I realize that I haven’t been using the blog on my website. I think I just have a visceral response to the word, “blog.” I’m an old school Live Journal girlie from back-in-the-day and the word “blog” always has a personal meaning for me. The other day I realized, I write A LOT of white papers. On all sorts of topics.
Why don’t I share them here?
So here you go – here’s a good one. Many airports are seeing new carriers, routes, and service. This is great, but how do you build and measure your marketing efforts in uncharted territory. I hope this paper, created for an airport (all identifying features have been removed) might help you on your airport’s journey.
Let’s Fly!
KG
Abstract
Air service development within a competitive regional market requires more than promotional enthusiasm or community outreach. It requires a disciplined integration of marketing theory, regulatory compliance, financial stewardship, and performance measurement. Airports operate in a constrained environment shaped by federal revenue regulations, airline economics, traveler behavior patterns, and limited marketing resources.
This paper examines the strategic realities of promoting new air service, clarifies allowable marketing practices under FAA revenue use guidelines, and defines performance metrics that ultimately determine route sustainability. It argues that effective air service promotion must be evidence based, digitally integrated, fiscally responsible, and measured by passenger volume, load factor, and yield rather than by awareness alone.
Market Behavior and the Challenge of Habitual Leakage
In multi airport regions, traveler behavior is often habitual rather than analytical. Passengers frequently default to legacy travel patterns even when alternatives improve. Shifting this behavior requires reducing perceived risk and increasing perceived value.
The central consumer question is straightforward: Why should I change my departure airport?
That question encompasses multiple sub considerations:
- Schedule frequency and timing reliability
- Destination access and network breadth
- Airfare comparison and total trip cost
- Parking convenience and cost
- Drive time and congestion
- Terminal navigation efficiency
- Customer service and accessibility support
- Pre departure amenities
These factors combine into a perceived utility calculation. Awareness of new flights alone does not change behavior. Behavioral change occurs when the perceived value differential outweighs switching cost and perceived risk.
Therefore, marketing strategy must focus not merely on information dissemination but on structured value communication supported by data.
Marketing Theory Applied to Air Service
Marketing effectiveness depends upon the coordinated alignment of the Four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. In the airport context, the Product is the Route.
Route as Product
The route offering includes:
- Carrier brand and reputation
- Destination relevance
- Frequency and departure timing
- On time performance reliability
- Integration with parking, concessions, and customer experience
Marketing cannot compensate for structural weaknesses in the route product. Conversely, strong route fundamentals must be systematically communicated.
Price and Convenience
Airports do not control airline pricing, yet travelers evaluate total trip cost holistically. That evaluation includes:
- Base airfare
- Parking fees
- Fuel and drive time
- Time value associated with congestion or terminal scale
The relevant comparison is not airfare alone but total friction cost. Effective marketing frames the complete economic value proposition while avoiding unsupported claims.
Place and Distribution
Modern traveler behavior is digital first. The majority of route exploration and booking activity occurs online within defined planning windows, typically between 90 and 45 days prior to departure.
Strategic distribution therefore requires:
- Digital search visibility
- Targeted social media advertising
- Retargeting of website visitors
- Email marketing to known databases
- Data driven audience segmentation
Traditional outreach such as chamber presentations and in person meetings can complement but not replace scalable digital engagement.
Promotion
Promotion must integrate four coordinated streams:
- Paid media including digital advertising, streaming, out of home placements, and targeted online campaigns
- Earned media through press coverage and broadcast features
- Shared amplification through social media networks
- Owned platforms such as airport websites and newsletters
Over reliance on a single channel reduces effectiveness. Integrated campaigns increase frequency, recall, and conversion probability.
Financial Investment and Marketing Economics
Marketing requires measurable investment. Benchmarks among many industries indicate that organizations allocate approximately 13 to 14 percent of total budget to marketing activities. For new product/service launches in competitive sectors, marketing investment may reach 12 to 20 percent of projected gross revenue.
Airports rarely operate with marketing budgets at that scale. In fact, the average airport marketing budget for advertising is less than 1% of revenue. In some cases, much less than that. However, the benchmark provides context regarding resource intensity.
Marketing costs arise from:
- Skilled personnel and professional services
- Creative production including video and photography
- Media placement and digital bidding
- Data acquisition for catchment and leakage analysis
- Performance tracking tools
- Research and post campaign evaluation
Expectations for aggressive market share shifts must be aligned with realistic budget allocations. If the objective is significant passenger recapture within a short booking window, marketing investment must reflect that ambition. Airports often feel the pressure of having aggressive advertising strategies, but not the support of a robust budget to implement. This disconnect is often at the center of marketing challenges.
Regulatory Constraints on Revenue Use
Airport marketing operates within FAA revenue use regulations. Airport revenues must support airport capital, operating expenses, or facilities directly related to air transportation.
Permitted promotional expenditures must:
- Prominently feature the airport
- Intend to increase airport usage
- Include specific airport information
Prohibited activities include:
- General economic development not directly tied to airport usage
- Direct subsidy structures designed to sustain air carriers outside approved incentive frameworks
- Revenue diversion to unrelated community activities
Air service incentive programs are permissible when:
- Structured as time limited promotional waivers
- Offered uniformly to similarly situated carriers
- Designed to stimulate new service rather than subsidize ongoing operations
This regulatory environment constrains promotional flexibility and reinforces the need for disciplined documentation and measurable return on investment. It is important to acknowledge that promoting choice, frequency and price can come with significant constraints and oversight.
Community Advocacy Versus Structured Marketing
Community engagement and advisory committee advocacy provide valuable support functions:
- Amplifying accurate messaging
- Extending reach into business networks
- Offering qualitative feedback
However, volunteer advocacy does not replace structured marketing strategy. Behavioral change at scale requires coordinated digital targeting, message consistency, and performance monitoring.
Effective air service development integrates professional marketing leadership with community partnership rather than substituting one for the other. Supporting community engagement strategies with marketing toolkits and messages that can be aggregated to business, travel and tourism outlets ensures consistent talking points across platforms.
Performance Measurement and Route Sustainability
Ultimately, marketing success is not measured by impressions, meetings held, or anecdotal awareness. It is measured by airline economics.
The primary indicators of sustainable route success include:
- Passenger volume measured as total enplanements and deplanements
- Load factor defined as percentage of available seats filled
- Yield measured as revenue per passenger or per seat mile
- Revenue generation relative to operating cost
- Booking curve velocity within key windows
- Retention beyond initial promotional periods
Airlines evaluate route performance based on revenue contribution and system optimization. If passenger volume and yield support network profitability, service continues. If they do not, service is reduced or withdrawn regardless of promotional enthusiasm.
Marketing contributes to demand stimulation, but it is one variable within a broader economic equation that includes fleet allocation, fuel costs, competitive pricing, and network strategy.
Therefore, air service promotion must be aligned with measurable outcomes:
- Increased local market share
- Reduction in passenger leakage
- Sustained load factors consistent with carrier benchmarks
- Demonstrable yield stability
Campaign evaluation should include post launch analysis comparing:
- Projected versus actual enplanements
- Fare comparisons versus competing airports
- Digital engagement to booking conversion
- Market share shifts over time
Only through this data driven evaluation can marketing effectiveness be credibly assessed.
Conclusion
Air service promotion is a strategic function governed by economic realities, regulatory guardrails, and behavioral science. Sustainable success requires:
- Alignment of route fundamentals with traveler demand
- Integrated marketing across paid, earned, shared, and owned channels
- Realistic budget allocation relative to competitive objectives
- Strict compliance with FAA revenue use standards
- Continuous measurement of passenger volume, load factor, and yield
Awareness is necessary but insufficient. Advocacy is valuable but not determinative. The ultimate measure of success remains whether passengers book, aircraft depart with competitive load factors, and the route generates sustainable yield.
Within this framework, airport marketing must remain disciplined, data driven, and aligned with long term air service viability rather than short term perception.
For more information or inquiries on this topic contact:
Kari Goetz
Winzig Consulting
kari@winzig.consulting
813.361.0922