Arizona officials pitch Gary flights

A crew of five from Mesa, Ariz., is spending three days this week dropping in on travel agents from South Bend to Joliet, promoting SkyValue airlines, which on Dec. 15 starts flights from Gary to Mesa.

"Just as Gary is in the shadow of Chicago, Mesa is in the shadow of Phoenix," said Robert Brinton, executive director of the Mesa Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Mesa is getting aggressive about marketing SkyValue because it will be the first flying full-size passenger jets into Williams Gateway Airport on a regular schedule, Brinton said.

"When you talk about a Boeing 737 from the Midwest carrying 174 people, that takes Williams to another level," Brinton said.

SkyValue is also flying from Gary to Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, St. Petersburg/Tampa and Orlando. The airline is a spinoff of U.K.-based SkyValue, which flies charters to vacation destinations.

In addition to pushing the attractions of Mesa and Arizona, Brinton and his team are telling travel agents about the 10 percent commission SkyValue is paying agents for booking passengers. Direct ticket commissions, once an important source of travel agency revenues, have virtually disappeared from the domestic airline scene.

"They're gone, they're history," said Mary Jo Bryan, of Bryan's Travel Inc., in Portage. "That's a good thing if they keep it up."

Bryan's Travel has only booked a handful of people so far on SkyValue, but Bryan expects business to pick up once the first flights take off. She was one of dozens of travel agents Brinton called on Monday.

"When people come back from their flight and say, 'Oh my gosh it was so great,' that's when it happens," Bryan said.

The Arizona Office of Tourism is also in on this week's effort, with marketing specialist Kristy Swanson calling on the University of Notre Dame and South Bend area travel agencies Tuesday. She was in Chicago's south suburbs Wednesday.

"This is good for the whole state," Swanson said Wednesday morning before heading out from the Gary airport.

Swanson is touting Mesa as a gateway to Tucson, just an hour-and-a half away, Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon and other Arizona destinations.

Of course, people can also access all those destinations from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Midway and O'Hare send 30 flights a day there.

Brinton is pitching the free parking and hassle-free terminals at Williams Gateway and Gary/Chicago International as convenient alternatives to big airports like Midway, O'Hare and Phoenix.

SkyValue is now promoting free flights for a companion for round-trip tickets purchased for its first four days of flights. The cheapest round-trip ticket is $158. There are additional fees of up to $31.80 for taxes, security fees and booking.

SkyValue is no longer releasing how many reservations have been made, but at last count about 10,000 seats were booked, according to SkyValue senior vice president Gabrielle Griswold.

The airline has set up two systems for paying travel agents commissions, Griswold said. One is through the Airline Reporting Corp. (ARC) system, which cuts commission checks every 10 days. The other way is for the agent to register with SkyValue, and commission checks will be sent every 15 days.

The commissions paid to travel agents have no effect on the price of tickets for flyers, Griswold said.