Airport officials shrug off downturn in January sales

January 2002 numbers slip significantly when compared with January 2001. Why? No Super Bowl, airport officials explain.

By JEAN HELLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 9, 2002

TAMPA -- Jan Vincent put her head down, took a firmer grip on her roll-along bag and pointed her nose toward the Airside A shuttle lobby on the third level of Tampa International Airport's main terminal.

Vincent took three strides, then abruptly stopped, looked at her watch and visibly relaxed.

"I just realized I've got nearly two hours until my flight," said the sales representative from Long Island. "I think I'll go shopping."

Airport officials love to hear those words, because the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority gets a cut on the income from every cup of coffee, every cruller, every game, gadget and book sold in the facility. TIA retailers love it because at a time when the number of people flying is down, every sale is precious.

So at first blush, figures released this week may seem a bit alarming: They show how steeply retail sales and passenger counts at TIA fell in January compared with January 2001. But then airport officials explain: There was no Super Bowl here this year.

"The retailers did $1.4-million in Super Bowl business last year," said Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. "Passenger counts got a boost of 73,000 from the game. There's no way you can compare this January to last January. It's a complete anomaly."

The number of TIA passengers plunged 10.75 percent in January compared with the same month a year earlier. But even with the Super Bowl surge factored out, the drop here was smaller than the 14.2 percent drop in passengers nationwide in the same month-to-month comparison -- mostly due to the continuing impact of Sept. 11.

Of TIA's largest carriers, US Airways took the biggest hit, with passenger counts down nearly 32 percent. Much of the decline reflected the demise of MetroJet, US Airways' low-fare carrier.

"Actually, US Air alone is larger than last year because some MetroJet flights have been replaced with mainline service, but not all of it," Miller said.

Northwest Airlines saw passenger counts fall by more than 10 percent, and United Airlines by nearly 8 percent. Delta Air Lines, one of TIA's major carriers, fell nearly 4 percent.

Other airlines, though, have fared very well, particularly the low-fare carriers.

Air Tran saw traffic rise nearly 22 percent in January after adding jet service to Miami and Tallahassee. Spirit Airlines was up more than 13 percent with new flights to Atlantic City and Detroit. JetBlue Airways was up more than 12 percent without adding any new flights, and Southwest Airlines saw passenger counts rise by more than 4 percent.

Air Canada is up nearly 23 percent after adding a second daily flight from Toronto. And American Airlines traffic rose more than 20 percent, reflecting the acquisition of TWA and its flights.

Retail reports from airport shops were equally spotty.

Sales at the Sports Scene, the shop that sells team souvenirs on the third level of the main terminal, declined from more than $887,000 in January 2001, to $44,000 a year later, a fall of 95 percent.

"They're fine," Miller said. "They're right were they should be in a non-Super Bowl year."

Sales at Mindworks, the game store, fell nearly 15 percent, nearly 35 percent at the Museum Company, more than 35 percent at Body Scentsations and nearly 28 percent at Wilsons' Leather.

Overall, general merchandise sales in the main terminal dropped in January by 52 percent compared with a year earlier. At the four airsides, the decline exceeded 24 percent.

On-airport rental car revenues declined almost 17 percent. Off-airport car rentals declined more than 15 percent.

However, some sales figures improved.

Food and beverage sales were up almost 1 percent in the main terminal and nearly 17 percent in the airsides. The spurt can be attributed almost entirely to the post-Sept. 11 requirement that passengers arrive at least two hours early for their flights. Sometimes, that much latitude is needed. Sometimes it isn't.

When it isn't, passengers have what airport managers call "dwell time," idle minutes of hanging out. That's when a cup of coffee and a sandwich -- or in Vincent's case, a new pair of earrings -- sounds like a good idea.

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