The passenger terminal at Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport is about to get quiet.
Beginning in mid-August, Allegiant Air, the remaining commercial carrier at the city-owned airport, will fly just two flights weekly out of Toledo Express to St. Pete/Clearwater, Fla., until its three other warm-weather routes return in early October.
It’s a seasonal ritual for Allegiant, reducing flights from Toledo as passenger demand shrinks during the summer.
The difference from this year to last is that American Airline’s American Eagle short hauls no longer operate from Toledo Express. The last routes to Chicago ended just after Labor Day last year, and before that, service to Charlotte, N.C.
So that leaves Toledo Express, at least for now, as a passenger desert for a seven-week stretch during the summer.
“Allegiant has a unique business model among airlines as a carrier that is 100 percent focused on offering low-cost airfare during vacation seasons,” said Allegiant spokesman Hector Mejia in an email.
“That said, each city is unique and has its own season. Keeping in line with our business model based on demand and seasonality, we typically put the routes from Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport to Mesa, Ariz., Orlando/Daytona Beach, Fla., and Punta Gorda, Fla., on a seasonal hiatus.”
Las Vegas-based Allegiant will not be serving those cities from Toledo at all during September. The last flight to Mesa before returning Oct. 4, is on Saturday, May 13.
Mike Kunzer, who co-owns the Loma Linda restaurant a mile up Airport Highway from Toledo Express, said he’d love to see more passenger flights at the airport.
He said he gets regular customers coming and going from the airport — easily distinguishable by the smiles and tans they are wearing from visiting the warm-weather destinations that Allegiant flies.
“We all would like to see it a lot busier,” he said of the businesses in the area.
Fortunately for Loma Linda, a Mexican restaurant co-owned by Jeanie Kunzer, summer is seasonally the restaurant’s busiest time to help offset the slowdown in passenger traffic at Toledo Express, he said. That’s when families and individuals come out to enjoy the weather and outdoor patio at the restaurant.
Timothy O’Donnell, airport director for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, said leisure carriers like Allegiant offer the best opportunity for more passenger flights from Toledo Express.
The aviation model that had regional airports such as Toledo Express feeding major hub airports like Chicago’s O’Hare for additional destinations has been lost in recent years to pilot shortages, overworked crews, and the airlines needing jets with at least 75 filled seats to make money, he said.
That spoke-and-hub model of yesteryear put Toledo Express on the map. But it’s not coming back in the foreseeable future as evidenced by 60 other regional airports across America losing network service over the past 12 months, Mr. O’Donnell said.
The silver lining in the passenger business at Toledo Express is that Allegiant had a record year out of Toledo in 2022 and is off to a strong start in 2023.
Through February, Allegiant passenger traffic from Toledo Express was up 18 percent versus the same period of 2022. In real numbers, 24,072 passengers flew Allegiant out of Toledo in the first two months of 2023 compared with 21,678 in the same period of 2022, according to data compiled by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, which operates the airport.
Allegiant’s planes flew out at 90 percent of capacity on average this year versus 85 percent in 2022.
It’s those results, and a package of incentives that the Port Authority is pitching to other low-cost carriers like Allegiant, to try to lure others to Toledo Express, said Joe Cappel, Port Authority vice president of business development.
He specifically mentioned Sun Country Airlines, Breeze Airways, and Avelo Airlines, each aiming their business at the vacation and leisure traveler.
“They have similar models (to Allegiant) and are in growth mode,” Mr. Cappel said. “We are always meeting with the airlines.”
To help lure them, he said the Port Authority is offering to waive an already low $4 per-passenger gate fee for two years.
Additionally, a new carrier can expect Port Authority-paid digital and advertising support and possible eligibility for a minimum revenue guarantee from the Port Authority to minimize the risk of trying Toledo Express, he said.
With its track record flying out of the airport, Allegiant did not request a minimum revenue guarantee for its new route to Mesa that began a year ago, Mr. Cappel said.
Other potential leisure destinations from Toledo are Nashville, Savannah, Ga., and Hilton Head, S.C., he said.
As mentioned, it is less likely that one of the three big network carriers — American, United, and Delta — will bring back short-run service from Toledo because of limited demand, especially among business travelers, and a continuing pilot shortage, Mr. Cappel said.
Sylvania Township resident Elsa Leveton was waiting for a ride inside the terminal last week after coming in from Mesa from a vacation.
She said she has family in Chicago and misses the convenience that the American Eagle flights offered. Now, she has to pay for a ride to Detroit for a flight to Chicago, she said.
“I didn’t take it often but it was convenient to come to Toledo (Express) Airport and have family pick me up in Chicago,” Ms. Leveton said.
She said when she arrived from Mesa in the mid-afternoon Wednesday, many passenger were waiting at the gate to take the return trip to Mesa.
But very quickly the airport emptied out. And only an occasional passenger and an employee at two of the three rental car stalls were visible in the terminal.
Though the commercial passenger business at Toledo Express is the most closely watched by the public, it makes up less than 2 percent of the economic activity at the airport.
Cargo flights, fueled by Amazon and others, are booming.
Port Authority data show that cargo in pounds carried at Toledo Express jumped by 438 percent between 2020 and 2021.
The Ohio Air National Guard is a large and consistent tenant at the airport, Mr. Cappel said.
And several manufacturing and freight companies lease there, not the least of which is Tronair, which makes ground-handling equipment for airports.
In all, Toledo Express has a $581.5 million annual economic impact on the region and supports 2,938 jobs either at the airport or indirectly, according to a report of 2021 data prepared by the Bowling Green State University’s Center for Regional Development and commissioned by the Port Authority.
Still, Toledo’s economy would be better with more passenger traffic at Toledo Express, said Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz.
The City of Toledo owns Toledo Express and Toledo Executive Airport. They are operated by the Port Authority.
“We have to find a way to do better,” he said.
First Published April 19, 2023, 5:12 p.m.
