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Preparing for takeoff: Cleveland director of port control Ricky D. Smith is ready to make his mark on Hopkins and Burke by boosting revenue and travel at the city's two airports.(AIRPORTS)

Inside Business, November, 2006 by Lewis, Morgan, Jr.

Even before he took the job at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Ricky D. Smith knew how important Continental Airlines is to Northeast Ohio.

Continental is the only major carrier to have a hub at Hopkins. The airline is responsible for 252 flights to as many as 71 destinations daily and has invested more than $150 million in new facilities.

But more than that, Smith, who up until April was second-in-command for the Maryland Aviation Administration, which controls the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Martin State Airport, witnessed what happened in his native city in 2001 when the financially struggling US Airways removed its hub from BWI.

"The region went into a panic," Smith says. "But what...

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