Bradley Eyes Fairfield County

To Boost Sagging Passenger Levels

BRIDGEPORT (AP) –– Bradley International Airport has been eyeing Fairfield County as a rich source of passengers to boost its sagging business.

The Windsor Locks airport’s marketing efforts may be paying off.

The percentage of Bradley passengers from Fairfield County increased by 110 percent between June 2000 and June 2001, airport officials said. The number of passengers was not immediately available.

Passenger traffic at Bradley has been flat in the last year as the economic slowdown and terrorist attacks of September 11 hammered business travel, said Andy Sauer, a spokesman for the airport.

In 1999, Bradley hired Mascola Associates, a New Haven public relations firm, to “tap Fairfield County on the shoulder,” said Matthew Sawyers, director of strategic marketing at Mascola.

Mascola directed an advertising blitz targeting Fairfield County passengers. An effective weapon also may be frustration with New York City airports.

“People don’t want to go through the hassle of New York,” said Sonia Schaffner, president of Travel Hut Inc. in Fairfield.

Art Randolph, president of Nutmeg Wireless in Fairfield County, is a frequent flyer who said delays have prompted him to switch to Bradley from LaGuardia Airport in New York. He also prefers the scenic drive to Windsor Locks over rush hour traffic on Interstate 95.

“I’ll give up a direct flight vs. traveling down I-95,” he said.

Bradley officials also hope passengers who are jittery about hijackings may choose Bradley, believing that smaller airports are safer than metropolitan competitors.

But Bob Diener, president of www.hoteldiscount.com, said larger airports provide more flights. Flights from Bradley have been cut from 280 before September 11 to 238, said Andre Libert, Bradley’s director of marketing and air service development.

Some passengers in Fairfield County are yet to be sold on Connecticut’s airport.

Developer Robert Scinto said Bradley has not succeeded in luring passengers from Shelton where he does business. “It’s too far away,” he said.