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Longtime Shaker Heights shopping center is getting a drastic transformation in $70M project — P. 4 The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission’s 79-member board has a new leader, same mission — P. 5
Hopkins can soar again Litigators Traffic is down 17% since United departure, but rebound ‘takes time’ By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
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Air service from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport hasn’t returned to the level it was a year ago, before United Airlines closed its hub in Cleveland. Between November 2013 and November 2014, passenger traffic through Cleveland Hopkins International Airport has fallen more than 17%, according to tabulations by the city of Cleveland-run airport. The United flights that accounted for much of that decline, which carried many travelers flying into Cleveland only so they could change planes for their ultimate destination, will never return. But since United’s announcement on Feb. 2, 2014, three new airlines have begun service out of Hopkins to a number of cities where United formerly offered nonstop service, and more may be on the way. That, passengers have reason to hope, should lead to lower fares. Also, the loss of United’s hub is prompting airport planners to re-evaluate the terminal configuration to make a better experience for travelers. United was the sole airline to use the airport’s D concourse. That concourse was designed for service handled by short-haul, regional jets that flew flights that have been cut. And Europe may be easier to reach. Cleveland Airport System director Ricky Smith acknowledged in an interview in his office at Cleveland Hopkins that losing a hub is a “shocking, devastating experience” for any city. “Losing the hub was not one of the prouder moments for this community or this airport,” he said. “But I thought the loss of the United hub was more a blow to the community’s ego than we will learn it to be on the community’s economy or our air travel in the years to come.” But he believes that in the long run losing the hub may be for the best for his airport. Smith said he is meeting with leaders from the Greater Cleveland Partnership and its Air Service Demand Task Force to talk about what new service to attract.
By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com
Smith said he has two airlines he is hoping to attract, though he would not divulge their names while negotiations are continuing. He also said that he’s reviving an effort to attract international service to Cleveland Hopkins, always a priority for the area’s major corporations. That effort has been dormant for several years, after airport officials in 2009 said they were in contact with Lufthansa Airlines — which had a marketing relationship with United predecessor Continental Airlines — about service to Frankfort, Germany. “We’re now looking at other carriers to determine where we might attract service — somewhere in Europe,” he said. “Wherever we focus it will be where (our companies) want to go; I’m not sure that Frankfort is the most preferred destination.” Industry observers, including Sixel,
Cleveland-area litigators are imploring Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court General Division judges to reconsider a decision to eliminate the county’s generally popular and effective commercial docket. But whether the court — dedicated to the resolution of often complex business-to-business cases like liquidations, trade secret disputes, noncompete contracts and shareholder disagreements — will be restored or remain on the cutting room floor in Cuyahoga County is unclear. Originally proposed in Ohio by the late Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and championed by litigators, the commercial docket was the result of a July 2008 decision by the Ohio Supreme Court to test out the business court in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas and Montgomery counties. The commercial docket was formally adopted in Cuyahoga County in 2013 following a three-year pilot program. The niche docket is intended to make the region more receptive to businesses by creating a court specifically for cases between corporations and heard by a dedicated bench of judges — most recently, in Cleveland’s case, four. However, following a Jan. 21 vote by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court General Division judges to disband the court, administrative and presiding Judge John J. Russo said commercial cases will once again be randomly assigned to the court’s 34 judges. The move to end the docket followed a Jan. 6 report by the chairman of the Supreme Court’s Commercial Docket Subcommittee that said Judge Cassandra Collier-Williams was unqualified to preside over specialized and complex commercial cases,
See HOPKINS, page 21
See COURT, page 20
Reaching for the skies
Targets include Portland, Ore., San Diego and Seattle. He said he expects that by the fourth quarter of 2015, the airport will begin seeing year-over-year growth in air service. “There is life after de-hubbing,” said Benét Wilson, co-editor in chief of AirwaysNews.com and a former airline
Local lawyers unhappy with dropping of commercial docket
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communications executive. “But it takes time.” Cleveland may be recovering from its “de-hubbing” faster than some other cities, said one air service consultant. “Cleveland’s done a really good transformation from a hub downsizing to attracting a lot of low-cost carriers into the market with Frontier and Spirit and jetBlue,” said Mark Sixel, president of Sixel Consulting Group Inc. of Eugene, Ore. ”They’ve probably been one of the most active airports in the country at recruiting new service in the last couple years,” Sixel said. “A lot of the other places like Cincinnati and Memphis, hubs that got downsized with all the (airline) mergers, are struggling quite a bit more than Cleveland. I can’t even think of another non-hub market that’s done as well as Cleveland.” Sixel’s firm, which has not worked with Cleveland Hopkins, has helped communities from Portland, Ore., to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., add service. In 2010, Sixel helped Toledo Express Airport map out a new air service development plan.
are uniting to dispute court’s call
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