Jun. 25—TRAVERSE CITY — Other than waiting for a rental car to become available, Julie Johnson was enjoying her first visit to Cherry Capital Airport on a warm Wednesday afternoon befitting the first day of summer.

The Birmingham, Alabama, woman had already filled out an online survey about future flights she would want to see added at the airport and enjoyed the cabin-like feel sitting in a comfy chair next to the fireplace in the lounge at TVC.

In educational sales, Johnson was scheduled to fly back out Thursday after making a breakfast presentation at Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire. Johnson had heard about the area before her business trip from her husband, who hails from Hillsdale County. Johnson said she may return to Traverse City sometime in the future for leisure travel.

"I might," Johnson said Wednesday, her accent giving away her Southern roots. "My husband grew up in Litchfield and he said they always came up here on vacation because it's so beautiful.

"We talked about bringing the family back. We typically vacation on the Gulf (of Mexico) on the beach."

An out-of-state traveler on business, leisure and hopefully flying into Traverse City makes the Alabama woman somewhat of a model passenger for Cherry Capital Airport as TVC soars into its 2023 summer season and beyond.

Johnson is clearly not an anomaly at an airport CEO Kevin Klein said is flying against the national norm of losing, not adding service.

Cherry Capital Airport predicts an 18% increase in available airplane seats in Traverse City for 2023 compared to pre-pandemic numbers in 2019. Klein said year-to-date numbers through May are 16.4% above 2022. The month of May alone saw a 27.3% jump from the previous year.

"That's probably in the neighborhood of between $200 to $300 million annual impact," Klein said from his second floor office at the airport. "Our annual impact is just over a billion dollars. So when you look at 18% when we're just over a billion dollars — probably $1.2 billion — would equate to $200 to $300 million.

"That's a big chunk; it's a major impact."

With Sun Country Airlines landing its first scheduled flight from Minneapolis/St. Paul in Traverse City on Friday, Klein thinks his estimate may be closer to the right side of the range versus the left.

"Then on top of that you add another airline coming in ... it will be closer to that $300 million," Klein said, still excited about TVC's fifth airline nearly a week later. "It's a huge impact. You look at that for our growth for this year, that's awesome."

Other side of the gate

But the impact of the increased seats doesn't just end when Fly Don't Drive ends at South Airport Road.

"You not only have your airline tickets and your airline revenue, it filters out to the people that come in and spend money," Klein said. "The average person that comes to the airport spends between $800 and $1,000 in incidentals when they're here. That's going to restaurants, that's going to shopping downtown, that's playing golf, that's visiting wineries.

"That goes beyond the airport. It's outstanding."

Such was the case on Johnson's flight from Chicago to Traverse City. While she was there on business, it was not the case for others on board.

"Everybody on my flight was coming to play golf," Johnson said. "They were all talking about it."

The rebound of tourism to near pre-pandemic levels was the subject of Traverse City Tourism's annual conference in early March. It was no surprise that the keynote speaker was Klein, who said the growth of the airport is a big part of the equation.

Grand Traverse Resort and Spa General Manager Caroline Rizzo said the property has already felt the impact of the uptick in TVC traffic and is ready for more.

"We've seen a strong increase in visits from the direct flight markets over the years, especially from southern states like Texas and Florida," Rizzo said in an email. "Guests flying in from other parts of the country seem to easily fall in love with the overall casual, friendly vibe of northern Michigan.

"Our shuttle service to and from TVC airport has proven to be a very important amenity and has helped us tie-in with the overall popularity of the airport."

At the TC Tourism conference, Klein said Cherry Capital is "limited to promoting the airport" by the Federal Aviation Administration, but the $2.6 million TC Tourism/TVC partnership investment since 2012 has generated more than $1 billion in airline revenue and more than 4.4 million passengers, according to one of Klein's slides at the meeting.

"One of our goals has always been, since we started back in 2011, was to change the perception of what our airport is all about," Klein said Wednesday. "That was to make us a destination. A lot of people will think of that as just leisure and obviously that's very true. However, what we are forgetting about is we want to be a destination for businesses also.

"We want people to want to manufacture parts here, we want people to do business with our agricultural groups, we want people to do business in our area. Economic development doesn't happen when we're flying everybody out. It's about flying everybody in and that's what economic growth is all about. Being a destination for not only tourism, but economic growth and business is very important for us."

Traverse Connect President/CEO Trevor Tkach said at the conferences that partnerships like the one with Cherry Capital are key to attracting 6.9 million visitors to the area in 2021. Those visitors spent $913 million in 2021, created $1.3 billion in annual economic impact and generated more than 8,500 jobs.

Whether for business or leisure, about 52% of Cherry Capital Airport passengers come from outside Michigan. Klein said most airports in Michigan with the exception of Marquette, are more at a 50-50 ratio or serve more from the Mitten State.

Klein said he constantly tells Dave Lorenz, the vice president for Travel Michigan at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation that TC is the Pure Michigan airport.

Flying in the face of convention

While Cherry Capital Airport is seeing an increase in seats, Klein said it isn't the case elsewhere.

Klein said about 70 airports in the U.S. have lost air service since the pandemic.

He said that includes departures from Flint, Lansing and Muskegon by carriers.

"When you look at recovery from COVID and compare 2019 to today, the west, southwest and southeast has really started recovering very well, they're about 2-3% ahead of what 2019 numbers are," Klein said. "But when you look at the rest of the country — the Northeast, the Midwest and even the Mountain West region — they are down 10-12%. Especially hub airports our size, on average, most of them are down around 9-10% in our category.

"We're up 18 (percent). We're the anomaly to what's going on in the country. That's why I'm so passionate celebrating the air service we have, because when airlines choose to bring a new flight to your community, they're choosing our community over hundreds of others who are just as deserving.

"It's an honor, one. But two, what we're proving to airlines is that with their business model, we fit and return to their investors a great product. That's exciting. It's exciting to be in that position."

Klein said, in 2011, Cherry Capital had three airlines (American, Delta and United) and served five cities (Chicago, Denver, Detroit, La Guardia in New York and Minneapolis).Cherry Capital added Allegiant Airlines in October 2019 and with Sun Country landing, it serves 17 cities.

"You just don't see new service like that in small communities like ours start up," Klein said of TVC, which has five jet bridges serving six gates, one of which is ground-loading. "When Sun Country came in, one of the ways to think about it was you have a $150 million airplane coming into your community, a lot of people don't think about like a factory coming into your community or a start-up business coming into your community top provide service.

"It's so unique now to see new service that we have to celebrate it and embrace that coming in because you don't see it. It's very rare."

'Buy local, fly local'

Airlines are adding scheduled flights to TC because it makes sense and cents, Klein said.

"When they take a chance on us, they know it will work," he said. "They trust our business model, they trust what we put forward to them. That's the dynamic.

"When we have all those things working together, our cost is low for the airlines, they want to put business in, our community is using the airport, the airlines want to grow."

Klein said the airport used to average about 66 seats a flight, but is now closer to 100 as the regional 50-seat planes jet off into the sunset in favor of the Airbus 319 and 320.

"That's because of the larger airplanes serving the market," he said. "Delta and United all through the year — not just in the summer time — have been flying mainline aircraft."

Klein said he also knows TVC has to keep proving to the airlines have an attractive bottom line or they will land somewhere else.

Klein, who came to TC in 2002 as operations manager, told the TC Tourism conference there is a "use-it-or-lose-it" proposition and reiterated the point in discussing what he predicts will be an exciting 2023 summer season.

Klein said driving to other Michigan airports is "telling the airlines you want your air service at another airport."

"It goes back to that motto of 'Buy Local,'" Klein said. "I always say, 'Buy Local, Fly Local.' That's important because we have to be able to support what we're doing and if it doesn't, it goes back to someplace else."

That's especially true with airlines dealing with a loss of personnel nationally, including pilots and mechanics.

Klein said Cherry Capital Airport has 26 employees, but the TVC 'tenants' — including the airlines, car rentals, Federal Aviation Administration and the gift shop — include another 1,200 full-time workers.