HARRISBURG, Pa. - The battle to win back the flying public of central Pennsylvania begins with a billboard just north of the Maryland line.
Perched along Interstate 83 a few miles from Shrewsbury, it asks drivers headed south: "Flying out of BWI? Line Starts Here."
Brought to you by the folks at Harrisburg International Airport, the billboard is just one of several emphasizing a theme: that travelers headed 90 miles south to Baltimore-Washington International Airport for rock-bottom fares should consider giving the smaller, more convenient airport near Three Mile Island a second look.
The ads, part of a $1.2 million marketing push, play on BWI's struggles to overcome its notorious security checkpoint lines, traffic and other hassles associated with the airport's $1.8 billion expansion. Harrisburg airport officials estimate they're losing 1.5 million bookings a year to BWI, and with them millions of dollars spent on Maryland hotels and restaurants.
"What I'd like to do is stop the exodus out of the state of Pennsylvania," said Alfred Testa Jr., director of aviation for the Harrisburg airport, which goes by the name of HIA. "All we want to do is to get people thinking, `Check HIA.' All we're looking for them to do is spend a little time and check on price."
It's a theme Testa, a veteran of such fights in Manchester, N.H., and Providence, R.I., has stressed since taking over the sleepy airport near the state capital two years ago. And locals have noticed.
Airlines have added flights and cut fares to HIA from hub cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago, bringing the number of daily departures to 63. While airports nationwide struggle, HIA's business increased 15.6 percent last year compared with 2001 and is up 2.5 percent this year.
Among the returning customers is cardiologist John Field, who for years drove from his home outside Hershey the night before a trip and slept in a BWI hotel to make the first flight.
"It was a great business move that took some time," said Field on Thursday before heading to Dallas on a flight that cost him $300 - the same as it would have out of BWI.
The billboard campaign reflects Testa's personality: bold, clever and a little sarcastic.
A native New Englander, Testa works in an office trailer behind a door marked "Imperial Lord-Darth Vader." Wearing pinstriped suits, red suspenders and a crimson tie fastened with a gold airplane pin, he looks as if he's all business. But he regales visitors with stories behind the editorial cartoons on his wall that mock New Hampshire politics.
