Airtran 2008 Annual Report Download - page 11

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 11 of the 2008 Airtran annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 124

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124

In 2008, we increased service to a number of existing locations and added five new cities: Burlington, Vermont;
Columbus, Ohio; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; San Antonio, Texas; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In the fourth
quarter of 2008, we announced service to Cancun, Mexico, which is expected to commence February 25, 2009.
We also announced service to Branson, Missouri, which is expected to commence May 11, 2009.
Since 2000, we have expanded the scope of our route structure to include coast-to-coast flying and have
increased the number of flights both from our Atlanta hub as well as from other airports. Also, we have
expanded our route structure by increasing the amount of non-Atlanta related operations from approximately ten
percent of our daily operations as of December 31, 2001, to approximately 38 percent of daily operations in
January 2009 (see table below). Much of this diversification was done through the addition of nonstop service
to the state of Florida. In the future, we may selectively add new “point-to-point” routes between cities that we
currently serve, as well as create additional hubs or additional “focus” cities similar to our operations at Orlando
and Baltimore/Washington. We have announced that our presence in Milwaukee will increase significantly in
2009.
Airport
Daily
Operations*
Nonstop
Markets
Served
% of System
Daily Flights*
Atlanta (ATL) 433 54 62%
Orlando (MCO) 126 31 18%
Baltimore-Washington (BWI) 90 17 13%
Fort Myers (RSW) 50 12 7%
Tampa (TPA) 40 10 6%
Fort Lauderdale (FLL) 40 7 6%
Milwaukee (MKE) 38 8 5%
Boston (BOS) 36 6 5%
New York (LGA) 35 6 5%
Chicago (MDW) 30 4 4%
Indianapolis (IND) 28 6 4%
Philadelphia (PHL) 20 2 3%
* Operations is defined as the number of take-offs and landings at each city; percentage of system flights will
be greater than 100%
Increase Sales through Our Web site. We utilize the Internet as an integral part of our distribution network and
emphasize our Web site, http://www.airtran.com, prominently in all of our marketing. Sales booked directly on
http://www.airtran.com represent our most cost-effective form of distribution. In addition to being user-friendly
and simple, our Web site is designed to sell tickets efficiently. We continue to add functionality to
http://www.airtran.com that allows customers to easily book and manage their travel including the ability to
retrieve and change future flight reservations, make seat selection and check-in online. We also launched new
alternate forms of payment, including Bill Me Later and PayPal, in order to ensure we are meeting our
customers’ needs. Sales through http://www.airtran.com produced 58 percent of our revenues during 2008.
Utilize New and Modern Fleet. Our entire fleet is comprised of B717 and B737 aircraft. We had a combined
total of 136 aircraft on February 2, 2009, with an average fleet age among the lowest in the industry at 5.6
years.
We were the launch customer for the B717 in 1999, which was designed specifically for efficient short-haul
service. As of February 2, 2009, our fleet included 86 B717 aircraft. Although Boeing discontinued the
production of the aircraft in 2006, we believe the B717 remains well suited for the short-haul, high-frequency
service that we operate and provides operating efficiencies which support our low cost structure.
3