Airport’s optimism survives

Will Shuck

Friday, July 16, 1999 | 11:20 a.m.

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- When 8-month-old WinAir Airlines went out of business last week, it stunned Long Beach officials, sent stranded passengers scrambling for flights and put 360 people out of work.

As disappointed as they were about WinAir's demise, civic leaders saw it as a near success.

The underfunded startup airline reportedly filled nearly 70 percent of its seats, proving, they say, that Long Beach is a valuable air travel market.

"It's easier now to show that this is a market that makes sense," airport manager Chris Kunze said.

That sentiment was echoed at City Hall and in the business community. City Manager Henry Taboada, City Auditor Gary Burroughs and Mayor Beverly O'Neill all offered variations on that point.

"I think that other airlines will note WinAir's success in their book factor and will show more interest," O'Neill said.

"It shows that we have a market," said Linda Howell DiMario, president and CEO of the Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

WinAir was a loss to the city, they said, but it leaves in its wake proof of the airport's potential.

Unfortunately, it also left scores of passengers without a ride. Even before the final day, operations became more spotty, inconveniences more routine. And all of those negative experiences reflect poorly on Long Beach Airport.

"I'm hoping that the ill will generated in the last few months won't overshadow the earlier, positive impressions," Kunze said.

Complaints from passengers, he said, typically went along the lines of "Hey, I love the Long Beach Airport, but ..."

The impression that Long Beach is a good place to get stranded, Kunze said, could make it harder for another startup airline to succeed here.

"I don't think it would be damaging at all for a stable carrier," he said. "But if we have another startup (airline), people might be more wary."

Kunze said he's already begun a marketing effort to draw new carriers to the airport. He'd like to find an airline that serves the West Coast destinations that WinAir proved are popular among local travelers.

Salt Lake City-based WinAir gave Long Beach passengers access to the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, the Pacific Northwest, Salt Lake City and Sacramento.

Those destinations are now off the radar screen as far as Long Beach is concerned.

What's worse, Long Beach is now off the charts for people in those cities.

The convention bureau's DiMario laments that loss. Her organization had hitched its marketing to WinAir and hoped to draw tourists from the airline's nearby destinations. Now she's stuck with nearly 500,000 Long Beach brochures emblazoned with the WinAir logo and a television spot designed to draw travelers from Oakland, which no longer has service to Long Beach.

She'll recut the commercial and make it useful in another market and she'll buy stickers to slap over the logos on the brochures. She can't throw away the laminated pamphlets intended for WinAir seat backs because they cost about $120,000.

"We're not going to lose any money," she said, "we're just going to use them another way."

DiMario said a busy airport is crucial to tourism. Sure, Anaheim gets along without one, but Long Beach doesn't have Disneyland.

"When you have an airport, your tourism stock goes up," she said. "The easier it is and the more convenient it is, the more people are going to choose to go there."

Los Angeles International and the John Wayne Orange County Airport "are good, but when you have one that's yours alone, that's even better."