DECATUR, AL—
The Huntsville International Airport and the Decatur Morgan County Chamber of Commerce teamed up to tell local residents about AirTran on Tuesday morning. Both asked businesses and the community to support the low-fare carrier by making pledges.Decatur city leaders say the Huntsville International Airport is convenient for people who travel for business, or pleasure. That's why they're trying to secure another low fare flight with AirTran to Atlanta.
By the end of May, AirTran will be flying twice daily to Baltimore and once daily to Orlando. Some of those tickets are as low as $99.
"If AirTran is going where I'm going, I'm going to go with them," said Ellen Hodgen.
Hodgen came to the town hall meeting in Decatur because she wants to fly out of Huntsville.
"I would travel out of Huntsville, but Nashville had a much more affordable fare and we were going to fly Southwest to Oklahoma City. That was a much better fare. We would have preferred and would also prefer to travel out of Huntsville," said Hodgen.
The town hall meetings are geared to getting businesses to make pledges that they'll support another low cost flight to Atlanta.
"If we can get connected to Atlanta, we've got an opportunity to go anywhere in the world from Atlanta," said John Seymoure, President and C.E.O. of the Decatur Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.
Delta already has a direct flight from Huntsville to Atlanta.
Barbie Peek, the Airport's Director of Marketing, says if Huntsville gets AirTran to add an Atlanta flight, you'll see prices drop at competing counters.
"Today our passengers are going to Birmingham and Nashville to reap the benefits of those competitive fares. That's what we want to see is some competition in our market so that we can get the passengers of the road and back to our home airport," said Peek.
Ellen Hodgen says bring on the competition.
"We want lower fares," says Hodgen. "We want more than one choice for a low fare and not have to go at 6:25 in the morning like most of the fares are. This is a convenient airport and we need more in our airport system here than people who are going to charge us through the nose."
For the past three quarters, Huntsville International Airport has ranked number one in the United States for highest air fares. They don't want to keep that streak going.
Wednesday, there will be two more meetings. Both are at Athens State University, at 10:30am and 5:30pm.
The final meetings will be Thursday, March 11 in Huntsville at the Jackson Center, on the campus of the Hudson Alpha Institute. Those are also scheduled for 10:30am and 5:30pm.
