By Camas Frank
It wasn’t too long ago that the San Luis Obispo Regional Airport took a minor hit in passenger numbers when carrier SkyWest switched from turboprop commuter planes to jets.
The switch happened in early April and resulted in an 8-percent reduction of available seats on the route to Los Angeles’ LAX. In the grand scheme though, said, Phil D’Acri, airport business development manager, he’s too busy to worry about industry trends.
Instead he and County Airports Director, Kevin Bumen, are counting the opportunities and telling anyone they can about how lucky SLO is. For one thing they didn’t lose service from SkyWest, as some other regions did in the switchover, and for another they’ve got plenty of attractive options to expand.
The duo had abundant chances to show off their grand vision for travel out of the Central Coast while hosting the sold-out, Sixel Airports Conference, April 21-23.
The 12th annual event, run by the aviation industry firm Sixel Consulting Group, “brought the mountain to Mohammed” for SLO, gathering analysts and managers from 36 airports and 15 airlines.
“You know we go to these with our portfolio and lots of pictures of our facilities and the area,” said D’Aacri, “but usually they’re held in large metropolis and you’re one of dozens of regional representatives. Hosting an event gives the airline planners a chance to see what we’re all about.
“They can taste the wine of SLO County and Edna Valley right where it’s produced. They can see the tourist options that would be offered first hand and go through the experience of flying in, the same as their passengers would.”
Bumen added that they hoped the conference would be a nudge needed to, “tip the scales in our favor and help us secure more air service.”
All of the airport reps, including D’Acri and Bumen are focused at swaying representatives from those 15 airlines and convincing them to consider their destination. For SLO the goal is to build relationships with carriers who can provide one of the wish list destinations the airport has worked on since losing Delta as a carrier in 2008.
“Delta was a popular carrier, a popular route, but in 2008 they couldn’t afford the fuel,” said D’Acri.
Fuel is still an issue but times have changed, with carriers now more focused on maximizing the value of pilot time in larger flights, something, which SLO can accommodate.
In announcing the event D’Acri gave credit to community partners which “helped the County bring this conference to San Luis Obispo County, including the Avila Beach Tourism Alliance, City of San Luis Obispo, ACI/San Luis Jet Center, Fly This Sim, SLO Wine Country, Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, and Visit San Luis Obispo County.”