Tuesday, May 04, 1999

Hub can jet you 'anywhere'

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Delta, Comair now offer jets to every city served

BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Comair has expanded it's fleet of 50-seat Canadair regional jets, which has allowed the airline to extend jet service to all its destinations. (File photo) | ZOOM |

        HEBRON — The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport has become the first and only airport hub in North America that flies jets to every city it serves.

        After new routes were added in recent weeks, Comair Inc., the Erlanger-based airline, is now flying all of its 300 daily flights with jets.

        Comair and Delta Air Lines operate hubs at the airport, flying a combined 500 flights a day to 110 destinations — virtually every major city in America, plus Frankfurt, London, Paris and Zurich in Europe.

        While turboprop planes still fly out of Cincinnati, each of the cities they travel to is also serviced at least once a day by a jet.

        Traveler Randall Norman of Memphis, who said he flies into Cincinnati frequently, welcomed the news.

        “It's convenience,” he said. “I'll do anything to avoid a turboprop.”

        Meghan Glynn, Comair's director of communications, said Cincinnati, for now, stands alone.

        ""They can't say this in L.A., Pittsburgh, Detroit, Boston or any other hub,” she said.

        Comair's growing fleet of 50-seat Canadair regional jets has allowed the airline to expand jet service to all its destinations, said Doug Abby of AvStat Associates, a Washington-based airline consulting and marketing firm.

        “This clearly gives Comair bragging rights, because it's a big deal to be the only hub with this kind of service,” Mr. Abby said. “But it's also great for business. Passengers clearly prefer jets to turboprops.”

        There is a trade-off, though.

        The convenience of jet serv ice and more than 100 nonstop flights can cost passengers flying out of Cincinnati more than from other cities.

        “You're not going to see any Southwest-type fares out of a hub like Cincinnati,” said Michael Linenberg, an airline industry stock analyst with Merrill Lynch in New York, referring to the discount air carrier that offers cheap fares from Louisville.

        “You see the same thing with other airlines in other hubs, like U.S. Air in Charlotte and Pittsburgh, Northwest in Detroit and Minneapolis and Delta in Atlanta and Salt Lake City,” Mr. Abby said.

        “There's a price to pay for convenience.”

        Jets are faster, more comfortable and can fly farther without stopping as often as turboprops, Mr. Linenberg said.

        “There's no real evidence that jets are any safer than turboprops,” he said. “People get on a plane and they don't like to see those propellors spinning outside the window.”

        Business travelers also like jets because they save time by flying faster to some smaller cities — like Appleton, Wisc., and Bangor, Maine — where jet service has not always been available.

        Danny Fore, president of the Tri-County Economic Development Agency in Fort Mitchell, said the availability of jet service at the airport helps the agency recruit new jobs and businesses to the region.

        “It does distinguish the area,” he said. “We use it as a selling point.”

        Comair plans to continue adding jets at the rate of about two a month. The airline already has the largest fleet of regional jets in the world with 76, and recently ordered 50 more at a cost of $1 billion.

       

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