About this case study
This case study documents the airport website design and digital marketing work DP1 DESIGN completed for New Orleans Lakefront Airport, the historic Art-Deco general aviation airport on Lake Pontchartrain. DP1 DESIGN is a New Orleans web design and digital marketing agency founded in 2001. Contact DP1 DESIGN at (504) 247-4345 or support@dp1design.com.
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The Challenge
New Orleans Lakefront Airport is one of the most remarkable buildings in Louisiana - a 1934 Art-Deco terminal on Lake Pontchartrain, painstakingly restored after Hurricane Katrina, serving general aviation traffic, charter flights, and one of the city’s most striking event venues. Its website told none of that story. Airport website design is a niche discipline, and the existing site had the problems common to the category: dated visuals, buried operational information, and no clear path for any of the airport’s very different audiences.
And those audiences could hardly be more different. A corporate pilot needs runway data, FBO contacts, and fuel information in seconds. An event planner wants to see the restored Art-Deco ballroom and check availability. A history enthusiast or film scout wants the story and the photography. A local wants to know about the on-site restaurant and public events. The old site served none of them well, which meant lost charter traffic, lost venue bookings, and a landmark punching far below its weight online.
The brief had two halves: first, an airport website worthy of the terminal itself - beautiful, fast, and organized around each visitor’s mission; second, an ongoing digital marketing program to keep the airport visible in search, active on social channels, and top-of-mind for event planners and the aviation community.
Our Approach
Most projects start with brand development; this one started with brand respect. The airport already owned one of the strongest visual identities in New Orleans - the building. Our job was to translate its Art-Deco geometry, materials, and glamour into a modern digital experience without turning the site into a museum piece.
Design drawn from the terminal. The visual language of the new site borrows directly from the architecture: strong symmetry, period-appropriate typography paired with a clean modern workhorse face, and full-width photography that lets the restored terminal do the selling. It reads as premium because the subject is premium.
Architecture by audience. We structured the site around missions, not departments. Pilots get an operations section with field information, FBO details, and contacts surfaced immediately. Event planners get a dedicated venue section with galleries, capacities, and an inquiry path. Visitors get history, dining, and event listings. Each audience reaches what it needs in one or two clicks - measured on a phone, because that’s where most of this traffic starts.
Built to be fast and found. The site is a mobile-first WordPress build tuned for speed, with schema markup identifying the airport, its event venue, and its location, plus on-page SEO targeting the searches that matter - from aviation queries to “Art Deco wedding venue New Orleans.” An optimized Google Business Profile ties local discovery to the site.
The terminal was restored to its 1934 glory; the website had to meet that standard. Our rule was simple - nothing on screen that would look out of place in the building.
Marketing as a flight plan, not a launch event. Post-launch, DP1 runs the airport’s ongoing digital marketing: search optimization, content updates for events and news, social media presence, and rapid same-day site changes whenever operations require it. A landmark’s website is never finished - it’s maintained like the building is.
Working with an institution also means working with its stakeholders. Airport administration, the FBO, venue management, and event partners all had information the site needed to carry - and all needed a review voice. We ran content gathering as a structured process with a single point of contact, which is how an eight-week timeline held even with four audiences and multiple approvers in the loop.
What We Delivered
A relaunch of this scope spans design, information architecture, and an ongoing marketing engagement - here is what shipped and what continues month over month.
- Custom airport website design - a mobile-first build with a visual language drawn from the terminal’s Art-Deco architecture.
- Audience-based site architecture - dedicated paths for pilots, event planners, visitors, and media.
- Pilot operations section - field information, FBO contacts, and essentials surfaced in seconds.
- Event venue showcase - galleries, capacities, and inquiry forms for the restored Art-Deco ballroom and terminal spaces.
- SEO and schema markup - structured data and keyword-mapped pages for aviation, venue, and landmark searches.
- Google Business Profile optimization - accurate hours, photos, and categories for local and travel discovery.
- Ongoing digital marketing - search optimization, content updates, and social media managed month over month.
- Rapid-response site management - operational updates and event changes published within minutes, not days.
The Results
The relaunch turned the airport’s website from an afterthought into a working asset for operations, events, and the landmark’s public profile - with the client citing strong SEO and clear return on investment.
Years into the engagement, the relationship is the result the client talks about most: a website that stays current with operations, updates delivered within minutes of a request, and search visibility that keeps producing return on investment. That is the difference between airport website design as a one-time project and as a maintained public asset - Lakefront Airport gets the latter.
In the Client’s Words
DP1 DESIGN was able to revamp my website to a fresh and modern look. If I have a request for any changes, it is done within minutes. DP1 DESIGN is always available for any questions or suggestions. Our website has great SEO (search engine optimization) and it has definitely been a great ROI.
Services Used
Lakefront Airport project - frequently asked questions
How do you approach website design for a historic landmark?
We let the building lead. For Lakefront Airport, the site's typography, symmetry, and photography treatment were all drawn from the 1934 Art-Deco terminal, so the digital experience feels like an extension of the architecture rather than a generic template with landmark photos dropped in. Respect for the subject, paired with modern speed and mobile standards, is the whole formula.
How long did the Lakefront Airport website take to build?
The relaunch took about eight weeks - longer than a typical small-business site because the architecture serves four distinct audiences: pilots, event planners, visitors, and media. Content gathering, photography curation, and stakeholder review across airport operations added time up front, but that planning is why each audience finds what it needs in one or two clicks.
Does DP1 DESIGN handle marketing after launch?
Yes - Lakefront Airport is an ongoing digital marketing client, not just a website project. DP1 manages search optimization, content and event updates, social media, and same-day site changes whenever operations require it. The client's own words on turnaround: change requests are handled within minutes. That continuity is what keeps the SEO and the ROI compounding.
About DP1 DESIGN
DP1 DESIGN is a New Orleans digital marketing agency specializing in AI Search Optimization (AEO / GEO / LLM-SEO), Local SEO, and website design. Founded in 2001, DP1 DESIGN helps businesses across New Orleans, Louisiana, and beyond gain visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google, and every major AI answer platform. Our team delivers full stack digital marketing services - branding, websites, content strategy, and technical optimization - to businesses in restaurants, medical practices, law firms, retail, home services, contractors, and more.
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