VISIONS AIRLINES HAS BIG PLANS FOR NW FLORIDA

Vision Airlines seems to love our area. So much, they are seriously looking to move their maintenance facility to the Northwest Florida Regional Airport (Fort Walton Beach). As you know with this type of decision, more jobs, more houses, more everything needed for this group and their support casts of subcontractors. As noted below, and what we have been seeing in our area, they have made a significant impact on tourist and military travelers coming and going from our area. Stay tuned, I believe you will like what is on the horizon. The question now is. Are you in the game or watching from the sidelines?

A business with FORESIGHT
From flights over the Grand Canyon to commercial service to the Caribbean, Vision Airlines has plotted a strategic course
By DUSTY RICKETTS
Northwest Florida Daily News 315-4448 dricketts@nwfdailynews.com  
Vision Airlines is the newest lowcost air carrier at Northwest Florida Regional Airport, offering direct flights to 15 cities and several others by connections. Although it does not have the name recognition of Delta, United or Southwest, Vision is not a flyby-night carrier that came out of nowhere. In almost 20 years, Vision Airlines has grown from a tour business that exclusively flew over the Grand Canyon with a single nine-seat prop plane and five employees to a business with more than 30 planes in its scheduled commercial flight, charter, tour and government contract business and more than 650 employees. The number of passengers served has jumped from about 30,000 in 1994 to more than 1 million last year. “While the scheduled business is certainly a very key component of the growth of our company, we still have the other revenue streams,” said David Meers, Vision’s chief operating officer. “We have our Grand Canyon tour business, we have our government services business, we have our charter business and then our scheduled business. We really diversify our revenue streams four different ways. “We’re just looking forward to building a long-term relationship with each of the communities that we serve,” he added. “We’ve put a lot of focus and energy into the Destin/Fort Walton Beach area and we plan to be there for a long time to come.” Eight months after starting service locally, Vision has helped Northwest Florida Regional break passenger records the past three months and has driven the need for the airport to go forward with building a new restaurant. On Thursday, Vision served its 100,000th passenger at Northwest Florida Regional. “(The Destin area) is the second most popular drive-in market in the state of Florida and part of that I believe is there’s never been a great air alternative to get there,” Meers said. “Historically, you’ve had to fly through congested hub airports or pay extremely high airfares and have long layovers. It was a situation where we saw an opportunity.”
First flight
Vision Airlines was started in 1994 by brothers Bill and Steve Acor as a tour company flying over the Grand Canyon. Initially, Vision took on passengers who could not get on flights offered by other tour operators. The small business grew rapidly. “One airplane became two airplanes, which became four airplanes, which became eight airplanes,” Meers said. “Once we got to critical mass with about eight airplanes, the company started marketing itself directly to the consumers and the tour operators that had folks buying Grand Canyon tours. Eventually, it grew into about 20 airplanes.” With the Grand Canyon tours doing big business, Vision transitioned away from its nine-seat, twin engine piston planes to 19-seat Dornier 228 aircraft, which not only held more people but also flew faster and smoother. In the late ’90s the company expanded again, operating a Boeing 737 as a charter business that catered to musicians on tour, sports teams and politicians. Its clients have included Jimmy Buffett and Paul McCartney. About the same time Vision’s leaders started looking at becoming a commercial airline with scheduled flights such as Delta, United and other airlines.
Darkest day
On Sept. 11, 2001, four planes hijacked by terrorists changed aviation forever and almost closed Vision Airlines. “We lost almost 80 percent of our business overnight because most of the folks taking the Grand Canyon tours were foreign travelers,” Meers said. “After 9/11, the visas available to foreign travelers dried up.” After the attacks, a 737 airplane became a possible weapon of mass destruction and regulations on companies operating those aircraft became very strict. Vision’s workforce, which had been in the hundreds right before 9/11, shrank to a low of 47 after the terrorist attacks. But business slowly returned and eventually Vision was able to sign contracts for its 737 and 767 charter business with the Beau Rivage casino in Biloxi, Miss., college sports teams and even the U.S. Immigration and Customs agency for trips to Cuba on a regular basis. “As the company evolved, we had very steady charter work, our Grand Canyon tour business rebounded and came back and we had our programs with the U.S. government,” Meers said. “It felt like it was important not to always depend on someone else selling a charter for us, so we made the decision to go into the scheduled airline business on a paced, relatively slow growth basis.” In late 2009, representatives from Vision Airlines had their first face-to-face meetings with Greg Donovan and Mike Stenson with Northwest Florida Regional at a conference of the Airports Council International in San Diego. “With business development with airports, I firmly believe that growing something versus trying to shift a product from one side to the east or west of our community is the way to go,” said Donovan, Okaloosa County’s airports director. On Dec. 13 of last year, Vision started its first scheduled commercial route to and from Louisville, Ky., and Atlanta. Three days later it started limited service from Northwest Florida Regional to Miami and Niagara Falls, N.Y. Since then, Vision has expanded its service to many more cities, although not all destinations have worked out. Niagara Falls was discontinued after the close of the winter snowbird season, and the Miami flights were canceled and replaced with Fort Lauderdale. Today is the final day for flights to Huntsville, Ala., Baton Rouge, La., Savannah, Ga., and Columbia and Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C. “I think Vision in particular, it’s a very dynamic industry and they’re going to fly routes that make the most money for them and that’s what good businesses do,” Donovan said. “They dial in what works and they refine their product to optimal profitability. I think as a community we’re going to be the beneficiaries of that business model.”
Vision of the future
Vision Airlines currently flies from Orlando to Brazil with its charter business. The airline’s charter business is growing as it was recently signed by Fun Jet Vacations to start flying to Cancun, Montego Bay nd Punta Cana from St. Louis starting in December. On its scheduled flights, Meers said Vision is on track to have more than 500,000 enplanements this year. Vision will begin service to Grand Bahama International Airport on Nov. 14. While the airline will not offer direct service to the Bahamas from Northwest Florida Regional, locals can fly to Fort Lauderdale and on to the Bahamas without changing planes. Vision also is looking at ways to improve its service out of Northwest Florida Regional. The airline is developing its winter schedule and is considering bringing back the Niagara Falls flights. “It was marginally successful,” Meers said of the previous Niagara Falls flights. “It was horrible in the beginning and it got better in the end. “Right now we are still evaluating Niagara, we haven’t made a decision,” he added. Regardless of what happens with the Niagara Falls flights, Meers said the airline is looking at new markets for Northwest Florida Regional. He said new destinations likely would not start until next spring. While no decisions have been made, he mentioned Cincinnati as a possible destination. “We’re going to continue to evaluate new cities and new opportunities and we’ll continue to evaluate the current markets we’re in to make sure we don’t stub our toe somewhere, and we have to make sure all of our routes stay viable,” Meers said. “We will add flights probably to other cities in Florida. “We’ve invested a significant amount of money to build our brand there and we wouldn’t have done that if we didn’t intend to be there long term,” he added. Vision also is likely to move more of its business operations to Florida and possibly Northwest Florida Regional. Vision has its fleet maintenance facility in Louisville, but it is not large enough to house the airline’s 737s or 767s without some fancy maneuvering. Meers said the airline has had preliminary discussions about housing the facility at Northwest Florida Regional. Vision also has looked at St. Petersburg and Orlando, and Meers said there are a few other places it wants to consider. The fleet maintenance facility would bring 80 to 100 jobs to the area immediately and much more work through contract employees, Meers said. A decision on where they plan to move the facility is expected in the next 90 to 120 days. “We are 99 percent sure the facility will be in the state of Florida,” Meers said. “The climate there with the governor is great. It’s open for business and as a result we want to support that and be a part of that.”