ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180037
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
ON JULY 1, Comair will begin daily jet service between Cincinnati and Roanoke Regional Airport.
Comair Inc., serving Roanoke Regional Airport as the Delta Connection commuter, said Wednesday it will convert to jet service one of its four daily flights between Roanoke and Delta's hub at Cincinnati.
Beginning July 1, Cincinnati-based Comair will join USAir as the only two providers of jet service at the Roanoke airport. USAir operates 16 daily flights, nine which use jet aircraft.
Comair will replace one of its two morning prop-jet flights with a 50-passenger Canadair jet, which has a cruising speed of 530 mph and can fly at altitudes of up to 41,000 feet. The flight will leave Cincinnati at 9:05 a.m. daily and arrive in Roanoke at 10:20 a.m. It will then depart Roanoke at 10:40 a.m. and return to Cincinnati at 11:55 a.m.
The 10:40 a.m. departure was chosen for conversion to jet service because of its timing with connecting Delta flights at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, said Joseph Kauffman, Comair's director of sales and marketing. It connects with 450 daily departures by Delta to 95 cities, including many in the Western United States.
Comair is one of two Delta Connection airlines serving the airport. Atlantic Southeast Airlines is the other. It has nine daily flights to Delta's Atlanta hub. The two Delta Connection airlines account for about 22 percent of the airport's passenger boardings; USAir accounts for 62 percent.
Mel Ludovici, president of Martin Travel in Roanoke, called the new service "an enormous addition." The single most frequent request his agency gets from business travelers is for jet service, he said.
Comair is a pioneer in using jets in regional markets, airport spokesman Mark Courtney said. "It gives them a market advantage; they've hit a real niche here," he said. If the company has good experience in Roanoke with the new jet service, it will upgrade another of its flights in the future, Kauffman said.
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Comair's 50-passenger Canadair jet has a cruising speedby CNBof 530 mph and can fly at altitudes up to 41,000 feet. color<