Oakland thrives with low-fare airlines The East Bay facility has been catering to low-cost airlines since 1989, stealing business from San Francisco International Airport and making it the only one of three local major airports that increased its number of passengers last year. Oakland's strategy was to attract low-fare carriers and low-fare charter airlines, the only carriers that have made money in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the continuing slump in the economy. "We very specifically went after certain airlines. We very specifically went after JetBlue," said Steve Grossman, director of aviation at Oakland International. In early 2002, Southwest Airlines pulled out of San Francisco International Airport and moved most of its Northern California operations across the bay. In the same year JetBlue and SunTrips, a low-fare charter airline that focuses chiefly on leisure travel, pulled out of SFO and began flying from Oakland. In 2002 Oakland became the second-fastest growing airport in the nation, following Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, It increased its passenger traffic to 12.7 million from 11.4 million in 2001, a jump of 11.5 percent. That vaulted Oakland to second place among Bay Area airports, past Mineta San Jose International Airport, whose traffic fell 15 percent last year. SFO's traffic dropped 9.2 percent last year, while the nation's 40 largest airports saw passenger traffic fall by an average of 3 percent. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************