CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Routes World 2022 conference allowed Corpus Christi International Airport Director Kevin Smith to gauge airlines’ interest in bringing routes to the Coastal Bend, and he tells 3NEWS those conversations went very well.
Southern Airways Express, as well as JSX – an airline which specializes in business-class flights with non-stop service to Austin and Dallas’ Love Field -- and JetBlue were just some of the airlines Smith approached.
"I think there are two opportunities to have something before summer,” Smith said. “JSX is one. They’re taking delivery of aircraft starting in March, and they’re looking for routes right now. They are doing route planning for March, so that is a possibility. Breeze (Airways) will be taking delivery of new aircraft in June, so they’re interested in starting working on those route plans for those aircraft.”
He said he was able to speak with representatives from 16 airlines at last week’s conference in Las Vegas.
“(They’re) probably the next logical one, and we’re actually setting up a meeting with them for the second week of November just to continue the conversation,” he said. “But I think one, if not two of those, come to fruition by summer.”
More established airlines told Smith that aircraft deliveries and pilot shortages are limiting what they can do until about 2024.
"We got that grant for any destination to the west and Phoenix is included in that, so we kind of pitched Phoenix to American Airlines, and they hadn’t thought of that before,” Smith said. “So it kind of raised some eyebrows, which is good.”
However smaller airlines, such as Sun Country Airlines, were interested in what CCIA representatives had to say. And Smith said adding that airline is tempting because it is looking at establishing multiple destinations out of CCIA, Smith said.
"Sun Country Airlines -- we talked to them again and they’re going to start actually basing aircraft out of Las Vegas at mid-summer,” Smith said. “They said that once that happens, they would be looking at possibly to a Corpus-to-Las Vegas route. Again, very promising.”
Discussions also took place with Aeromar, a small Mexican carrier.
”There’s a couple of airlines that are interested in an Austin to Corpus (Christi) route,” he said. “Smaller airplanes, but at least that would be great during legislative sessions as well as the average business travelers.”
Former Allegiant president and CEO Andrew Levy took over budget airline Avelo, which Smith said is looking to open a base of operations for the central United States.
”We talked to them at great lengths about making Corpus that base,” he said. “We would love to host that, and we’ve got an (aviation) mechanics school with Del Mar.”
Though a lot of discussions centered around passenger flights, Smith said discussions were also held with cargo carriers such as Amazon, who are running out of space in their DFW, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio warehouses.
”They’re looking for another destination in South Texas to get products not only to us, but to The Valley,” he said. “But, when you look at how much Amazon is delivering in Corpus Christi, there’s a huge checkmark next to our box so they are looking at us for cargo, which would be a huge plus for us.”
Multi-skilled journalist Michael Gibson contributed to this story.