Business and city leaders are telling Continental and United airlines that big projects downtown, and throughout the region, will lead to higher demand at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Billions of dollars in new investment, including a casino and a new convention center, are reasons Continental and United airlines should look to build airline service here, not cut it, business leaders say.
The city and the business community are building a case that the merging airlines should see the Continental hub at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport as a place to profit.
Efforts to build Hopkins' profile were described in detail during a news conference Wednesday, held at the airport following reports that Continental had studied sharp service cuts at its hub.
Continental documents describing the reductions emerged from U.S. District Court in San Francisco, where plaintiffs seek to block the merger with United Airlines.
Continental said the cuts were among a range of "simulations" the airline studied before the merger, including potential growth at Hopkins.
Ricky Smith, chief of the city-owned airport, and Joe Roman, head of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, said during the news conference that they are in constant contact with Continental about the region's future needs.
"We said from the beginning that our goal was to realize an even more profitable situation for air service here," said Roman, head of the partnership, which is Cleveland's chamber of commerce.
Roman showed a chart of $6 billion in new investment in the region, including the downtown projects.
The partnership is studying how the new investments will affect demands on the airport. And the partnership is asking its 16,000 members, travel planners and frequent business flyers to gauge their future use of Hopkins, Roman said.
Roman expects to present the study to Continental later this year.
"We've got a strong market already," Roman said after the news conference. "We want to make sure Continental and United understand our growth potential."
Tom Waltermire, chief executive of Team NEO, said he found little to worry about in the "simulations" that Continental studied.
"The merger itself means change," said Waltermire, whose group leads business attraction in the region. "It can be good or bad, or a mixture. We'll have to wait and see."
Clearly, the prospect of diminished capacity at Hopkins worries business leaders.
A cut in flights "means less direct flights, it means longer flights and maybe higher costs," Waltermire said. "It makes us more like the other cities in the Midwest. Right now, we have an advantage with that Continental hub."
But losing a hub won't upend the local economy, Waltermire said.
"Columbus and Indianapolis don't have hubs," he said, "and last time I checked, they are not doing too badly."
Video: Ricky Smith holds press conference Image may be NSFW.
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Plain Dealer reporter Mark Gillispie contributed to this story.