Pittsburgh airport plans to lure more Ohioans

Pittsburgh International Airport plans to market itself next year in Northeast Ohio, a departure from more localized advertising in recent years to promote flights to Paris and the West Coast.

"It's a big shift in advertising for us, but we think it's worth it," said airport spokeswoman JoAnn Jenny.

The Allegheny County Airport Authority on Friday approved a $470,000 marketing campaign, a 25-percent increase over last year. It will spend about $300,000 on television, radio, online and outdoor advertising in the Cleveland, Akron, Kent and Canton areas, Jenny said.

Jenny said the authority decided to spend the money in Ohio because average fares are 19 percent lower in Pittsburgh than at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Fares at Akron-Canton Airport are lower than Pittsburgh's, but Pittsburgh has four times as many flights.

A Cleveland Hopkins International Airport executive took news of the looming ad blitz in stride.

"It's not all-out war. No one will be fighting at the border," said Todd Payne, chief of marketing and air service at Hopkins.

Payne said it's not uncommon to advertise in other airports' backyards, though he said Cleveland officials "haven't put up any billboards in Pittsburgh yet."

Fares are considerably lower in Pittsburgh. The average domestic fare during the second quarter of the year was $315.12; Cleveland's was 14th highest in the country at $389.51.

Payne said fares tend to be higher at hub airports, where the big carrier in town can stifle competition. Cleveland is a Continental hub. Pittsburgh fares were among the highest in the country when it was a US Airways hub and former Mayor Tom Murphy made headlines by driving to Cleveland to catch a cheaper flight.

"There are areas where Cleveland actually has an advantage over Pittsburgh," Payne said, pointing to Hopkins' 249 daily departures to 74 markets. Pittsburgh, by comparison, has 161 daily departures to 37 markets.

Pittsburgh waged a smaller campaign in Northeast Ohio last year to promote Delta Air Lines' nonstop flight to Paris; Hopkins doesn't have trans-Atlantic service. It included placing a billboard near the Hopkins entrance.

Jenny said the effort worked, based on an increased number of people with Cleveland-area ZIP codes who signed up for the airport's online newsletter and an increased number of Ohio license plates in airport parking lots. Authority data show 6 percent to 13 percent of parked cars carried Ohio plates in April, after its ad campaign started, compared to 5 percent to 8 percent six months earlier, before the campaign.

Grant Oliver, the airport's parking management company, routinely walks the lots to survey plates, Jenny said. She said the company noticed a spike in plates from Texas and Oklahoma, which she attributed to increased exploration for Marcellus shale natural gas in the region

Read more: Pittsburgh airport plans to lure more Ohioans - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_713188.html#ixzz1lEuvu24Z

By Tom Fontaine, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, December 11, 2010