American Airlines will bestow its “Customer Cup” on its Traverse City Cherry Capital Airport staff – the very week the airline has started utilizing a larger jet for travel in and out of town.

The Ticker caught up with Cherry Capital Executive Director Kevin Klein about the award, the larger jet service, and if or when a discount airline is headed to Traverse City.

Ticker: Tell us about the new aircraft and why it’s significant.
Klein: What’s new for Traverse City is the American Airlines CRJ-700, which is a 66-seat aircraft with a first class cabin. Currently those routes are handled by an Embrair 145 with 50 seats and no first class. The main reason for it is American’s presence in the Traverse City market has grown. Their passenger growth year-to-date has grown 27 percent, and they see more passengers flying on American and see demand for it. Of course it’s perfect timing – though totally unrelated – to the award!

Ticker: So American’s traffic in Traverse City is growing. What about the other carriers?
Klein: We are up 6.6 percent year-to-date for all traffic, so we are gaining traffic. Delta is down a little this year, or relatively flat. United is up…but American has been rocking and rolling.

Ticker: How was summer traffic specifically at the airport?
Klein: June was actually a rough month, with I think 22 cancellations due to weather, so that hurt our numbers. Overall we were down a half percent on total movement in June, but that came back in July up 3 percent. I don’t have August yet but I’m thinking it will be about the same. So overall we had a really good summer.

Ticker: What about the award?
Klein: It’s an American Airlines corporate award they are giving to their ramp and customer service agents who work here. It’s based on customer service surveys and feedback. And American’s main focus has been working on reliability, on-time performance. I went online to see all the things they do with these awards, and it’s pretty cool. We beat out some other impressive airports, so we’re proud [Other airports competing for the award in the same category include Colorado Springs, Green Bay, Santa Barbara, Flint, and Marquette, among others].

Ticker: What about the recent grants you received for repaving the runways?
Klein: The total grant was $1.638 million. $1.47 was federal, and the state put in $81,900 and the airport put in $81,900. We received the money here in August and Elmer’s has gone to work. If the weather holds off, hopefully we can complete the paving by this weekend. Then we do the paint markings and the pavement has to sit for 30 days. Then we return in mid-October to put the grooving into the asphalt.

Ticker: When was the last time this was done?
Klein: Twenty-two years ago was last time. 

Ticker: How realistic is it to believe a discount airline would start service to Traverse City in the next few years?
Klein: We meet with the carriers all the time, and we’ve had some serious looks from carriers like Allegiant and Sun Country. But realistically, it comes down to population. Our population has to grow to achieve their business models. So until then I think it’s hopeful, but I don’t see someone knocking on the door or coming in in the next year or so. Of course in the summer we have the population they desire, but in the middle of winter we don’t.

Ticker: What area and what population are they looking at?
Klein: We look at from Sault Ste. Marie to Wexford County. Northwest lower and the Eastern UP. In that region we have about 790,000 people. It’s hard…most carriers want one million or more on a consistent, year-round basis.”