AirportBusiness Blogs

Gail and I bought a house today for the first time in 24 years. It was a nightmare.

You should have seen the amount of paper we had to sign, swear to, and abide by. I swear we had to agree to pay fees on top of fees for one thing after another. We dotted “I”s crossed “T”s and accepted responsibility for everything from the San Andreas Fault to the national debt. It was awful.

I saw that mountainous pile of paper and I remembered selling airplanes with just a few pieces of paper, registering them in Oak City, and doing a title search with only a few signatures. We didn’t know how well we had it.

If I remember correctly, an airplane title search back then cost something like, what?—$25 or $35 total? And that was for a used airplane that could be flown all over the world. Today the title search on a house costs umpty-ump times that on a piece of property that hasn’t moved an inch in decades.

Of course the banks cause a lot of this hassle, but to a great extent they are but reacting to lawsuits of the past. I reckon every time someone wins a lawsuit the banks add another sheet of paper and another layer of protection. Where will this all end? Will we eventually sign away our firstborn with 46 pieces of paper?

I’m not blaming any one group for all of this, but do pray that lawyers never discover the aircraft sales business.

Or—ohmygawd—have they already while I wasn’t looking?

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You no doubt know of the huge treasure trove of coins discovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration and brought back to the States. My youngest, Brett, is an Odyssey employee. As a side scan sonar technician/operator, he searches for such treasures from Odyssey’s ships.

I am proud to say that I can’t write anything about this stupendous find other than what you have already learned from the media because I don’t know anything that the media haven’t covered. Brett is sworn to secrecy, and, by golly Brett is an ethical person. He won’t tell us squat. Gail and I wanted to raise ethical kids but it is a mixed blessing. When the news was made public, the stock went up 58%. This took place while we had money set aside for a house down payment. We could’ve made a small killing, had we but known. Brett didn’t say a word. Truth is, we’re proud of that—proud as punch.

During the time the treasure ship was found in the Atlantic, Brett was searching the Atlantic, and that’s all I know. Of course, in my heart of hearts I know that he was not only on duty when the wreck was discovered, but also that he is the one who first spotted it on the sonar screen. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it until somebody convinces me otherwise.

Now, I’m supposed to tie all this to aviation so let me point out that once they recovered this huge treasure, they flew it back to the States in a chartered 767. If that sounds like an excessive expense, tell me what you would do with a huge fortune (some say a half billion dollars) in coins?

Charter always makes sense when there is a time-critical job, the job is more important than the cost of charter, and there’s no other way to get the job done.

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… this week in Phoenix, a side discussion turned to the proposed privatization of Chicago’s Midway Airport, which had also been highlighted at one of the sessions. The conference is hosted annually by Airports Council International – North America.

Chicago mayor Richard Daley has already privatized the Chicago Skyway expressway and the massive underground parking complex downtown. He has proposed privatizing Midway under the auspices of the FAA’s airport privatization pilot program, which has had little success to date. Privatization of airports, commonplace in most of the world, has never really taken root in the U.S. for a variety of reasons; however, some suspect that could change if Daley is successful. The Chicago mayor is seen as someone who gets the deal done, or he doesn’t go public with it in the first place. And, it may be said that his greatest strength as mayor is his ability to get business interests on board.

Roy Williams, who popped onto everyone’s radar screen during Hurricane Katrina as the airport director at New Orleans, is now a consultant with CH2M HILL. He relates that the day Daley gets the Midway deal done, he can envision the photo op with the mayor holding the big check. That moment, Williams predicts, will send shock waves through political offices in cities nationwide, and the movement toward similar activity nationwide could take hold. “This changes everything,” he says.

David Plavin, long-time ACI-NA president and today a consultant with his firm dzpConsult, Inc., speculates that the primary reason for the Midway move is the attraction of revenue diversion, a no-no otherwise but part of FAA’s pilot program. (Of course, getting a big chunk of change is also always attractive to politicians, either to spend on new programs or to reduce debt.) A central component of the pilot program is the support of airlines. Plavin questions the notion of a subsequent tidal wave. The biggest question, he says, is, What will the mayor need to give Southwest Airlines – the dominant carrier at Midway – to get its agreement? Therein lies the key, in his estimation, as to how attractive the move is to other mayors.

Hottest topic at the meeting: The decision last week by an administrative law judge to turn down the City of Los Angeles’ attempt to change its rates and charges methodology at LAX for some of the carriers. It’s a big issue, one that officials fear could reverberate throughout the U.S. industry. The DOT Secretary will make a ruling on the judge’s recommendations June 15.

More on the conference to come in the print edition on AIRPORT BUSINESS. Thanks for reading. jfi

Please don’t ask me from whence came the info on which I base my suspicions, but I wonder about the future of avgas.

Some very knowledgeable folks (who wish to remain anonymous) say that avgas will die a not-so-slow death. The arguments are strong; all aviation fuel is just a tiny sliver of total fuel sales, and avgas is but a tiny sliver of that tiny sliver and getting even smaller.

Jet fuel sales grow by leaps and bounds as turbine engines—with or without props—grab a bigger slice of the aviation pie. Turbines are no longer the engine of choice for only big, sophisticated aircraft. They are used in single-engine aircraft now, even in crop dusters. The work formally done by Navajos, Aztecs, Barons, and 400 Cessnas is today being done increasingly by propjets. VLJs will no doubt become a significant part of the aviation world, and the diesel aviation engine also seems primed for growth. As the avgas market diminishes, will we reach the point at which big oil companies can’t profitably continue production?

My own theory is that avgas will be produced for quite some time, but at higher and higher prices. Some tell me even that theory is too optimistic. If I am right, however, the higher prices will just continue the graveyard spiral. At what point will a piston airplane owner quit flying or upgrade to a turbine engine, thus further eating into the sale of avgas?

The people in the catbird seat may be those flying piston engines that can use mogas. I know several people who have bought those aircraft for that specific reason.

Save those Cubs and Champs, boys and girls, they’re looking good.

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… in its effort to convince Congress to lift the $4.50 cap on passenger facility charges (PFCs). In an online media event this week, the association that represents commercial airports and authorities reiterated its position that maintaining the $4.50 cap on PFCs is limiting the purchasing power of airports, due to inflation and the dramatic jumps in construction costs in recent years. FAA seeks a cap of $6, while airport groups are asking for a cap of $7.50, indexed to inflation. Last week, the U.S. Senate indicated it doesn’t support an increase, though it is proposing a pilot program under which a limited amount of airports could raise the caps, depending on market forces. Ultimately, ACI-NA would like to see the cap and the FAA approval process eliminated and let local markets determine what the cap, and their infrastructure needs, should be. 

Two things stand out from this media briefing. One, the way it was executed. ACI-NA used its airport membership as the distribution channel, calling on them to alert local interested parties and media of the event. It was an effective way to get local media outlets involved, and a way to connect the dots for them regarding local and national issues. 

Second is, the theme of focusing on the passenger. ACI-NA president Greg Principato says the initiative seeks to focus the current funding discussion on where it really belongs – on the passenger. He says that the capacity crunch of 2000 has returned and is expected to get worse. More money will help alleviate the “choke points” and keep passengers moving through the air transportation system. 

Ultimately, it’s the passengers who pay the fees that build the infrastructure (despite how airlines position the argument). Focusing the discussion on them not only has merit, but it also may be the way to get them to pay attention to the funding dialog.  Thanks for reading. jfi    

Okay. I’ve cussed the airlines off and on for nigh on to 20 years (before that they were pretty good), now it’s time to say something nice.

Oddly, the trip started off pretty badly. I was scheduled to depart Asheville, NC (AVL), at 8:29 a.m. last Saturday. After connecting in ATL I would arrive at Alexandria, LA (AEX), about 11 a.m. This was a Delta Connection flight.

Well, I know as well as most anybody to avoid ATL like the plague. ATL is a very well run airport, but there are just too danged many people flying in and out of there (it’s the busiest airport in the world). They are so busy that they can maintain the schedule only in near-perfect weather.

The weather last Saturday was far from perfect, but airplanes were getting in and out of AVL just fine—unless they were going to ATL, which had placed a gate hold or whatever they call it these days on airplanes flying from AVL to ATL.

The really nice young lady at the gate gave me the bad news—I would miss my connecting flight out of ATL and wouldn’t get to AEX until about 10 p.m. A few minutes later, while I was feeling sorry for myself, she paged me. They had worked a miracle, and I would get to AEX by about 4:30 p.m. Then, when I got to ATL I learned they had worked another miracle that would get me to AEX by about 1 p.m., only two hours later than my original schedule.

… held this week in Alexandria, VA, a side discussion at a dinner reception turned to ATC modernization. One of the members said to me, “If I knew that by paying these new user fees I’d be getting air traffic modernization in the process, I’d be happy to pay them.” Of course, not all NATA members or general aviation enthusiasts echo the sentiment, but the point is his focus on upgrading ATC. 

The previous day I had been in the offices of the Air Transport Association for an interview with John Meenan, executive VP and COO. Meenan reiterated that the airlines, who along with FAA are the drivers in the user fee discussion, still have ATC modernization at the top of their funding wish list. And, he says that he remains confident that it’s still a centerpiece in the discussion currently taking place in Congress. (He’s also optimistic that Congress will get a funding authorization legislation passed by September 30, in time for the start of the new fiscal year October 1. Others are not as optimistic.) 

A year ago when the current funding discussion began heating up, it appeared a slam dunk that modernizing ATC would be front and center. Yet, in recent months, GA groups have become so focused on user fees that one gets the impression ATC is on the back burner. The reauthorization process offers the potential for a long-term solution to how we fund the system and modernize it, particularly with an eye on increasing capacity. 

Another hot issue is an increase in the passenger facility charge (PFC) cap. It is the funding hot button for airport groups – at a bare minimum they would like PFCs indexed to inflation. The Senate bill introduced last week fails to agree, though it does propose a pilot program to allow a few airports to test local market forces. Stay tuned. 

Thanks for reading. jfi   

Recently super pilot Randy Sohn sent me to a web site which described in photos and words a trip Kent Wien took with his father Merrill over some beautiful scenery in the American west.

The site was fascinating, the photos beautiful, the aircraft was a DC-3. That’s enough to make any aviator drool, and there’s more…

In 1935, when Will Rogers and Wiley Post were killed in an airplane in Point Barrow, Alaska, northernmost point in the U.S.A., there were no satellites to beam news to the rest of the world. The public clamor for news of the crash was nothing short of desperate. There were pictures of the crash but no way to get them to the outside world. Or so it seemed…

A bush pilot/businessman named Noel Wien flew the pictures through/over weather, betting his life that when he descended over what he hoped was Seattle, the ceiling would be high enough for him to land. It was. He was well paid for the endeavor, and that’s just the beginning of the story.

With the money from the trip, Noel Wien made a large down payment on a newer, bigger airplane which became an important part of the early years of Wien Air Alaska, which became Wien Alaska Airways and operated into the mid 1980s, well into the jet age.

Noel had two sons, Richard and Merrill. Merrill had two sons, Kent and Curt, who became American pilots. Wife Gail and I once spent a delightful time in Richard Wien’s hangar in Fairbanks and last week—via the Internet—I met Kent.

In what other industry can you meet today the people so closely connected with the so-distant past?

(To see the photos of the trip go to www.kentwien.com and then click on “trips”.)

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