Rockford airport said “no, thanks” on Melbourne, Fla., flights
November 16th, 2009 at 05:15pm Thomas V. Bona
Direct Air recently announced new service from Melbourne, Fla., on the state’s east coast. It’ll be flying to Niagara Falls (makes sense), Washington DC (bold) and Punta Gorda, Fla. (huh?). More on those later.
What I’m most interested in is where they’re not flying to, which is Rockford.
Talked to Bob O’Brien, executive director at Chicago Rockford International Airport about this. He said he talked with airline officials about Rockford-Melbourne flights but told them he’d rather they focus on making the Rockford-Punta Gorda route (returning Wednesday for the winter) a success before adding other routes. That’s one of the reasons the less-than-successful Myrtle Beach service isn’t coming back for the foreseeable future.
O’Brien’s logic makes sense … especially given that Rockford already has three Florida destinations. Does it really need a fourth, especially one that’s about an hour from an existing destination (Orlando/Sanford)? And how would Allegiant Air respond to route from Rockford to within an hour of its most popular route here?
Now, about the general idea of Direct Air serving Melbourne. It seems … odd … mainly because they already offer flights to Sanford. Wondering if this is a sign that they don’t see as much of a ceiling in Sanford, where Allegiant is dominant. Or maybe they’re just trying to serve as many Florida markets as possible.
The flights from Punta Gorda to Melbourne are interesting, but it appears to just be Direct Air offering seats on flights where it’s shuttling a plane between those two destinations. If they’re going there anyway, might as well offer passengers a chance to fly with them. But I can’t imagine many will use it.
Obviously, Rockford hopes Direct Air does well and grows into a strong airline. It’ll be interesting to watch what happens.
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13 Comments Add your own
1. Mrs. J | November 16th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I’d like to see the Rockford - Niagara Falls flights!
2. Thomas V. Bona | November 16th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I think at some point you’ll see seasonal flights from RFD-Niagara, and quite possibly via Direct Air. Right now, Direct Air seems focused on connecting Niagara to its leisure destinations - Myrtle Beach, Punta Gorda and Melbourne. It’s going for the cold Buffaloans market.
But as O’Brien keeps saying … the airport has to make existing routes like Punta Gorda and Branson a success before it can get more destinations.
3. bob trojan | November 16th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
I’d like to see flights to Washington DC or Baltimore, like we did as a Chamber a few years ago. With the latest Dan Brown book…The Lost Symbol…I think DC will grow as a tourist destination.
How about a 2 day DC deal while Congress is in session?
4. Will | November 16th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Thomas… you hit it right on the head why Rockford didn’t pursue Melbourne flights after years of aggressively chasing flights. Allegiant’s service to Orlando-Sanford. What would RFD or the community gain from cutting into Allegiant’s service?
Punta Gorda was one of the few bright spots in the disaster that was SkyBus, If Direct Air continues to struggle or even fails. I would bet that Allegiant expands their already existing Punta Gorda service to include Rockford.
Allegiant offers limited service to Myrtle Beach,SC at this point.
And the SCASD grant that RFD applied for.. One of the destinations requested was Los Angeles. Any guesses what airline that services RFD started service to LAX this year???
5. force | November 17th, 2009 at 7:52 am
How about getting flights to where people work? I like the baltimore or DC flights but the airlines have to pay alot of fees to land there. Smaller airports like rockford would be better to land at. And going to vacation destinations doesnt serve so well when not alot of people in rockford have jobs or money to go on vacation. How about flying to China and mexico? That seems to be the place where all of our jobs are going.
6. Thomas V. Bona | November 17th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Will,
And you in turn hit it on the head. RFD has often gone to Allegiant first to say “We’d like this destination, would you be interested in serving it?” In fact, when it last applied for SCASD funding, Mesa was a target … and then Allegiant said, “Hey, we want to serve that market” and voila!
If RFD-Punta Gorda proves to be a success, Allegiant could someday look at it. Same with Myrtle Beach, but that’s a much bigger hill to climb.
LA? I know enticing Allegiant to serve that route is an idea … but so far Allegiant has shied away from such long routes. We’ll see how their model evolves over time.
I suspect if Direct Air came in totally on its own dime wanting to do Melbourne, RFD might consider … but what likely happened here is DA asked for the standard year of waived fees and airport marketing dollars toward the destination. RFD’s stated policy is it won’t use such incentives on competing routes … of course, it depends on what the destination of competing is…
I think the most important reason RFD didn’t pursue Melbourne is it wants to focus its marketing efforts and DA’s marketing efforts on making Punta Gorda as successful as possible. For the airport to grow much, it needs to have successful routes beyond the Allegiant 4…
Good comments, Will.
7. Nancy | November 17th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Would like to see a flight to Detroit. Had one once and it was a pleasure flying out of Rockford and being there in less than an hour. I would think Detroit would draw alot of passengers.
8. Kirsten | November 17th, 2009 at 11:24 am
What happened to the Rockford/Ft. Lauderdale connection? That was extremely busy, and a lot of people fly down there in the winter.
9. johnny | November 17th, 2009 at 11:41 am
to detroit?? really?? detroit?? i wouldn’t fly to detroit if it were the nation’s capital. what is in detroit?? motown?
how about flights to washington d.c.?? i would love to fly to wahington for a few days and land in rockford……………..10″ from my home.
10. mca | November 17th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I flew Rockford to Melbourne, Florida when they had it in 1994 for $180 round trip including taxes. I talked about that for years after they got rid of that flight. I would love to see that flight come back as it is closer to where I vacation every year with my family. Sanford/Orlando is about a two hour drive from where we like to go.
11. Will | November 17th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
The major problem with the Northwest version of Detroit(and Minneapolis) flights were TERRIBLE timing to make connections. People(myself included) don’t want to spend hours and hours sitting in an airport waiting for their connections to the cities where they really wanted to go.
Thomas, you are correct that Allegiant has avoided very long routes since the fuel run up in 2008. They did have some pretty long routes ex- Las Vegas before that though. Toledo,OH being one of them. But they already offer LA-Des Moines now. If RFD gets that 300k from SCASD, I could certainly see a portion of that being offered to Allegiant for revenue guarantees.
And before anyone howls that revenue guarantees don’t work. Remember the RFD-Denver route was actually making profits in the months preceding the fuel run-up. In fact United made a profit level where they didn’t even qualify for all the guarantee money that was being offered.
12. Will | December 1st, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Rumor mill is cranking high speed….
Allegiant is starting some service direct into Orlando Int.(MCO). Rumor is that ALL Orlando service will be going there…
And I see that Direct Air has been using Jet USA on some flights and Vision Air on others to Punta Gorda.
13. Will | December 1st, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Over eager trigger finger….
IF the rumor is true. This might open a window to some service from RFD to the Melbourne/Daytona Beach area. Even though MCO is closer to the big attractions and hotels, it isn’t much fun to make the trip to the Daytona Beach area.
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