AirTran flying high with performance rating

AirTran Airways, Charleston's only discount carrier, took high honors for the second consecutive year from Airline Quality Rating, an annual report of the industry's performance produced by a professor at St. Louis University and a professor at Wichita State University.

Industry-wide performance improved for the first time in five years after the worst-ever industry score in 2007.

Airlines perform better when less stressed by high traffic, according to Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at Wichita's W. Frank Barton School of Business. A tough economy boosted quality last year, he said.

Researchers saw the same trend after Sept. 11, according to Brent Bowen, chairman of the aviation science department at St. Louis' Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology.

Hawaiian Airlines took AQR's best overall ranking, bumping AirTran to No. 2. But AirTran took the top spot among discount airlines and also earned the best lost-bag ratio.

The news comes at a time when the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce continues to urge businesses to patronize AirTran to ensure the carrier stays in town. Officials estimate traffic increased at Charleston International Airport 30 percent after AirTran's arrival two years ago.

AQR reported that nearly 77 percent of AirTran flights ran on time in 2008.

Car trade

Woody Bilton Ford in Moncks Corner will soon have a new driver. After 33 years, Bilton is selling to T.J. Johnson of Ravenel, according to Bilton Ford general manager Lane Arnold.

"We are under a management contract for about another 30 days," Arnold said. "For now the name will stay the same."

The auto dealer, with 45-50 employees, will be owned by T.J. Johnson Automotive Group doing business as Woody Bilton Ford, he said.

Johnson owns about 10 car dealerships in North Carolina, Georgia and the Virgin Islands, Arnold said.

Arnold said business was picking up because of some increased advertising through different venues.

"It's getting better," he said.

Fair enough

Out of work? The state's Trident One Stop Career System is holding free job fair Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at its center at 1930 Hanahan Road in North Charleston.

Would-be applicants should plan to attend with resume in hand. More than 30 employers, from a railroad operator to retailers, are expected to attend.

Parking tickets

The new moniker is sort of bland compared to the original — Hard Rock Park — but the price of admission at Freestyle Music Park is going to be a bit more palatable than it was last year.

Tickets for the $400 million Myrtle Beach attraction will be $39.95 each when it reopens next month and $29.95 for children between the ages of 3 and 9, officials said last week. Kids 2 and under get in free.

Last year, it cost $50 a head to get through the gates at the newly opened Grand Strand amusement (not to mention the $10 parking fee). That was one of the contributing factors that kept the masses away and led to its ultimate bankruptcy and closing. The new owner, FPI MB Entertainment LLC plans to reopen the 55-acre park Memorial Day weekend. It also set up a new Website: FreestyleMusicPark.com.

On location

Officials from the state Film Commission are heading to the left coast and into the belly of the beast this week to pitch South Carolina as a movie and TV production venue.

The agency said it will be set up in Booth 816 to promote Palmetto State crew, suppliers, sites and tax incentives at the three-day Locations Trade Show beginning Thursday in Santa Monica, Calif. Every other state and about 30 nations also will be represented at the annual confab, which is sponsored by the Association of Film Commissioners International.

As part of the conference agenda, S.C. Film Commissioner Jeff Monks will be moderating a seminar titled "Candid Conversations with Studio Execs." The panel session includes a senior vice president from Walt Disney Pictures, an executive producer from Warner Brothers, a TV producer from 20th Century Fox and a producer and executive liaison Universal Pictures.

No small honor

Defense contracting was the common thread linking Robert Meddick and Noah Leask, who will be recognized the month by the U.S. Small Business Administration for their efforts to give the little guys a chance.

Meddick is deputy of small business programs at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic in Hanahan, which in its most recent fiscal year awarded 3,350 contracts totaling $242 million to small or minority-owned companies. That's 10.6 percent of the total dollar amount of all contracts that the Spawar command awarded — and more than double the Department of Defense's goal of awarding 5 percent of their work to such businesses. Meddick also is credited with helping to increase the number of contracts to minority-owned firms by more than 8 percent compared to the previous fiscal year.

For those efforts, he earned the title of South Carolina's 2009 Minority Small Business Champion of the Year by the SBA.

Leask, a Mount Pleasant resident, was named 2009 Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year for South Carolina. The chief executive officer of ISHPI Information Technologies Inc. is a Native American from the Sault Ste. Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians. His form provides information to government agencies about information warfare, cyber security and logistics support, drawing from his past experience as a Navy cryptologist.

Leask and Meddick will be honored April 29 in Columbia at the SBA's "Salute to Small Business" banquet.