City of Wichita Unveils Fair Fares to Great Places Campaign

Date: January 13, 2004
Name: Jessica Johnson, Marketing Services Director
Phone: (316) 268-4351
E-mail: JJJohnson@wichita.gov

City of Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans unveiled a statewide advertising campaign Monday designed to take the Fair Fares campaign to the next level. Its goal is to increase the number of passengers using Mid-Continent Airport in hopes of attracting more discount airlines and more nonstop flights to top destinations. The new campaign marks a deliberate move on behalf of the City to reach beyond the metro area and persuade residents who live outside of Wichita to fly Mid-Continent Airport.

"Fair Fares is working," Mayor Carlos Mayans said. "We have convinced most Wichitans to stop driving to Kansas City. Now we need to take the campaign one step further and make Mid-Continent the airport of choice for most Kansans. It is important - not just for Wichita’s economic development, but for the entire State as well."

The new campaign, "Fair fares to great places," targets Wichita and 13 communities in a two-hour drive radius beyond the city limits. From outdoor billboards, radio spots and newspaper ads to messages on gas pumps and in high school sports programs, the $300,000 campaign uses traditional and nontraditional forms of advertising.

"The goal is to reach as many people as creatively and as economically as possible," said Jessica Johnson, marketing services director. "We know that people in communities such as Salina have a choice for their air service - and right now, many outside our metro area have chosen Kansas City. This ad campaign communicates that Wichita is closer, competitive in pricing and offers access to great cities."

The advertisements feature road signs denoting mileage to popular destinations, such as Las Vegas or New York City. Instead of posting the actual mileage to the destination city, the mileage reflects the distance to Mid-Continent Airport.

The new advertising campaign is an expansion of the Fair Fares campaign that launched December 2001 and attracted discount airlines AirTran Airways, Frontier JetExpress and Allegiant Air to Mid-Continent Airport. As a result, traffic has increased more than 25 percent from 2001 to 2003, and conservative estimates state that passengers have saved $85 million on airfares.

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For digital files of the advertising campaign, please contact Jennifer Sebits at Jennifer.Sebits@shscom.com or (316) 263-0124.

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