Airport’s Passengers Catch a Break

By Bob Driehaus

Delta Air Lines’ reduced fare structure resulted in Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky International Airport passengers’ enjoying the biggest drop in ticket prices in the nation in the spring quarter, according to the latest statistics released by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The 15 percent drop from the first quarter in prices compiled in the federal Air Travel Price Index bucked the nationwide trend of higher airfares which overall drove prices up 1.8 percent for the quarter. The index compares prices from the same flights from one quarter to the next.

Keep the champagne on ice, though, before you celebrate fares at the Hebron, Ky., airport falling in line with those of its neighbors. The average one-way ticket price at the airport of $191.79 remained heads above the competition in Dayton, Louisville, Indianapolis and every other regional airport as Delta continued warding off major competition that could cut fares more deeply.

None of those four cities topped $165 in average price, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Bureau Analyst Steve Anderson cautioned that price comparisons between airports didn’t tell the whole picture. An airport like Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky that has added more international flights might have numbers skewed higher by those flights than a smaller airport that offers mostly domestic travel, he said.

In the summer of 2004, Delta cut fares at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky through its SimpliFares program. The new structure capped one-way ticket prices at $599 for economy seats and $699 for first class.

Pressed by sky-high fuel prices, Delta raised the cap on one-way ticket prices by $100 on both classes of fares in July. That hike occurred after the spring quarter that was analyzed by the Department of Transportation.

The lower Delta prices have spawned a whole new crop of travelers for the airport.

“We had seen it by the increase in our local parking and the increase of the amount of cities around us parking here. We’ve seen it in concessions. We’re very pleased about that,” said airport spokesman Ted Bushelman.

Delta is raining on the party in December, when it executes a plan to cut 26 percent of its flights at the airport as part of an effort to recover from bankruptcy and return to profitability.

Those cuts will be mainly in connecting traffic, which will accelerate the trend of a higher percentage of airport users beginning or ending their trip in Greater Cincinnati.

Once the flight cuts are made, Delta expects the number of local users — those beginning or ending their trips at the airport — to jump to 50 percent.