Vegas to get a boost from Song

Thursday, April 10, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

Jitters over the Iraqi war and the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome disease are continuing to hurt the nation's airlines, but Las Vegas is continuing to hold its own and will now be served by Delta Air Lines' new low-fare carrier Song Airlines.

The Washington-based Air Transport Association said Wednesday that for the week ended April 6, systemwide traffic on the nation's airlines was down 17.4 percent compared with the same period a year ago. By contrast, traffic at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport was down 2 percent from the previous year, which includes the loss of 31 flights by National Airlines and one flight by Vanguard Airlines, which both ceased operations in the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines' new low-fare subsidiary, Song, which will have its first flight ever on Monday, announced today that it would begin service between Las Vegas and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in August.

Song officials told In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication of the Sun, in February that Las Vegas fit its profile of serving high-density leisure markets and McCarran officials speculated then that it would only be a matter of time before Song flew into Las Vegas.

The airline confirmed today that it would launch two daily round trips between Fort Lauderdale's Hollywood International Airport and Las Vegas beginning Aug. 25 on twin-engine 199-passenger Boeing 757 jets.

For Song, it's the airline's first announced service west of the Mississippi River. The company has said it intends to focus on linking East Coast population centers of New York City, Boston, Washington D.C. and Hartford, Conn., with Florida leisure markets Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach and Fort Myers. The airline will have flights from all three New York metropolitan airports, John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J.

The airline plans to have 144 daily flights on its fleet of 36 757 jets by fall. The company today unveiled its first aircraft with a lime green-on-white color scheme.

When flights begin to Las Vegas in August, the Delta subsidiary said it would offer introductory fares ranging from $119 to $299 one way.

Song will enter the market when the aviation industry is suffering hard times.

The ATA reported domestic flight declines of 14.7 percent, a downturn of 25.8 percent in Pacific travel, 25.2 percent in Atlantic travel and 17.8 percent from Latin America since April 2002.

McCarran reported an average 420 flights a day for April -- eight fewer than in April 2002 and one fewer than in March.

Airline analysts have several theories why Las Vegas has been able to hang on.

Ray Neidl, an airline and casino analyst with Blaylock and Partners, New York, said Las Vegas appears to be benefitting from American tourists who are canceling their overseas vacations for something closer to home.

"Las Vegas is a big fly-in market," Neidl said. "The airlines don't particularly like Las Vegas (because it is a low-yield market), but it is offering heavy traffic patterns."

Robert Mann of R.W. Mann & Co., Port Washington, N.Y., said there are several theories as to why Las Vegas' air market is maintaining.

"Part of it is that Las Vegas already has lost a lot of its capacity," Mann said in reference to the shutdown of National Airlines in November. "Most of the loss was in the past instead of recently. And, since then, you've seen JetBlue come in and pick up some of the slack."

Kew Gardens, N.Y.-based JetBlue inaugurated service between Las Vegas and Long Beach, Calif., in October, but quickly added nonstop service between Las Vegas and John F. Kennedy International Airport after National ceased operations.

Mann also said Las Vegas' diversification of the destination has helped it maintain interest from travelers.

"It has a fairly durable mix of entertainment and business and gaming," Mann said. "This is a good hedge against some of the single-point content like Orlando where things are decidedly less rosy than they are in Las Vegas. Credit should be given to the development czars that have managed to diversify the destination content."

According to April figures released earlier this week by McCarran, Las Vegas has been able to maintain all its flights to and from Mexico offered by foreign carriers Mexicana, Aero Mexico, Aviacsa and Allegro, accounting for 25 flights a week from five nonstop markets.

Air Canada has maintained its level of flights, although it is using smaller aircraft on its runs between Las Vegas and Toronto.

Among the overseas markets, Virgin Atlantic Airways has maintained its two flights a week between London and Las Vegas and plans to add a third in September. But in the Asian markets, Singapore Airlines has suspended flights for two months between Las Vegas and Hong Kong and Japan Airlines has canceled four round trips in April between McCarran and Tokyo because of low demand.

Among the domestic carriers, most maintained service or had minor fluctuations. From March to April, McCarran said America West cut two flights and United, American, Continental, Frontier and SkyWest cut a flight each, while Allegian Air added two flights and Delta, US Airways, Mesa Airlines and Midwest Express added one each.