Blog

So things are off to a dang good start at CAK in 2012. The best news comes from Southwest Airlines who recently announced that CAK is on their network for good. This is so huge on so many levels that my excitement is nearly indescribable.  The integration will take some time, but we’ve waited for nearly 25 years, so what’s another 12-18 months in the grand scheme of things? What’s really exciting is that not only are Southwest/ AirTran staying but they are growing at CAK.

That growth has propelled us to 10 consecutive months of year-over-year passenger records. AirTran has long been a low fare leader in Northeast Ohio, having served CAK for 15 years. Because Southwest is committed to both Akron-Canton Airport and Cleveland Hopkins, travelers in the region can rest assured that low fares will be abundant in the future too. We are excited about two new routes AirTran will be offering this year- Denver (June) and Chicago Midway (August).  If you’ve paid too much or driven too far for an affordable flight to Chicago, your troubles will soon be over. Thanks, Southwest/ AirTran!!

Customer growth leads to investment.  A couple of big investments include a 750 space Super Saver parking lot. We plan to open it in early June; just in time for the busy summer travel season. We are also building a new aircraft rescue and firefighting facility. It will be more centrally located on our airfield and will offer our team the best capabilities to respond to any call on our runways. Yup, those two projects alone will add up to more than $10 million.

Now, about those stitches. I was working out one morning a few weeks back, doing box jumps and well, missed. Let’s just say that this one time, the box won. That little mishap led to 10 stitches in my shins. Within a week, I was back on the box. Kind of like our little CAK, we just don’t give up.