Last year, Akron-Canton Airport proved that a small number like 1.7 can be a positive in the midst of economic turbulence.
Passenger traffic fell only 1.7 percentage points from 2008, when a record-breaking 1.47 million travelers used the airport. Nationally, airports averaged a 6 percent decrease over the same period.
Park Place
Get ready for records to fall like leaves in the Summit County Metro Parks this year. The park system entertained 4.9 million visitors in 2009, up almost 382,000 compared to 2008. And all this with the F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm closed the entire year for a makeover. The renovated building and grounds reopen later this month.
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While the recession seems to have bounced off the Rubber City’s runways, it stuck like glue to the much larger Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, which reported a 12.4 percent drop.
So why is CAK still flying high despite the national trend? Part of the answer is easy. “When you’re dealing with a recession, people are still going to travel,” says Kristie Van Auken, senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer. “They’re just going to look for the cheapest fares.”
She says CAK has the lowest average fares among all commercial airports in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Even if you live in Berea, the hour’s drive south can be a worthwhile trip. A round-trip flight to Los Angeles out of CAK would cost a third less than CLE, when booking via Priceline.com. But it’s not always cheaper.
Going to Chicago via Delta was half the price, or $180, when flying out of Cleveland. And don’t forget time is also money. It’s not unusual to go from the driver’s seat to a window seat in less than an hour at CAK.
It took West Akron resident Julie Pryseski, who flies at least six times a year out of her hometown airport just 40 minutes to go from curb to cabin in December. Security can take that long at many large airports.
Pryseski’s brand loyalty wasn’t earned merely by saving time and money. Her airport is also her friend, on Facebook that is. (That’s how we found her.) The airport’s page, started in 2007, has almost 8,000 fans. It also has more than 2,000 followers on Twitter.
“They really have a grasp on who they’re talking to,” Pryseski says.
Engaging consumers through these sites is evidence of the airport’s “personal touch” approach, Van Auken says, which is the airport’s highest priority and much of the reason for return customers like Pryseski.
“We don’t want to be bricks and mortar in minds of the customers. We want to be people.” — John Hitch