National Airlines: Like flying with an old friend

BY RON BEASLEY

Las Vegas always has been an exciting town for me. The thought of going there always gives me jitters of anticipation. So, when my editor gave me the assignment to fly the press junket for National Airlines' new Las Vegas-Miami service, I was beside myself with glee.

Startup National Airlines flies a fleet of Boeing 757 aircraft out of its Las Vegas hub.

National, a Miami-based airline legend until its acquisition by Pan Am in 1979, has been re-configured as a start-up airline with its hub in Las Vegas. The new National began flying in May 1999 with service from Las Vegas to just two markets -- Los Angeles and Chicago. In only eight months, the airline has spread its wings to serve New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth and now Miami.

As a former employee of the old National Airlines, the mention of the name sparks fond images and memories of another day -- L. B. "Bud" Maytag Jr., the dashing young airline President; the strange orange and yellow sunburst logo; the catchy "Fly Me" ad campaign that caused the feminists of the day to go ballistic.

I was pleased to see that old sunburst logo prominently displayed at the boarding gate alongside the colorful ribbon logo of the new National Airlines. It seemed to me that the face in the sunburst was almost smiling.

As the friendly ramp agents and gate personnel checked me in, I was pleased to note that I would be flying on a Boeing 757, my favorite commercial airliner. I also learned that all of National's planes are 757s, that it currently has eight of the aircraft flying, will have 12 in the air by the end of its first year of operation and hoped to be flying a total of 40 of the reliable jets at the end of its five-year plan, serving 25 to 30 major cities in the United States and connecting them all through its Las Vegas hub.
This information was related from a gentleman sitting just behind me in the first-class section shortly after a very smooth take-off from Miami International Airport. The gentleman turned out to be Michael Conway, chairman/president/CEO of National.

"I think it's a special thing for National Airlines to again have a presence -- albeit now a relatively small one [with 30 employees, two flights daily] -- in the Greater Miami area," Conway told me. "It's just a good feeling and I think it's a plus that we've added jobs to Dade County. It's a spoke on our system."

Conway said he was touched by the turnout of former employees of the old National Airlines two days earlier to greet the airline's first flight to Miami from Las Vegas.

"Many of them came out to greet our inaugural flight in their old uniforms," he said. "There were dozens of people, ex-pilots, technicians, flight attendants. It was very touching."

Conway also said he anticipated that much of the passenger traffic coming into Miami from Latin America will continue on to Las Vegas and points on the West Coast via National Airlines. He estimated that National soon will carry 600 passengers a day into and out of Miami International Airport.

"We're offering not only very affordable fares to our Las Vegas hub and points beyond to the West coast, but we're offering the flights at convenient times of day," he said. "And all of our flights are non-stops to and from Las Vegas."

I later learned that a one-way ticket on National Airlines to Las Vegas cost $139, or $278 round-trip. I also found out that you could, for example, make reservations for Los Angeles and stopover in Las Vegas for a few days at no additional airline charge.

Conway said when he conceived the idea for a new airline in 1995, the concept to develop Las Vegas as a hub was not in the plans.

"Our concept always was to link the major U.S. international gateway cities together on a one-stop basis," he said. "We were looking for a city that was fast growing, underserved, not dominated by any single airline, one that in and of itself was a strong destination point. And the answer kept coming up Las Vegas. By some accounts in the travel industry, Las Vegas is now the No. 1 destination in the world in terms of the number of visitors."

The fact that gambling entities Harrah's and Rio anted up $15 million apiece to buy a part of the fledgling airline only served to cement the choice of Las Vegas as home base, Conway said. Then Harrah's and Rio merged, making the company the major stockholder in National Airlines.
After the five-hour, eight-minute flight, the plane lands in Las Vegas and a National Airlines courtesy bus whisked us to Harrah's, where I hung my hat for the three-day stay. No need to collect baggage, as National has a program that allows you to check your bags at departure and have them routed direct to your hotel room.

The airline has established National Flight Centers at Harrah's and the Rio Suites hotels. Luggage is delivered to the centers and a hotel bellmen takes the bags direct to passengers' assigned rooms. Similarly, when departing Las Vegas passengers may check bags at the Centers, get boarding passes and not have to worry about luggage until arrival at their destination airport.

After relaxing a couple of hours in the spacious suite on the 24th floor of a wing at Harrah's, I headed down to try my hand at the Blackjack tables and have dinner. I wandered the casino for perhaps an hour looking for the $2 table, only to find that the $2 bet has gone the way of the buffalo nickel. The minimum bet these days in most casinos is $5. You can still find $2 tables, but they are relatively few and you have to look for them.

Food remains a good bargain in Las Vegas. I had dinner that included a New York strip steak and a half-dozen good-sized shrimp for $9.99 in the hotel's Garden Restaurant. I noted other signs around town and this seems to be the norm for dinner, though there were a couple of hotels offering a meal for $6.99.

The next day, I had the pleasure of meeting with Richard Mirman, a Harrah's marketing vice president, who told me that the gambling company saw its investment in National Airlines as a "strategic alliance."

"Other casinos build a product to attract people," Mirman said. "Harrah's invites people to be guests. We offer our customers deals and discounts, where we invite and bring them to Las Vegas. National Airlines -- as do a number of carriers into other markets -- feeds right into that. If we can extend that relationship to offer an air and

hotel package, and sprinkle complimentaries on top of that to make it more appealing than anything that the customer can see in the Sunday Times, then it's a win-win for all of us.

"National now covers a lot of the key feeder markets into Las Vegas -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York -- areas where we have very good relationships with customers," Mirman continued. "So, it's a synergistic relationship in that we are able to put a lot of our customers on National planes. Similarly, we are able to introduce Harrah's and Rio to customers on those planes who are not our existing customers."

Mirman said Harrah's and National had linked their loyalty programs, which allow a customer to fly National only once or twice a year, for example, and immediately receive and use complimentary bonus points when they come to Harrah's or the Rio Suites. Other airline bonus programs, he said, impose a 25,000 miles-flown stipulation before a customer is allowed to redeem bonus points.

"It's a real good incentive to get customers from the planes into our casinos," Mirman said.

Mirman also pointed out that while Harrah's owned a major share in National, that should not be interpreted as a sign that the airline was a captive of the casino entity.

"I really believe that National will establish itself as Las Vegas' hometown airline," Mirman said. "But, it's not a captive airline; it's not Harrah's airline or Rio's airline. Harrah's has relationships with a number of airlines and it's important for us to maintain a portfolio of relationships with different carriers because of our national distribution. And I think it's important for the health of National Airlines to establish relationships with other casinos in the Las Vegas market."

And, too soon, my mini-vacation was at an end and I was flying back to Miami, again aboard a smooth, quiet National Airlines Boeing 757. Surprisingly, the return flight was made in just four- hours seven minutes, a full hour less than the flight to Las Vegas. The jet stream, they told me, provided the extra push.