No matter the destination, local travelers no longer have to spend hours doing repetitive online searches among multiple airlines for available flights.

In the midst of other upgrades and construction projects, the Reno-Tahoe International Airport is enhancing its presence and functionality online with the new design of its Web site, http://renoairport.com.

“It’s so key for us to make it easier for people to travel to and from the region, whether it’s Beijing or Washington,” said Brian Kulpin, airport director of marketing.

Airport officials on Tuesday revealed to the media the new Web site, which had a soft launch on Friday to see if customers would begin to find it so administrators could find bugs and fix them as necessary.

Kulpin said after several years of public input about the old site and what customers want to make traveling in and out of RTIA easier, three priorities stood out that are now highlighted at the top of the site: finding flights, parking and directions to the airport. Quickly accessible on the front page, too, are the most current arrivals and departures, a feature that was buried on the old Web site, Kulpin said.

One of the new site’s key features in searching for flights is an interactive online mapping tool created by Innovata, a company headquartered in Atlanta that specializes in managing online travel content. The map offers “one-stop shopping,” said Brian Pratte, the airport’s manager of air service development.

Using Reno as the hub, the map shows the non-stop flights available out of Reno, such as to Minneapolis, Denver and Los Angeles, and a zoom tool gives patrons the ability to find flights all over the world. Clicking on individual cities brings up options about flights between Reno and that city.

For example, if a customer is searching for a flight to Denver, they can click on the dot representing Denver and view options to show all routes, all non-stop routes or all connections between Reno and Denver.

After clicking on one of those options, the site generates route information pertaining to the flight, including the airline that offers the route, the number of stops and the distance traveled, along with a timetable of when the route will be available.

Although the site is not yet prepared to do so, Pratte and Kulpin said there may be a time when visitors can click on the flight they want and be taken directly to the flight booking information on the airline’s Web site. In the meantime, doing so takes the customer to the airline’s front page but they still have to manually enter the flight information themselves.

For those who prefer not to use the visual map on the RTIA site, Pratte said, customers can also type their destinations into a subject line directly above the map.

The site, however, does not offer direct booking or fares, Pratte said.

“Our site is not fare driven,” he said. “It’s schedule driven.”

All booking must be done through the airline’s site. Kulpin said this is to offer fair opportunities to all the airport’s airlines because Southwest, which only offers its flight information on its own Web site, holds about a 50 percent share in the airport.

The airport’s site also contains employment and regional information for those unfamiliar with northern Nevada, and touts the airport’s ability to accommodate tourism and local travel needs.

RTIA is in the midst of several physical projects totaling $104 million, including a new airport baggage check-in system for departures and remodeling its ticket lobby to accommodate the baggage system, Kulpin said.

“As the economy rebounds, we can get (travelers and potential employees) information to help them understand the culture of our airport ... and why this is an exciting place to work,” Kulpin said.

RTIA hired Reno-based KPS|3 Marketing to redesign the Web site. The former site had been in use for six years and was past its shelflife, Kulpin said.

“It was a nice, fun look, but it didn’t offer flexibility or interaction,” he said.

The site was an 18-month collaboration of the airport, public input, ideas from the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority’s Regional Marketing Committee and KPS|3 Marketing. The airport paid $37,000 for the site and the Regional Marketing Committee contributed an additional $13,000.

Stephanie Kruse of KPS|3 said the new design was a strategic process that entailed data analysis of the number of hits and visitors to the Web site. The former site had approximately 6,000 page views per week and 1,300 visitors to the site. It’s also more user-friendly to the RTIA staff.

“It was loud and clear to us that they wanted to be user-friendly adminstratively,” Kruse said. “They wanted to content manage it, so now they have quick access to it and they don’t have to have a Web developer or consultant (to update content).”

Kulpin said he expects site hits to increase, though it could be a while before they get results. But the technology is innovative for the airport, he said.

“If we have made traveling easier, our mission has been accomplished,” Kulpin said.

To view the RTIA’s new Web site, go to http://renoairport.com.