When Bonnie Allin, director of aviation for the Corpus Christi International Airport, speaks to civic groups and asks how many people drive to San Antonio's airport for air travel, hands shoot up around the room.
Allin doesn't get angry. Flying out of San Antonio has become a fact of life in Corpus Christi, she reasons.
"Some people have gotten so used to just asking their travel agent for fares from San Antonio that they don't even ask for Corpus Christi anymore," she said. "They don't realize that fares have been reduced to compete."
During a year of major construction at the airport that will add a food court and an expanded baggage claim area, Corpus Christi airport promoters have decided to fight back to reclaim the market that drives to San Antonio.
Their strategy is this:
"We want to recoup our lost market," said Alex Kovach, business development manager for the airport. "It may be unrealistic to say we're going to get all 200,000 passengers who are driving to San Antonio each year, but we want to get a good chunk."
Already, the strategy has produced some fares from Corpus Christi that are more competitive with San Antonio, Kovach said. Sometimes the airlines have reduced their fares to try to capture some of the lost Corpus Christi market.
The success of the program is critical if the airport wants to maintain its position or add flights, Kovach said. In 1996, the airport ended the year with 2.1 percent fewer passengers than 1995. It had estimated a larger decrease in passengers.
"But we ought to be going up," Kovach said. "This city is growing. The airport ought to be growing with it."
Another incentive for adding passengers is the possibility of adding flights. At least one air carrier has told Corpus Christi airport officials that it would add a direct flight to Austin if passenger load factors were increased. Airport studies show that many would-be airline passengers are driving to Austin because the airline connections from Corpus Christi go through Houston or Dallas, making the air trip longer than a drive.
In addition to what airport officials hope will be a successful campaign to recover some of its lost market share, the airport is undergoing improvements using federal grants.
Already under way is construction of a food court that will include Pizza Hut, Whataburger and Taco Bell. The food court should be finished by this summer.
Also, construction on a new, expanded baggage claim area will begin as early as this fall. The new baggage claim area will be located where the Japanese garden is now, just outside the current baggage claim area.
While construction will begin in the fall, the work will be fairly minimal until after the holidays.
"We should see a lot happening in January (1998)," Allin said. "We will give public notices to let passengers know what will be happening.
Also under way this year -- although it won't be visible to the public -- is completion of a new master plan for the airport which will guide it through the next several years.