Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Air Service Marketing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Consultants brief board on air‑service trends, marketing strategy and DOT grant use
Summary
Valer Aviation Consulting told the Hilton Head Airport Board Nov. 21 that long-term pilot retirements and equipment allocation influence service; the consultants urged growing shoulder-season demand and described DOT grant-funded inbound marketing and local digital targeting.
Consultants from Valer Aviation Consulting presented an air-service industry update and a marketing plan to the Hilton Head Island Airport Board on Nov. 21, outlining why airlines allocate equipment the way they do, why the island's runway limits carrier equipment choices, and how the airport intends to use grant and local funds to grow shoulder-season service.
Mike Mooney, a managing partner of Valer Aviation Consulting, summarized national trends: the temporary easing of pilot shortages masks a longer-term retirement curve, pilot productivity remains below pre-pandemic levels, and network carriers now chase upscale leisure travel as business travel has not fully returned. Mooney said larger aircraft are appearing in state markets in part because smaller regional types are aging out. "The demographic curve of retirements of gray-haired men and women who've been flying airplanes for 30 or 40 years is still ahead of the new hire curve," he said.
Mooney and Elizabeth Flores — an air-service marketing lead with Valer — reviewed South Carolina and Hilton Head metrics. Statewide TSA screening and seat-capacity data showed roughly 10% growth in traffic and capacity in 2024 compared with 2023, consultants said. For Hilton Head specifically, consultants noted eight nonstop destinations in 2024 and explained that runway length limits prevent some ultra-low-cost carriers' larger aircraft from operating to the island. Mooney urged a short-term strategy focused on lengthening service in the shoulder seasons while longer-term infrastructure (runway extension) and fleet allocations evolve.
Flores described marketing tactics: a roughly $100,000 annual airport marketing budget supplemented by Town ATAX, State ATAC, H-tax funds, and a Department of Transportation small community air service development grant. She said the DOT-funded campaign must highlight the airport on Hilton Head Island (not Savannah) and target high-potential out-of-market geographies digitally (examples cited: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York/DC area) using ticket/ARC and leakage studies to demonstrate demand to airlines. "A lot of the messaging tied to the grant was that we wanted to distinguish the airport as being the airport located on Hilton Head Island," Flores said.
Board members asked detailed questions about the data sources, correlations between second-home ownership and travel patterns, booking-site behavior (Kayak vs. airline websites), and whether aircraft-size options make certain city pairs infeasible. Consultants described how ticket-lift and ARC data can be merged into leakage studies to show catchment-area demand and advised continued partnership with local resort and tourism partners to supplement airline-case-making with aggregated resort booking data.
What happens next: staff and consultants will continue targeted marketing and data work heading into the new terminal opening, and board members were asked to continue advocacy for funding and tourism partnerships that support air service growth.
Speakers quoted or referenced in this article include Mike Mooney and Elizabeth Flores of Valer Aviation Consulting and the airport director and board members (by role).
