--- In BATN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "1/26 SJ Business Journal" <batn@...> wrote: Published Friday, January 26, 2007, by the San Jose Business Journal Mineta airport hopes lures to fliers, airlines speed recovery By Lynn Graebner At a time when the travel industry is embattled, the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport is hoping it can distinguish itself by adding incentives for both travelers and airlines. On Jan. 23, the airport celebrated being the fifth airport in the country to offer a registered traveler program. That allows passengers, who pay $99.95 a year and undergo a background check with the Transportation Security Administration, to cut ahead in the security lines at the airport. A New York company called Verified Identity Pass Inc. operates the program, called Clear Registered Traveler. Verified has spent $2 million at the San Jose Airport installing equipment and staff for the program, says airport spokesman Rich Dressler. The airport put together security plans that were submitted to TSA and Verified installed the checkpoint kiosks, where travelers present a card with scans of their irises and fingerprints and have their eyes and fingerprints checked against the card. Shoes are also scanned for explosives and metal. Dressler says more than 2,500 members have signed up. It's a revenue generator for the airport, which gets a percentage of the registration fee, Dressler says. "We're selling them predictability. They know they'll get through security no matter what the lines are like," he says. Sometimes there can be a 20- to 30- minute wait. Other airports that have the program, or are preparing to launch it, are in Orlando, New York, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. It's another perk to help make travel easier for the consumer. But airline officials also are holding out a carrot for airlines that add nonstop flights to certain new destinations. Many airlines have been suffering financially, causing them to cut back on the frequency of flights, so the airport adopted an incentive program last year to encourage airlines to adopt new non-stop destinations. Approved by the San Jose City Council last June, the program is intended to increase links to other high tech regions like Raleigh-Durham as well as leisure destinations, Dressler says. This March, Frontier Airlines will start a new flight to Cabo San Lucas. "Incentives aren't enough to start a route, but it helps to get the service off the ground and get people aware of it," says Joe Hodas, a Frontier spokesman from the company's Denver, Colo., headquarters. Last year, Hawaiian Airlines started flying directly to Honolulu from San Jose and Maui is one of the new destinations on the airport's wish list. The airport has been involved in helping promote the Honolulu flight, says Keoni Wagner, a Hawaiian spokesman. But he couldn't comment on possibilities for a Maui destination. "They've [the airport] been very strong partners for us," he says. The airport is offering incentives to airlines for 30 domestic city destinations including Baltimore, Charlotte, Hartford, New Orleans, San Antonio and Washington D.C.. The program also targets 29 potential new international destinations from San Jose, such as Acapulco, Mexico; Delhi, India; Dublin, Ireland; London, England; and Shanghai, China. These incentives can save an airline $175,000 in annual fees and charges on a typical daily domestic flight and $717,000 on a transatlantic flight. The goal is to increase airport activity, which has been flat or worse since the 9/11 terror attacks. Traffic actually declined 0.7 percent for the 12 months from Dec. 1, 2005 through November 30, 2006, with 10.71 million passengers traveling through the airport during that period. The previous 12-months saw a 0.8 percent increase. Traffic at the airport is about half business and half leisure travel. "We just haven't seen the business come back," Dressler says. "Silicon Valley is still recouping and building," he says. Lynn Graebner covers nonprofits and life sciences for the Business Journal. Reach her at (408) 299-1822. [BATN: See also: Airlines call for downtown SJ building height limits http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/33503 SJC first in west to offer biometric pre-screening program http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/33426 ] --- End forwarded message ---