--- In BATN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "5/2 SF Examiner" <batn@xxxx> wrote: Published Monday, May 2, 2005, in the San Francisco Examiner SFO hopes media campaign will raise passenger numbers By Mary F. Albert In the hopes of luring back travelers lost to the low-cost carriers of the San Jose and Oakland airports, officials at San Francisco International Airport recently launched a large-scale media campaign. Aimed at reminding travelers that low fares are also available at SFO, the airport's "Good to Go" campaign will make its way around the Bay Area on buses, BART trains and taxi cabs through June. Radio segments will also be broadcast on KFOG, KOIT and KQED. Print ads will be published in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and San Francisco Magazine. A survey conducted by the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2004 found that SFO was the airport of arrival for the majority -- about 78.2 percent -- of San Francisco's hotel guests. Exactly how many local residents have fully or partially shifted their travel dollars from SFO to neighboring airports is unclear, said Jane Sullivan, the airport's marketing and communications manager, who spearheaded the marketing campaign. "[Marketing] is not a precise science," Sullivan said. "We only know our passenger numbers have gone down." Based on focus group studies, the airport's marketing staff believes SFO lost some passengers when low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines chose Oakland as a hub over SFO and JetBlue established operations at San Jose, she said. Although both airlines operate flights in Oakland and San Jose, neither currently flies out of SFO. "We know people are driving around the Bay Area in search of the best ticket prices," she said. "We want those passengers back." To get them back, airport officials have worked toward bringing in other low-cost carriers, such as Delta's Song Airlines and Independence Air. They also spent about $500,000 for advertising materials and services from The M-Line Inc. Aviation industry expert Mike Boyd of the Boyd Group, Inc. said such a commitment of dollars -- which represents about 1 percent of SFO's annual revenue -- is "not all that extravagant." "In this day and age, an airport has to be very aggressive, especially in the case of SFO, which has lost travelers," he said. Although the number of "enplaned" passengers -- those who have boarded aircraft -- has gradually improved since Sept. 11, SFO still has not fully recovered from the terror attacks and ensuing dot-com bust and SARS epidemic. In October 2000, 1.7 million passengers boarded aircraft at SFO. The same month in 2001, only 1.1 million boarded. In October 2004, about 1.4 million passengers enplaned at SFO. To help the airport return to pre-Sept. 11 passenger levels and save money, the airport partnered with the Municipal Railway, BART and taxicab companies to deliver mutually beneficial messages. E-mail: malbert@xxxx --- End forwarded message ---