As plans go, the one unveiled this evening at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington should be quite telling.

From 5:00-7:00pm tonight officials from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport will be on hand to address questions from the public on the airport’s new 20+ year master plan. (No presentation is planned, simply a q/a setting.)

The plan explains the strategic viewpoint of having all airlines operate from the newly renovated (and very traveler-friendly) Concourse A and then demolishing the then vacated Concourse B and the old COMAIR building, Concourse C.

But it’s not the bricks and mortar portion of the plan most people are curious about, as the challenge of bringing in additional air service (especially low lost airlines) remains the biggest issue in the minds of everyone involved. In fact, the governors of both Ohio and Kentucky have made it clear that CVG remains a “top priority” and that everything possible will be done to assist the airport administration team in securing additional air service.

There is a great deal of dialogue going back and forth about securing additional air service, but as we know - talk is cheap and it’s actions that tend to tell the story and unfortunately our actions with regards to low cost carriers is still something which resonates loudly in the minds of many within the airline industry.

We have had numerous airlines of the low cost nature initiate service from CVG, but in each case the community did not support them. Air Tran tried to serve our community in 1995, but Delta lowered their fares to Orlando to compete with the new low cost carrier and the traveling public flew Delta, eagerly collecting their Skymiles, and leaving the new arrival at CVG to try and survive with as few as 19 and 25 passengers per flight (on an aircraft which held 145 people). Air Tran held on for more than two years before deciding to bolster their presence in Dayton, where the community responded in a big-time way, supporting the low cost airline. Frontier and Vanguard also gave CVG a chance and unfortunately met the same fate…a great deal of applause when they arrived followed by mostly empty flights departing from the gate.

Anytime an airline initiates service into a new market, the start-up expenses are incredibly high and it’s hard for airlines like Jet Blue, Vision, Spirit and Southwest to give CVG much consideration because of the history involving low cost carriers here. Why spend so much money initiating service to an airport which has such a negative record in supporting low lost carriers? The answer is - most will not.

However, the actions of Governor Beshear and Governor Kasich could certainly help convince an airline to give CVG a shot, but any such gamble would be a short term one. It would then be up to the community to respond like never before showing whatever airline gives us a chance that we will enthusiastically support their arrival, by using the service they provide.

A strong CVG helps to drive a powerful economic engine that supports the entire tri-state area and everything possible needs to be done to get that engine cranked up again.