Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Vacation Express Reorganizes Flight Schedule to Florida
VIENNA, Ohio -- Facing declining ticket sales for midweek flights to Florida from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, Vacation Express today said it will merge flight service with another airport experiencing the same situation.For the past few weeks, the three mid-week flights from Youngstown to Orlando, Fla., have originated from the Wilkes Barre/Scranton International Airport in Pennsylvania, reported Steve Bowser, interim director at Youngstown-Warren. The flights have stopped at Youngstown to pick up additional passengers before proceeding to Florida.Return flights also stop in Youngstown before terminating in Wilkes-Barre, Bowser said.Recently, only about half the seats in the 120-passenger jets were booked during the week from Youngstown to Sanford, Bowser added. Since Wilkes-Barre was suffering from a similar drop in demand, Vacation Express decided to combine the two flights."For us, it's actually better for our passengers because they land in Florida five hours earlier," Bowser said. Under the old schedule, Vacation Express passengers would not depart Youngstown until 2:00 p.m. and not arrive in Florida until late in the afternoon. The flights now leave at 9:00 a.m.The revised flight schedule also assists the possibilities of linking with other flights from Florida to the Caribbean, Bowser elaborated, since passengers from Youngstown are now arriving in Florida in time to connect with other Vacation Express flights. "We've talked all along that there would be some adjustments to the schedule and this is just one of them," Bowser said.The new schedule only affects flights during the week to Orlando and does not affect weekend flights, which remain booked, Bowser said. Also, the twice-a-week flights to Myrtle Beach, S.C. are continuing as scheduled until the end of this month. Service will temporarily stop to Myrtle Beach during the off-season and resume sometime in February, according to Bowser. Vacation Express began offering regularly scheduled flights April 1 from the airport to Myrtle Beach and Orlando. Apart from occasional charter flights, the airport had been without commercial passenger service since Northwest Airlines pulled out in September 2002.During its first month of service, flights to Orlando stood at 95% capacity and flights to Myrtle Beach were just under 80% full, Bowser reported in May.The Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates the airport, has spent $200,000 to market the Vacation Express flights.In business for 15 years, Vacation Express and its sister company, Sun Trips, are owned and operated by FS Tours, a subsidiary of Flightserv. The parent company of Flightserv is RCG Companies Inc., listed on the American Stock Exchange and traded under the symbol RCG. RCG reported a loss of $9.82 million on annual sales of $129.8 million in fiscal 2004.Visit Vacation Express at www.vacationexpress.com"