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Delta deal is dead giveaway
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July 15, 1999: 4:03 p.m. ET
Airline giving flier miles, free tickets for coffins leaving Daytona Beach
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - In an attempt to dig up more traffic for the struggling Daytona Beach International Airport, Delta Air Lines is trying to drum up a little more business among the dead.
Beginning Aug. 1, the Atlanta-based airline will give funeral directors 500 frequent flier miles for every coffin they ship out of the Volusia County-owned airport. Delta also plans to award two free round-trip tickets to local funeral directors who generate $5,000 in business with the airline during this fiscal quarter.
The program was devised by Dennis McGee, Daytona Beach Airport's director of aviation, as a way to reverse the trend of airlines departing the county airport for the much larger Orlando International Airport an hour down the road.
"It's a great idea," said Big John, a Volusia County Council member. "We have a lot of small airports all around the country that are getting killed by the big guys. This is our attempt to fight back."
As part of the program, the county has agreed to use money from the airport's enterprise fund to reimburse Delta for the frequent flier miles. Last week, Delta offered the free round-trip tickets as an added incentive to liven up the flow of cadavers through the airport.
Area funeral directors were told of the program at a meeting with airport officials last week, a meeting reportedly called to inform business owners that Delta was pulling out of the airport altogether.
That would be a fatal blow to the airport, which now is served by only two airlines -- Delta and Continental -- and offers a mere 8 flights a day, down from its peak of 28 earlier this decade. It also would make life more difficult for area funeral directors, who say they ship roughly 15 percent of their deceased out of state by plane each year.
John said US Airways offered a similar frequent flier program to funeral directors before pulling out of Daytona in 1995. Because of the greater availability of flights through Orlando, the nation's top tourist destination, many area funeral directors began shipping their coffins there instead.
Still, dead bodies remain the number one cargo item out of Daytona Beach each year, so county officials figured the promotion was a good way to begin building revenue again.
"We've struggled a little bit to retain and capture much market position," said David Byron, a spokesman for the county. "So in an effort to make Delta as profitable as we can out of our airport, we've grown a little more aggressive in competing for cadavers. We're doing everything we can to be successful in competing for air service."
Delta (DAL) officials weren't immediately available to comment on the promotion. Area funeral directors said the airline charges roughly $280 to ship a coffin weighing 500 pounds or less anywhere in the country. 
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