TRAVELERS’ CHECK : Boozman sends note on airport
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008
Regular readers know The Guru’s on a campaign to benefit newbie Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport passengers by reducing confusion about the airport’s location.
The Guru even involved an actual politician in his latest effort (sorry ), but only after a professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville wanted the politician’s help.
As background for nonregular readers, there are travelers who drive to the Fayetteville Municipal Airport, Drake Field, to board commercial airplanes. All of them should have driven to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, 28 miles away near Highfill.
The airlines moved from Drake Field, starting in 1998, and now all of them fly from XNA.
Nonetheless, people still show up at Drake Field to board commercial flights.
“As long as people’s tickets read ‘Fayetteville,’ they are automatically going to think here,” said Dawn Johnson, an employee of Million Air, Drake Field’s fixed-base operator. “It still happens every day.”
Jim Gattis, a civil engineering professor, suggested to The Guru that U. S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., could help.
“Since the airlines’ misnaming of the terminal on their schedules seems to actually cause problems for travelers, could Congressman Boozman insert a provision into a bill that would require all common carriers to show the correct name of the terminal ?” Gattis wrote. “One would think that this issue would count as ‘interstate commerce.’”
The folks in Boozman’s office weren’t hip on XNA legislation when The Guru told them about Gattis’ idea.
“When you’ve got health care and education and Iraq and everything else, you can have a hard time drafting legislation for this,” said Kathee Facchiano, Boozman’s legislative director. “You want to see if you can find another way before you draft legislation.”
So Boozman sent a letter last week to James May, president and chief executive officer of the Air Transport Association. Boozman asked the trade organization to tell its member airlines about the airport confusion, although the letter never requests a ban on the word “Fayetteville” when discussing XNA. It should have.
Instead, the letter asks the association to do what it can to have the airport referred to as the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. The hope is that it’ll cause flight attendants and pilots to stop saying “Welcome to Fayetteville” when planes land at XNA.
“We will make sure our members who serve these airports are aware of passengers’ concerns,” said Victoria Day, an association spokesman.
Kelly Johnson, the airport director at XNA, said Boozman’s letter is worth a shot.
“Will we ever eliminate ‘Fayetteville’ being used ?” she said. “I’m not sure it’s possible.
“ I hand flight attendants my business card, and I ask if they see the word ‘Fayetteville’ on there anywhere. We try to educate. It’s just one of those awkward, strange transitions, but you’d think after nine years it would be getting better.”
One would think. Robert J. Smith’s column about people on the move in Northwest Arkansas appears each Monday. He can be reached at rsmith@arkansasonline. com.
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