Meeting to discuss efforts to improve air service
Sarasota - Merida, Mexico
Meeting Notes
Tuesday January 14th at 2:30 pm
The Newtown-North Sarasota Redevelopment Office
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Present
Richard Vacar (retired SRQ airport CEO)
Phillip Gordon SSC Busseto, Italy City Director
Susan Dodd Redevelopment Manager Sarasota Redevelopment Office
Mike Fehily SSC Merida, Mexico City Director
Craig Hullinger, SSC VP Economic Development
Called the meeting to order at 2:35pm
Introductions
Richard Vacar started in the Air Force. He is a Vietnam Vet and an Air Controller. He worked in managing of the Houston, Burbank, and Sarasota Airports. He was CEO of SRQ. He then worked for a private company working on airports and also worked as an expert witness.
Mike Fehily is the City Director of the Sarasota Sister Cities relationship with Merida Mexico. He travels to Mexico frequently. He worked as an interpreter and has been teaching Spanish with USF since 2010. He led a SSC tour of fifteen people to Merida in 2009. He has met every Mayor and all the leadership of the City. The leadership of the City turns over every three years. He also knows the American Counsel General for Merida. He teaches online for USF.
Susan Dodd is the Redevelopment Manager for Sarasota with a degree in architecture. She works on projects revitalizing the City. She is representing Steve Stancel who had to meet with the City Council.
Phillip Gordon is originally from Sydney, Australia. He moved to Italy as a child and lived in Padua. He speaks Italian fluently. After finishing school in Milan he worked for a tour company in Milan. He then went to work for Globus, and was promoted as the CEO of the North American Division. He moved their offices to Denver Co. He is the CD director of our newly developing Sister City relationship with c, Italy, which is near Padua, Italy. Busseto was the home of Giuseppi Verdi with strong connections to Sarasota. The Sarasota Opera has conducted the Verdi Cycle, performing all versions of all Verdi''s works.
Craig Hullinger noted that he was the new VP of Economic Development for SSC. He is a city planner and has worked in economic development in Illinois for many years.
Discussion on Possible Service Improvements
Craig Hullinger noted that Sister Cities would like better air and sea service between Sarasota and Merida. Sister Cities recognizes that gaining better service is not easy. The current way to fly to Merida is via Miami or Houston, with two links. It is expensive and time consuming. Cancun is a busier airport with better service but it is a five our drive to Merida.
Scot Vacar led a discussion about air service. In the old days there was a great deal of government control. As we changed air service to make it more competitive, costs got lower and smaller airports struggled to maintain service.
When deregulation hit the airlines it made the airlines much more competitive and many airlines went out of business. Eastern Airlines, TWA, and Pan American all went out of business.
The SRQ airport terminal building is far larger than the need. It was a popular airport, but then when Eastern Airlines went bankrupt it lost a great deal of vitality. Delta and Eastern Airlines carried nearly half the traffic at SRQ prior to the Eastern Airlines bankruptcy.
There are 31 carrier airports in Florida. The smaller airports like Punta Gorda have developed niche business, providing transportation from smaller cities to Florida.
It took the airlines ten to fifteen years to fully transition to the new competitive environment. Every decision about air service is an economic decision. Each airplane is treated as an asset which can and must provide yield. Labor and fuel are the two biggest costs.
What Sarasota Sister Cities must do to get improved air service is to do route analysis to figure out how many people would likely use the new route. You need a bulletproof market study that shows the value of a given route. Economic analysis of the absolute number of people traveling in each direction. A consultant can provide this service.
If we can actually demonstrate that there is enough traffic for a route we may be able . The City governments could agree to guarantee a certain amount of revenue to get the service. There are carriers who cannot add service because of shortage of airplanes.
Incentives can work. A local government can subsidize service to help the airlines implement a new service to determine if it will work.
Which Carriers to Approach?
How do we know which carrier to approach? Allegiant Airlines is a possibility. Allegiant flies point to point, instead of functioning as a hub airline, and they have new service SRQ, and have a number of flights to St Petersburg, Punta Gorda, and Orlando. They would be a logical candidate. A Mexican carrier could also be effective.
The most expensive cost to start up any route is the cost of setting up your service people. Airlines are beginning to share service people. A big portion of revenue for an airline is from the business community. The non business flyers are more price conscious, and will fly at more inconvenient times to get a lower cost.
Southwest is a major carrier. They fly out of Houston. Sarasota might be a bit of a stretch since it is a small market. St Petersburg or Tampa may be a better location.
Charter Tours
Phillip Gordon noted that Charter tours may be easier to get then regular air service. Merida is on the Yucatan Peninsula, with Cancun, Cozumel, and the Pyramids and Maya Big tourism. It is a very big market. The Cancun Airport is the second busiest airport in Mexico, and the fourth biggest in Latin America. It is, however, a five hour drive from Merida.
Phillip Gordon noted that a tour of the sites of Yucatan including Merida could be attractive to our winter snowbird market. They have money and time, and may be open to an effort to Visit the Pyramids Just a Short Flight From Florida! And of course full time residents of Florida could be attracted to this tour.
Next Steps
Craig Hullinger will do some more research on air and sea service.
Susan Dodd will ask SRQ if they have some market research studies on possible new service that they will share with us.
Phillip Gordon will do some research about possible tours.
Mike Fehily will ask the Merida Economic Development professionals if they have any contacts with Mexican airlines that might possibly be interested.
