Airport optimism good for all
Altoona-Blair County Airport Manager Tracy Plessinger delivered a message to the airport authority on Dec. 11 full of optimism and evidence of how airport leadership has poised the air facility for the future.
But perhaps unbeknownst to him at the time, he also made the best of the opportunity to deliver a scope of understanding beneficial to entities well beyond the specific environs within which the airport is headquartered and conducts operations.
The important question then is whether enough non-airport entities grasped the wider reference of what Plessinger outlined and, better yet for those who did, how they intend to use that information for the maximum benefit of themselves.
There is plenty of the proverbial food for thought available, actually, to anyone who serves customers individually or by way of other, broader-functioning entities.
Today we will concentrate on some of the good, important things encompassing the Martinsburg-area airport’s basic mission of moving people to and from sought-after destinations, whether those destinations be for business, recreation, some charitable purpose or whatever other goal is at the center of their individual intention or attention.
The airport is where it is to serve, and it is notable how it is responding to that challenge.
Consider some of the data by which Plessinger offered proof of how the airport is improving its customer service mission and thus, presumably, its financial bottom line as well.
Much of that data — better described as accomplishments — can be characterized accurately as impressive.
For example, according to Plessinger, local air carrier Contour Airlines carried 1,591 passengers to and from the airport in November. That number was up 26% from October and up 134% from last year, he said.
However, the picture gets even better. According to the airport manager, Contour’s overall completion rate for November was 100%, “marking a two-month period without any flight delays or cancellations at the airport.”
Avoiding delays and the upheavals that cancellations oftentimes bring is sound business practice for all enterprises.
Every year at this time, with the year-end holidays just ahead, the Mirror calls attention to the generally commendable customer service that exists in and around the city, as well as in the county’s outlying areas. And, that quality customer service isn’t just in play for Black Friday.
So it is that a commitment to customer service excellence exists in all aspects of the airport operation, not only for the air travel itself.
Based on Plessinger’s report and the traveling public’s obvious confidence in what the airport has to offer, the best advice for the airport at this time is simple:
“Continue doing what you are and have been doing, but never stop trying to do it better, even if you think you’re already doing things the best way that you can.”
That’s not only good advice for Plessinger and others who work directly at the airport; it’s good advice also for the airport authority members, whose dedication to purpose and cooperation with one another keeps intact a strong foundation for furthering the airport’s success story.
“Year over year, we’re doing really well,” Plessinger said, while giving his monthly report to the authority.
The airport’s new Charlotte, N.C., route might someday be classified as a godsend. For now, though, suffice to say, borrowing from a major air carrier’s message of the past, that it is a good time to enjoy the friendly skies of Altoona-Blair County and Contour.