The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority has revamped its Web site for Toledo Express Airport, adding a travel search-engine option and a loyalty program for people who park frequently at the airport.
Friday port authority officials, meanwhile, renewed discussion about reviving passenger service at the airport, where daily flights have dwindled as airlines cut their route maps sharply in response to a weak economy and volatile fuel prices.
The revised toledoexpress.com went online Wednesday and offers flight schedules, real-time flight arrival and departure information, and the ability to sign up for email alerts about Toledo Express news, special events, and fare sales.
The new highlight is the travel aggregator, which allows site users to search popular travel-booking Web sites simultaneously for airfares, hotels, car rentals, and package-deal pricing. Booking sites include Priceline, Orbitz, Bing, Expedia, Hotwire, and Travelocity.
The parking-loyalty program allows people to register credit or debit cards with the system and then grants airline miles or points automatically when the registered card is used to pay for airport parking.
Miles or points also may be earned with purchases from participating local restaurants and merchants.
But while American Eagle Airlines, supported by a $200,000 incentive from the port authority, will add a fourth daily round trip to its Toledo-Chicago route on Thursday, passenger service at Toledo Express is at its lowest ebb in the airport's 66-year history.
The American Eagle flights are Toledo's only daily service on a network carrier. The balance of local passenger operations are seasonal Florida flights several times per week on vacation-oriented discount airlines, and the occasional charter here and there. Through July, just 92,759 passengers had flown using Toledo Express during 2011, down from 111,007 during the same period last year.
The decline primarily reflects Delta Air Lines' withdrawal of its Toledo-Detroit route.
That route was replaced briefly by a Toledo-Minneapolis route that fared poorly before it was canceled after just a few months early this year.
But port authority President Paul Toth said Friday during an airport committee discussion that Delta's withdrawal from Toledo could make the local airport more attractive to other airlines because they won't face the prospect of Delta engaging them in fare wars in response to new service.
"As painful as it has been, Delta pulling out of this market may have been the best thing that happened to us," Mr. Toth said. Meanwhile, he promised that efforts to woo new air service to Toledo will continue.
Port officials applied early this month for a $750,000 federal grant to subsidize a proposed Toledo-Denver route, with a response expected in September.
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