said JetBlue
Airways, US Airways and other lower-fare carriers appear to be the
most promising prospects.
'AirTran won't be the last new
carrier,' he said.
Cooke said he didn't know whether the new
competition would cause other airlines to lower their fares out of
Daytona Beach.
Based in Orlando, AirTran flies to 50 cities and
connects with 40 of its destinations out of Atlanta. Healy said the
airline has 240 flights a day out of Atlanta.
'AirTran is the new breed of airline,'
McGee said. 'They present the model for where the commercial
aviation industry is headed. With their low-cost fare structure, I
know they will be very successful in our market.'
'When I saw Buffalo had 18 inches of snow
today, I thought now we can have more people coming this way,'
Healy said.
The airline boasts of being the first to install XM
Satellite Radio on a commercial aircraft and the only airline with
business class and free satellite radio on every flight.
Healy said the airline has the youngest all-Boeing
fleet of planes in the industry, with the average age being only
three years.
'So they are younger than most airline
snacks,' Healy said.
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