The Montgomery Regional Airport Authority’s marketing committee has decided it needs $250,000 to further marketing efforts at the airport.
It will ask the finance committee to come up with the money so it can hire a marketing official and create a customer service counter in the terminal.
The $74,000 surplus that’s in the budget, however, will not be enough to cover the request.
Jerry Kyser, head of the marketing committee and also on the finance committee, says that if the airport cannot cover the costs out of its budget, other entities could be consulted, such as the Montgomery City Council or the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce.
The plan includes using $50,000 to convert the airport’s game room into a customer service counter, where a marketing professional would work; $80,000 to hire the official; and money for equipment.
The committee also decided to have Phil Perry, airport executive director, discuss with U.S. Airways leadership how to promote its three daily flights from Montgomery to Charlotte, N.C.
Committee members were concerned that the airline may stop the service because only about half the seats on the flight are usually filled. Perry said he didn’t have the exact load factors, but observed that the “afternoon flight looks lighter to me.”
The panel wants Perry to discuss with the airline joint advertising and marketing efforts for the flight. Other carriers would be given the same offer.
