Glo Airlines, the New Orleans-based regional carrier that began service just three months ago, is expanding its service along the Gulf Coast, adding flights between New Orleans and Destin-Fort Walton, Florida, as well as between Little Rock and Destin-Fort Walton. The new service, announced earlier this month, will run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from March 25 to Sept. 5.
Glo founder and CEO Trey Fayard says the upstart airline, which currently services New Orleans, Little Rock, Shreveport and Memphis with three, Saab 340B aircraft, has plans to expand still more and would like to eventually add Baton Rouge to its list of destinations, but has no immediate plans to do so.
“We see potential in Baton Rouge,” Fayard says. “I’ve had extensive discussions with Anthony Marino and Jim Caldwell at the airport there. We stay in good communication … maybe in phase two of our expansion you’ll see Baton Rouge, but not immediately.”
Glo was founded to provide service to underserved markets in the Gulf South region. As the nation’s major air carriers have merged over the past two decades, small and medium-sized markets have been squeezed out, leaving travelers in those cities with increasingly fewer options.
For Baton Rouge, the problem is particularly acute. A recent study identified passenger “leakage” to New Orleans and other airports as one of the biggest problems—and one that is self perpetuating: the more passengers use New Orleans, the less demand exists in Baton Rouge for additional service, which is what airline want to see before adding flights to a market.
More than 60% of travelers in the Baton Rouge area opt to use airports outside the city, according to the report.
Still, Fayard believes Baton Rouge Metro Airport can develop a niche as a medium-sized airport catering to business travelers.
“Baton Rouge has two things going for it that will never really go away—the state capital and LSU—and it’s really thought of as more of a business destination than a leisure one,” Fayard says. “Being a business-focused airport is not a bad thing because you can command more premium fares. It’s just a matter of attracting the flights to where people want to go.”
—Stephanie Riegel
