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Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 7/97 PHOENIX SHEDS DESERT IMAGE by Heiko Reuter The Phoenix Sky Harbour Airport in Arizona, one of the fastest growing airports in the USA, is energetically working on its image. Following prolonged negotiations with British Airways, the airport's marketing strategists could finally celebrate their biggest coup yet when the airline decided in July of last year to offer a daily non-stop service from London-Gatwick to Phoenix, being BA's first new destination in the USA in 13 years. BA's experiment seems to be successful: In the first three months after opening the new route into the American South West, the aircraft were filled to 86 percent on the average. "Phoenix sells well" says a BA company speaker. Germany's holiday carrier LTU which has been connecting Phoenix since November of last year is also pleased with its new US destination. Approximately seven months after starting the weekly service to Phoenix, LTU's aircraft were filled to 80 percent on the average. Still, the Americans are really looking for more business travel. Only few people know about the economical power of the city and the state. For many, Arizona means good weather, cowboys, Wild West romantic, Grand Canyon, and deserted landscapes. However, Phoenix with its population of 1.2 million is one of the fastest growing cities of the US. It's almost a secret, at least in Europe, that the region's industry produces more microchips than Silicon Valley. Global players such as Motorola and Intel have sites in the area, along with the helicopter business of McDonnell Douglas and Hughes Missile Systems. Arizona generates a lot of attention through aggressive marketing and lots of PR activities. In Phoenix this begins at the airport. A marketing team is energetically working to promote the airport as a rapidly growing business gateway, praising the economical power and infrastructure of the airport, as well as, the low costs for labour and living and the region's attractive real estate prices. Phoenix is ranking in eleventh place of the US airports and, according to an ACI statistic, is number 16 in the worldwide comparison. More than 30 million passengers either exited or boarded aircraft at this airport in 1996 which is an increase of nine percent as compared to 1995. However, only 400000 passengers were generated from international flights - less than two percent of the total number of passengers who used the airport. This is to change. Terminal 4 which was only opened in 1990 is being expanded. Should the third runway be completed by the end of the century, the airport will have a capacity to handle up to 46 million passengers per year, says airport head Neilson "Dutch" Bertholf. For him, it's only logical that after British Airways' successful start, Lufthansa and KLM will connect to the airport also. However, the German carrier is still hesitant: The airport has supposedly been in dialogue with Lufthansa for seven years. Not surprisingly, Phoenix is the only US airport that is trying to improve its PR in Germany through a German PR agency. In spite of its fast growth, none of the US carriers has established a hub in Phoenix. America West and Southwest Airlines are the largest operators at the airport, generating more than 70 percent of the passengers. Bertholf explains that "we are growing internationally in the point-to-point traffic, such not needing a global hub-and-spoke system". Will the connection to the Asian air traffic market be next after the airport is now internationally connected to Europe? Much depends on the open sky negotiations of the Americans with the Asian countries. Non-stop flights from Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea are at the top of the airport officials' wish list. From page 21 of FLUG REVUE 7/97 Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 7/97 Copyright 1997 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated June 4, 1997