Press Release

Luke B. Schmidt, President
L.B. Schmidt & Associates, LLC
502.292.2898

Martin Shearer, Executive Director
Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation
606.678.5000

Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation Launches
Regional Air Travel Survey

Facebook-Driven Survey will Help to Confirm Regional Air Travel Patterns

Kentucky (February 9, 2012) – The Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation today announced the launch of a regional survey of air travelers. The purpose of the survey will be to confirm both existing and future air travel patterns and the demand for passenger airline service in the Somerset region.

During the past two years, community leaders have been working to develop new airline service at the Lake Cumberland Regional Airport (also known by its three letter identification code, SME). This effort has included updating the market profile, establishing a target list of potential providers of commercial air service and recruiting the providers to SME.

“Business and industry leaders throughout the region have asked repeatedly when air service will be restored to SME,” said Martin Shearer, Executive Director of the Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation. “The Foundation recognizes the important role that airline service can play in not only providing a valuable service for our residents, but also in helping to attract new jobs to the region, said Shearer.

As part of its efforts to restore air service at SME, the Foundation retained Louisville-based consulting firm L.B. Schmidt & Associates, LLC to assist in the effort. The consulting firm updated the market profile, which recognizes that the airport will serve 15 Kentucky counties with a combined population of 384,000 people. The firm has also identified several potential providers of air service and has met with each of these companies to introduce the Somerset market. The focus now turns to a regional survey of air travelers to fully understand where people from this region travel to and how often.

“Today, we are announcing the launch of our survey which is open to any and all business and industry representatives, professionals and individuals who travel by air for any reason – business or personal,” said Luke B. Schmidt, consultant to the Foundation. “We have designed a short, easy to complete survey which will help us to understand just where people from this region fly to and how often they fly. And, in order to help drive participation, we are using social media, specifically Facebook, in an effort to reach the largest number of potential users of SME airport,” said Schmidt.

The survey is targeted towards 137,000 Facebook users in the following Kentucky counties: Bell, Casey, Clay, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, Leslie, Lincoln, McCreary, Owsley, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Russell, Wayne and Whitley. The survey can be accessed by visiting https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/somersetairtravelsurvey.

“The survey will help us to better understand the market and the demand for airline service in this region,” said Schmidt. “More importantly, a robust level of participation in the survey will help to match this market to the right provider.”

The survey period opens February 9, 2012 and will conclude on February 24, 2012

The Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation serves as the economic development arm for the Somerset and Pulaski County, Kentucky region. The Foundation facilitates the development of new jobs by recruiting world-class firms to the community and also assists existing business and industry through the expansion of existing facilities. Luke Schmidt provides consulting services to the Foundation in the area of scheduled passenger airline service development.