Syracuse, N.Y. — Southwest Airlines will receive up to $1.5 million in waived fees and $150,000 in marketing assistance to come to Syracuse, the only major Upstate New York city not served by the discount carrier.
Jason Terreri, director of Syracuse Hancock International Airport, said the airport will waive from $1 million to $1.5 million in landing, terminal and other operational fees for the first two years of Southwest’s operations at the airport. The exact amount depends on how many flights the airline operates from Syracuse, he said.
In addition, the airport will provide up to $150,000 in marketing assistance during the first year to help it advertise its new service, according to Terreri.
Dallas-based Southwest announced last week it will begin service from Hancock on Nov. 14, initially with three daily flights each way between Syracuse and Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Fares will start at $49 each way.
In addition, the airline will launch nonstop service on select Saturdays during peak fall and winter holiday periods between Syracuse and Orlando, Florida, starting Nov. 20.
Syracuse will be the 121st airport served by Southwest and the 18th new one since early 2020.
The financial incentives are part of a longstanding program at Hancock that provides fee waivers and marketing assistance to airlines that start new service to underserved priority markets identified by the airport or are entirely new entrants to the Syracuse market. Such programs are common at airports throughout the country.
Southwest will be required to pay rent for the space it leases at the airport terminal, said Jennifer Sweetland, director of marketing, communications and air service development at Hancock.
Syracuse airport officials had lobbied Southwest for years to come to Hancock because of the benefit the carrier and its low fares would provide to business and leisure travelers.
But Terreri said the effort, which was led by Sweetland, involved more than offering financial incentives. The airport prepared reports showing Southwest that it could fill its planes if it came to Syracuse, he said.
In particular, the airport told the airline there was significant demand among business travelers for nonstop flights to Baltimore-Washington airport, where Southwest has a hub, according to Terreri. For many years, no airline has operated nonstop service to BWI from Hancock, he said.
In addition, the airport showed Southwest that travelers from Syracuse would also use flights to Baltimore-Washington to catch connecting flights to other destinations in Southwest’s extensive network, he said.
Terreri said the airport almost landed Southwest last year. In 2019, a year in which the airport experienced its busiest year in three decades, Southwest told airport officials that Syracuse was among the top five new markets it was likely to serve in the near future, he said.
The airport director said he expected the airline to make an announcement in early 2020 that it would begin flying out of Hancock. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“We didn’t have a date, we didn’t have a commitment,” he said. “We were expecting an announcement in 2020. That was our expectations based on our discussions with them. The pandemic hit and, then, obviously, all bets were off. So, 2020 was out.”
Nevertheless, airport officials spoke frequently with Southwest representatives during the pandemic, hoping the airline would come to Hancock when the travel industry recovered from the pandemic, he said.
“We had probably monthly phone calls with their planning team,” he said.
In April of this year, after New York’s pandemic-related quarantine rules were lifted for travelers, Southwest sent 10 representatives to Hancock to inspect the terminal and airfield. During the two-day visit, the Southwest team met with Mayor Ben Walsh, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, local business leaders and community representatives, Terreri said.
Such visits are typically made by an airline before making a final decision on whether to serve a city, he said.
“They look at the airport and they look at the community to really have a dress rehearsal, to make sure that everything is what they’re expecting it to be,” he said.
Terreri said the airline informed the airport in a phone call on June 3 that it had decided to come to Syracuse. A public announcement came June 10.
Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
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Inside the pitch to bring Southwest Airlines to Syracuse: $1M in incentives, research, lobbying - syracuse.com
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