Vision Airlines Announces It Will No Longer Use Toledo Express Airport

Vision Airlines began a Toledo, Ohio - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina flight path less than a month ago. Yet, it recently announced that it will soon be leaving Ohio's Toledo Express Airport, reports USA Today .

The carrier began the route on June 1, and is discontinuing it after its last flight on June 29 due to poor sales.

The Toledo Blade website reports that in a statement, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority said,"Despite the port authority's efforts to support this service -- through waiving off all airport fees, including landing fees and terminal use fees, and an aggressive advertising and marketing campaign -- the traveling public did not support the route to the level necessary to maintain this air service."

The "agressive advertising and marketing campaign" mentioned in the statement cost the Port Authority an estimated $36,000, according to spokeswoman Holly Kemler

Not everyone at the agency understands the decision. "This was shocking to us," said the chairman of the port authority board of directors' airport committee, Jerry Chabler. He told the Blade,"It was almost like the movie 'Runaway Bride' -- we've been jilted. I don't think Vision gave it enough time, only a month. He admits, however, that local travelers need "to step up to the plate" and book flights on Toledo's carriers if they want airline service to remain viable in Toledo.

Indeed, Vision Airlines is not the first carrier to discontinue service to that airport. Many carriers who have not stopped using the airport have decreased the number of flights to that location. Currently, only American and Allegiant use the airport, and the choices of flights are limited. As USA Today reports, "American's American Eagle unit offers four daily round-trips to Chicago O'Hare while Allegiant offers a handful of weekly flights between Toledo and airports in Florida."

Some of the lack of sucess at the Toledo Express terminal appears to be bad luck. In 2009, the airport was expecting to host the inaugural flight of JetAmerica, a new, start-up airline, but the company went out of business a month before their first flight was supposed to take off. Most recently, Toledo was affected when Direct Air shutdown.

Then again, the Toledo Express Airport is not the only destination that Vision Airlines has found to be unprofitable. The company attempted service from the Bahamas, but stopped that after a short time period. This past May, it dropped many of the routes it had announced as being part of the company's massive expansion.