Dubuque Looks to Expand Its Unique Marketing Plan with SCASDP

(MoneyWatch)  This is part of my week-long look at the 2008 Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) applications. Monday, I wrote about Elko's bid to support a new Reno flight. Yesterday I wrote about Escanaba's fight for marketing funds.

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You probably don't exactly imagine Dubuque, Iowa to be a hotbed of innovation, and that's why you might be surprised to see what they're doing with their air service marketing program. Their proposal for $500,000 in SCASDP funds (PDF) looks to improve upon the airport's version of a frequent flier program.

We always think of airlines as having frequent flier programs, but why not airports? Dubuque has created the FlyDBQ program and this grant will help enhance it. Right now, when you sign up for the program, you get coupons from local businesses. The more you fly, the more coupons you get. About half of the money being requested in this grant will go to enhancing the program with airfare and parking rebates.

The first 25 people to buy tickets during each promotional period (monthly, I think), will get a $250 gift certificate to use on a future flight from the airport. There will also be parking rebates that will enable those 25 winners to get 4 free days of parking.

I'm not sure if this is how I'd structure the program myself, but it's an interesting idea that should be encouraged to see if it can be successful. At the very least, it gets people looking at flights from Dubuque instead of just skipping to the nearest big city airport. I give these guys credit for trying something different, and the SCASDP should supports efforts like this.