Shuttle Owner Hopes Firm Will Fly : Van Service to Ontario Airport Gets Discouraging Start

It’s often a lonely 75-minute trip from Costa Mesa to Ontario International Airport for the driver of an Air-Cruises-Tours Shuttle van. Half the time, there are no passengers.

The shuttle is the only regularly scheduled transportation service on the 50-mile run from Orange County to Ontario. But, said Jay Burchett, owner of the 6-week-old firm, business is “a little slower than expected.”

When Burchett arrived Wednesday at the firm’s headquarters on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa, just a few minutes before the scheduled 9:15 a.m. departure, the waiting room was empty. No one rode the van to Ontario, but a lone customer was on board for the return trip. It was a near repeat of the day before: All day Tuesday, the service had only one customer--a passenger who was picked up at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim.

Burchett is not the first to try making money with an Orange County-to-Ontario shuttle. Airport Service Inc. made an attempt, beginning in 1980, that lasted only 18 months before it failed because of a lack of customers.

But Burchett may have an advantage that Airport Service did not. Just this month, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved a promotion campaign designed to steer air travelers away from overcrowded John Wayne Airport to the less-used Ontario terminal. Burchett, who currently has little competition, may benefit from the $120,000 to $329,000 the county will spend on the campaign.

On the average, Burchett said, about 10 passengers a week ride his vans. Already the company has cut its scheduled runs to one round-trip daily, Monday through Friday. When it began Dec. 3, it had two scheduled round trips each day Monday through Saturday. The company operates two vans, one seating seven passengers, the other 12, on the round-trip route. For the company to break even, Burchett said, it must carry 30 passengers, at $16 one way, a week.

The slow business, he maintained, is a temporary slump. It will pick up, he believes, once Orange County residents become aware of the service and discover the benefits of using Ontario over other Southland airports.

In the meantime, Burchett uses the resources from his other business, Newport Boulevard Travel, to support the van service. Some travel agents double as drivers, and the van service and agency operate out of the same building in Costa Mesa.

Burchett cites the advantages of using Ontario International Airport: It offers more flights to more places than John Wayne, often at lower prices, and it is less hectic than Los Angeles International, where passengers must walk farther to departure gates and wait longer to claim their baggage.

As part of the supervisors’ plan to alleviate congestion at John Wayne, the board formed a committee to raise funds for the Ontario promotion campaign from businesses--including developers and airlines--that would benefit from it. Burchett said he will participate “without a doubt” but that he has not yet determined the amount of his contribution.

Steve Kozak, plans and programs officer for John Wayne Airport, suggested that a side effect of the county’s proposed “Ontario Awareness” project may be to boost the business of Burchett’s van service.

Burchett said, however, that although he would welcome any gain in passenger traffic from the county’s efforts, he is not counting on it. He is printing 15,000 advertising brochures, which will be distributed to hotels in the county, to travel agents and to Alaska Airlines, which flies out of Ontario and has bought advertising space in the handout. In addition, Burchett said, his firm hopes to persuade airlines to advertise the van service as part of a transportation package.

Robert Payton, group vice president of Basso & Associates, the Costa Mesa-based advertising and public relations agency the county hired to plan the Ontario Awareness program, said the company’s researchers recognized “a need for efficient, reliable scheduled ground transportation” from Orange County to Ontario.

Payton said the researchers expect the greatest demand for bus service to Ontario to be from the urban centers in northern Orange County that are closest to Ontario, particularly from residents and businesses near the Anaheim Convention Center.

Burchett’s shuttle service runs from Costa Mesa, which is within five miles of John Wayne Airport. It normally drives nonstop to Ontario Airport.

With advance notice, however, the vans will stop at the Anaheim Marriott or at the Amtrak station at Anaheim Stadium. For an extra $4.50, Burchett said, Air-Cruise-Tours will pick up customers within a five-mile radius of the Newport Boulevard headquarters. Outside the five-mile radius, he added, the charge increases to as much as $11. He also said the company can provide customer parking for up to 40 cars for about $4.50 a day.

Other options for an Orange County resident wanting to get to Ontario International without driving are more expensive, if more luxurious, than the shuttle. Limousine and charter van services charge more, partly because they pick up and drop off customers at their homes. Two on-call van services, for example, charge $39 and $44 each way between Orange County and Ontario.

Neither the Orange County Transit District nor the Anaheim-based Airport Service Inc., which transports passengers to and from Los Angeles International, offers regularly scheduled transportation to Ontario. However, by special arrangement, groups of five or more can ride an Airport Service bus to Ontario from John Wayne Airport for $13 a person and from Anaheim for $9.80 a person.

Burchett isn’t likely to get more competition soon. Transit District spokeswoman Joanne Curran said the district has no plans to initiate regular service to Ontario Airport. “The demand isn’t really there that we can see. It may be in the future,” she said.

Airport Service’s venture on the route was disheartening. During its 18-month operation, the number of daily round trips was cut to three from 10 before it was dropped. Don Boyles, president of Airport Service Inc., said he began the experimental service between Orange County and Ontario because county officials were considering underwriting such a service.

$280,000 Loss

Despite extensive advertising and promotion, Boyles said, the 45- and 53-passenger buses used on the route attracted, on the average, only three passengers on each one-way trip. The experiment resulted in a $280,000 operational loss for Airport Service.

“The lesson we learned is that the public still preferred to go to Los Angeles International Airport” rather than to Ontario, said Boyles, whose firm operates regularly scheduled buses to Los Angeles International from terminals within a 60-mile radius of that airport. “It is very difficult to coerce the public to do anything they don’t perceive to be in their best interest,” he added.

Burchett’s experiences on the route are becoming expensive too. He figures that each one-way trip between Costa Mesa and Ontario without passengers costs him $50 for gasoline, the driver’s salary and insurance.

The losses were the primary reason for the service cutback. “We don’t want to go broke,” he said. The regularly scheduled service leaves Costa Mesa at 9:15 a.m. and arrives in Ontario at 10:30 a.m. Return service leaves Ontario at 11 a.m. and arrives in Costa Mesa at 12:15. Six other round-trips at different times are available on weekdays by reservation. There is no regularly scheduled trip on Saturdays, but reservations can be made a day ahead for service. No trips are made on Sundays.

The service also offers some amenities to its customers. A waiting room, furnished with 15 patio chairs, is stocked with coffee, cookies, newspapers and a video screen showing travelogues.

The waiting room seems superfluous at this point, but Burchett still talks optimistically. He said he expects business to improve shortly as satisfied customers spread the word. He envisions eventually expanding the service to three satellite “hubs” in other parts of Orange County. In three to four years, he said, he hopes to carry 800,000 travelers a year.

But for now, “we are 6 weeks old and still crawling.”