Goods New Story: Akron-Canton Airport

Smaller airports can succeed...with the right strategy...

Akron-Canton Airport, a once marginally consequential airport located about 35 mi. southeast of Cleveland in northeastern Ohio, was dubbed last year by the Boyd Group consultancy as the fastest-growing aerodrome on this part of the planet. In 2003 it handled 1,164,755 passengers, a 30.2% rise over 2002 figures. In 2004, 1,358,079 travelers flowed through the place, another 16.6% increase. This year's projections are that CAK will process 1.5 million folks, a more modest-but still significant-10% gain over 2004.

The driver behind the growth is AirTran Airways (see article, p. 68), which first entered the market in 1996 in its pre-ValuJet-merger incarnation with a single daily 737-200 flight to Orlando. After ValuJet took on the AirTran name, Atlanta came next. Now the carrier lofts nonstops out of CAK to MCO, ATL, New York LaGuardia, Boston, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and, beginning last month, Las Vegas. It commands 45% of the traffic. No.2 is Delta Connection with 23%. Then there's everybody else.

More here.