German airline rejects SRQ service

MANATEE — This Condor won’t be landing at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport anytime soon.

Condor Airlines, a German charter operator, praised SRQ’s recruiting efforts, but recently said it will not launch seasonal service between Frankfurt and the airport next year. Nor will the carrier begin service anywhere along Florida’s Gulf Coast, including Tampa International Airport, in the foreseeable future.

“It’s good to know we’re moving in the right direction, but it’s still disappointing,” Fredrick “Rick” Piccolo, SRQ’s president and chief executive officer, said Tuesday.

SRQ has been wooing Condor for more than four years, hoping that landing trans-Atlantic service would open the door to more international flights. The airport’s only international service now consists of Air Canada flights to Toronto during the winter season.

Earlier this year, SRQ and Condor reached a tentative deal for twice-weekly service using 270-passenger Boeing 767s between April and October in both 2011 and 2012. The airport, along with area tourism boards and local businesses, put $1.7 million in incentives toward the deal.

While the airline called the incentive package “among the most attractive we received,” it said several other factors led to its decision not to fly to SRQ. Among them: the massive Gulf oil spill, low airline profit yields in Florida and unspecified operational issues at SRQ.

“Even that the giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is temporarily out of the news, we have major concerns that over the next few months we’ll experience an aftermath, thus increasing the financial risk of our flights,” wrote Herwig Oberhuber, the airline’s head of planning and international relations, in a Sept. 1 e-mail to SRQ officials.

Airport officials tried to quell those fears, sending Condor numerous media and scientific reports about the region’s oil-free beaches. But Piccolo said he understood the airline’s hesitancy.

“The amount of money they would be risking was tremendous,” he said. “They were worried that if oil shows up April 1 on the shores of Sarasota, then they’ve got a big problem.”

Piccolo said SRQ will continue to woo Condor, drawing encouragement from this line in Oberhuber’s e-mail: “Please rest assured that once requirements change and new destinations are under consideration, flights to Florida’s Gulf Coast will definitely be on our short list.”

Although Florida long has been a popular destination of European tourists, Condor has reduced its operations in the state in recent years.

The airline stopped flying to Fort Lauderdale and Tampa after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and later left airports in Fort Myers and Orlando. Its only Florida presence now is twice-weekly seasonal service from Fort Lauderdale, where it resumed flying in 2009.

Condor, whose official name is Condor Flugdienst GmbH, is a subsidiary of Thomas Cook Group PLC, one of Europe’s largest travel companies.

Duane Marsteller, transportation/growth and development reporter, can be reached at 745-7080, ext. 2630.