I like Duluth International Airport, it is one of my favorite airports in the world really and I’ve never flown out of there. Duluth strikes me as a plucky little contender that wants to hit above its weight. I subscribe to their email list and frequently get updates on them adding new destinations, frequencies, and even airport sponsored promotions. Only Allegiant, Delta, and United have scheduled service, but the airport tries hard to give people incentive to fly with them instead of driving to MSP. Duluth is a small airport and is more likely to have higher fares, but they offer unique benefits to help draw in customers.
 |
| DLH, Trying innovative ways to grow traffic |
Here are some examples of how Duluth tries to grab customers and attention. They give United passengers three days of free parking, a big step to help bring down the total cost of a trip. They run frequent promotions for free tickets. I got one in my inbox today to promote the Allegiant flights and a few weeks ago, they were giving away United tickets to celebrate the two year anniversary of service to ORD. They are also building a new terminal to enhance the passenger experience. This is most likely a giant waste of money due to the low traffic numbers and the existing terminal seemed fine anyway (see Indianapolis for a larger scale example), but is another way they are trying to pull in customers. Plucky little Duluth airport is fun to follow and I’d like to see more airports try to compete with innovative and creative solutions.
