The Allegheny County Airport Authority board of directors voted Friday to spend $600,000, half in 2009 and half in 2010, to help promote Delta Air Lines' direct Pittsburgh-to-Paris flight, which begins in June.
The authority, which operates Pittsburgh International Airport, will move $200,000 in real estate marketing money not spent in 2008 to the authority's 2009 marketing budget, said Executive Director Brad Penrod. That, coupled with one-third of authority's main $300,000 annual marketing budget, will be spent to promote Pittsburgh's first trans-Atlantic flight since November 2004.
"We're committing part of our routine marketing effort to the Paris flight," Penrod said. The authority's budget is funded by fees it charges to the 13 commercial airlines operating at the Findlay-based facility.
Delta will begin the five-day per week service June 3. The service will be assessed after the first year, and Gov. Ed Rendell's office and the private Allegheny Conference on Community Development have each said they would pay Delta as much as $2.5 million through June 2011 should the airline fail to make its revenue projections. Each has pledged up to an additional $2 million in the third year, although Allegheny Conference CEO Michael Langley said if the service struggles in the second year, there likely would be no third year.
The authority announced it has rejected two bids made earlier this year for a contract to improve energy efficiency at Pittsburgh International. Penrod said the energy market has changed since the bid proposals were solicited last spring. New bids will likely by due by March 2009, he added.
Troy T. Geanopulos, president of CLT Efficient Technologies Group, said the Carnegie-based company is committed to pursuing the business. James Platz, an executive with rival bidder Siemens Building Technologies Inc. of Bridgeville, declined to comment yesterday.
No comments:
Post a Comment