Dane County airport 'leaking' flights to Milwaukee, Chicago
9:29 PM 5/29/04
Marv Balousek Wisconsin State Journal

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The biggest obstacle to improving airline service at the Dane County Regional Airport may be 82 miles away in Milwaukee. <

The Madison airport is the closest to a competing airport among seven comparable cities. And a second competing airport, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, is about 135 miles away. <

Madison business leaders believe that increasing the nonstop destinations served by the Dane County airport would help attract and retain businesses. When airport director Brad Livingston was hired a year ago by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, one of her priorities for him was to get more nonstop flights serving Madison. <

But getting the airlines to offer more nonstop flights means they have to be persuaded that the Madison airport could capture some of what the airline industry calls "leakage" to the airports in Milwaukee and Chicago. <

Livingston plans to meet with airline route planners next month about improving Madison service. He's also working with the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce in building a community business travel database. <

Some smaller cities have gotten nonstop service by offering revenue guarantees to the airlines or setting up travel banks where businesses buy tickets in advance. <

Livingston said about 64 percent of an estimated 2.5 million airline passengers a year in the airport's market area fly out of the local airport. About 20 percent, including many international travelers, use the Chicago airport, about 12.5 percent fly from Milwaukee and the rest use other airports like Rockford or Minneapolis. <

The Dane County airport's market area includes about 845,000 people living south to the Illinois border, west to Mineral Point and Muscoda, north to Oxford and Princeton and east to Beaver Dam and Fort Atkinson. <

Livingston said the competing airports offer more choices to airline passengers. Chicago has 917,000 seats on 8,639 flights a week to all of the nation's top 25 destinations. Milwaukee has 100,965 seats on 1,521 flights a week to 17 of the top destinations. Dane County has 23,621 seats on 354 flights a week to five of the top destinations. <

That's why of 115,142 people who flew to Orlando, Fla., last year from the Dane County airport's market area, just 59,024 or 51.3 percent flew from the Madison airport. Orlando was the airport's most popular destination. <

Destinations with the best retention rates from Madison are San Francisco (83.9 percent), Boston (82.3 percent) and Washington, D.C. (81.1 percent) - all cities without nonstop flights. Livingston said Madison fares have been competitive with Milwaukee and Chicago to these cities. <

"Price is such an important part of the individual traveler's decision," he said. <

Northwest Airlines has 50.8 percent of the Dane County airport's market share, United Air Lines (including United Express) has 25.4 percent, American has 11.4 percent, Midwest Express has 4.2 percent, ATA has 2.6 percent and other airlines have the rest. <

Some smaller cities offer revenue guarantees to airlines so they'll continue to offer flights to certain destinations. Peoria, Ill., for example, offers more than $500,000 in revenue guarantees to Allegiant Air to offer flights to Las Vegas. Beaumont, Texas, offers a $975,000 revenue guarantee to Delta Air Lines to offer flights to Dallas. <

Rockford, Ill., got nonstop charter service to Las Vegas and Orlando by offering a $500,000 revenue guarantee to Trans Meridian Airlines. <

Livingston said he doesn't endorse revenue guarantees, although the airport has applied for a grant from the state Department of Transportation's small community air service development program to improve air service. <

But he said a travel bank, where businesses could buy seats in advance, could be an alternative to revenue guarantees. Eugene, Ore., for example, has a $560,000 travel bank for Delta flights to Salt Lake City, but also offers the airline a $400,000 revenue guarantee on the route <

"That's definitely an ingredient that could be packaged to assist in new route development," Livingston said. <

Contact Marv Balousek at mbalousek@madison.com or 252-6135. <