Busy Airport Helps Northern Kentucky Soar
Convenience and affordability make CVG ideal for business or personal travel.
Whether it’s for leisure or business, having an airport within close proximity to your home or office is convenient and advantageous.>
A fixture in Northern Kentucky, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) has served area residents since 1947.>
And with its more than 7,700 acres of land, four runways, a diversified base of operations on and near the campus, along with an economic impact of $6.8 billion, its impact, in terms of breadth and depth, is wide.>
One Union, KY, resident who frequents CVG, especially for business travel, is John Hawkins, the CEO of Management Performance International, a human resource and human capital management organization in Cincinnati.>
“I consider myself a pretty avid business traveler,” says Hawkins, who serves clients in 26 U.S. states as well as international clients. “Prior to COVID, I was traveling, on average, 150 days a year.”
Easy & Speedy in Northern Kentucky
So what does this well-seasoned traveler have to say about his experience using CVG?
“I’ve traveled in and out of all the major airports pretty much across the country. I think that CVG is easy to navigate, especially now that they have the lines for TSA PreCheck and CLEAR, so as a business traveler, to me that was really important,” Hawkins says.
TSA PreCheck allows Hawkins, and other qualifying passengers who are considered low-risk, to receive expedited screening, while CLEAR connects travelers’ identities to their biometrics, such as their fingerprints, to speed up their time spent going through security.
In terms of time, this has benefited Hawkins, as he says it only takes about 30 minutes from the time he gets to the airport to when he is sitting waiting for his flight.
“It’s convenient, it’s accessible, you can generally connect to any major city …,” Hawkins says. “And the flight connections are pretty reasonable.”
Another individual who often uses CVG is Dave Heidrich, a commercial real estate professional and CEO at Northern Kentucky-based Zalla Companies. Heidrich considers himself a regular leisure traveler.
Over the last decade, he’s made multiple trips to Africa for mission work, with occasional jaunts to Europe, Mexico and the Caribbean.
He lives about 7 miles from the terminal, which means he doesn’t have to drive far to fly direct to major cities in the U.S. and around the globe.
And when catching a flight, Heidrich has been able to get in and out of the airport easily and quickly, thanks to CVG’s setup and efficiency.
In addition to parking, which Heidrich says CVG has always made easy for travelers, “The speed of getting in and out for the size of the airport is impressive, and you can do so without a massive amount of hassle,” he says.
Affordable Flights at CVG
When it comes to flying, many travelers, whether they are booking a flight on a whim or planning a trip months in advance, do their best to snag flights that won’t break the bank.
Lucky for Northern Kentucky residents, CVG offers many affordable flights.
Hawkins, who, in addition to using the airport for business travel, often flies to Florida for vacations, says “CVG has become more competitive in terms of leisure.”
In fact, data from the U.S. Department of Transportation released in fall 2020 shows how efforts by CVG to lower the cost of flying are paying off. With an average fare of $215, CVG was No. 92 of the 100 top U.S. airports for Q2 2020. CVG’s airfares were the lowest in the region, outperforming the national average of $259.
The airport, which includes the global hub for logistics company DHL, continues to attract development.
Online retail giant Amazon will build its primary Air Hub on the southside of the airfield. Its $1.5 billion investment will ultimately support a fleet of 100+ Prime Air cargo planes and revolutionize the fulfillment industry worldwide.
This move will also enable CVG to continue lowering its landing fees.
“It’s a good airport,” Hawkins says. “It’s continued to reinvent itself based on the changing needs of the community and also industry.”
Want to know more about living in Northern Kentucky? Check out the latest edition of Livability Northern Kentucky.
