• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 2, 2012

Clear Channel Airports and JC Decaux are getting some competition in the form of Titan Air, a new division of international transit advertising company Titan. It is dedicated to out-of-home advertising in airports. Titan Air will pursue major-market airport contracts across the United States, per the company.

The new division is being built by two new hires: senior vice president and general manager Michael Riley, and vice-president for business development, airport relations and operations Sam Hart.

Riley previously worked for Transportation Media, the airport advertising company founded by his father in 1973. That was acquired by Clear Channel Outdoor in 1998 to become Clear Channel Airports; Riley then served Clear Channel Outdoor as vice president for global franchise development president from 1998-2001, and president of Clear Channel Airports from 2001-2010.

Riley developed media formats which are now industry standards for airport advertising.

Hart is also a Clear Channel Airports veteran, having served as executive vice president for airport relations from 2000-2009, when he was responsible for business development for 18 airports. During that time, he and Riley worked closely together. More recently he served as vice president for partner relations for Executive Media Network/RMG Networks, which delivers digital media to airport VIP lounges, as well as in-flight advertising.

While Titan has advantages including a large national sales force and existing relationships with major ad agencies and clients, the company also faces powerful incumbents in Clear Channel Airports and JCDecaux Airport, Inc. Clear Channel has ad agreements with around 145 airports across the U.S. (some through a partnership with JCDecaux).

Clear Channel’s U.S. airport network includes Atlanta’s Hatfield-Jackson, Boston’s Logan, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Seattle-Tacoma and Lambert-St. Louis, among others. JCDecaux has agreements with 26 U.S. airports, including JFK, LAX and Miami International.

However, Titan could potentially offer integration of airport advertising with its other transit ad properties, especially in areas where airports have intermodal connections with mass transit and commuter rail. In Titan’s core business of transit advertising, the company recently won the exclusive right to sell media along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor connecting New York City to Washington, D.C., including all Amtrak-owned ad surfaces in Washington’s Union Station, Penn Station in Baltimore, the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, and Penn Station in New York, as well as over 40 other stations with Amtrak media.

The Amtrak contract complements Titan’s existing transit media relationships in the Northeast Corridor, where it also had deals with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), and New Jersey Transit.