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Airport seeks direction from survey

By finding out where people want to fly, the St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport will use the data to try to lure carriers.

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published March 21, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Battling their lowest passenger numbers since the early 1990s, officials at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport are asking a simple question : Where do you want to go?

The airport is going public today with a survey to find out the community's favorite destinations. Officials hope the data they gather will help lure new airlines to replace those that left St. Petersburg or closed down altogether, director Noah Lagos said.

"We're after carriers with (deeper) financial pockets and better management plans," he said.

Hooters Air informed Lagos last week that its last local flight would depart April 19. That will leave the airport with just three airlines offering scheduled service. Of those, only USA 3000 will fly to destinations in the United States.

The St. Petersburg airport handled a record 1.3-million passengers in 2004. But traffic plummeted last year to less than 600,000, the lowest figure since 1993, when 561,000 people used the airport. Officials estimate the number will fall to 400,000 this year.

The loss of its top two airlines, ATA and Largo-based Southeast Airlines, put the airport's passenger traffic into free-fall. Southeast abruptly shut down just after Thanksgiving 2004, an apparent victim of spiraling fuel costs and low-fare competition that kept it from raising ticket prices.

While in bankruptcy reorganization in 2004, ATA made a deal with Southwest Airlines to sell each other's flights. Last April, ATA pulled out of St. Petersburg to avoid overlap with Southwest's flights from Tampa International Airport.

Airport officials hope the survey gives them ammunition to convince other carriers there's still a healthy customer base at the area's No. 2 airport.

The questionnaire lists 45 domestic cities and 10 international destinations, plus blanks for people to add their own choices.

Officials sent surveys to more than 1,600 subscribers of the airport's monthly newsletter last month. Their top destination was Las Vegas, picked by one in four respondents. New York, Boston, Chicago and Indianapolis - a longtime ATA city - filled out the top five.

Representatives will hand out surveys at the airport, shopping centers and public events through April 15. People can also fill out a form on the airport's Web site, www.fly2pie.com One respondent will win two round-trip tickets to any of the seven destinations where USA 3000 flies from St. Petersburg.

--Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.

[Last modified March 21, 2006, 02:30:40]