AirportBusiness Blogs

The June issue of Airport Business magazine is the State of the Industry report. Issues like that always get me thinking about how much the industry has changed since I first appeared on the scene in 1969.

I obtained my private license under the tutelage of Epps Air Service at PDK in Atlanta. A Cessna 150 back then rented for $15.00/hour wet, avgas was about 40 cents per gallon, and sectional charts—which had just changed to the “new” format with both sides printed—were, I believe, 55 cents. Funny, but none of us thought of those prices as a bargain.

VORTACS were still fairly new, and some of the old timers moaned that students didn’t have to learn to navigate anymore. They just, as one old timer put it, “…reel in VORTACs and reel them back out again.”

Trainers had one radio. Later I rented a C-172 which had two radios. I quickly learned that I could leave one of them turned off and not have to mess with it. I even rented one once that had a DME. It swept back and forth like windshield wipers, but every now and then it would settle down and assure me that I was going a couple of hundred knots. Pretty speedy for a C-172.

Corporate aircraft were Twin Beeches and occasionally one of those Beech King Airs would show up. It was rumored that Coca-Cola had not one, but two Gulfstream jets based at the big airport, Hartsfield. I drove all the way across town to see if it was true. It was.

A few years later a pilot allowed me to actually get into a Piper Navajo. I was duly impressed.

In the late 1970s, at Louisville, Kentucky’s airport, the FBO (I can’t remember the name) had photos (decades worth) of airplanes parked on the ramp during the Kentucky Derby. In the 1940s and 1950s, they were mostly those Twin Beeches, with a few modified Lockheed Lodestars and DC-3s. Then later photos showed the influx of King Airs and even jets. It was the dangdest display of the changes in corporate aviation I ever saw. I was copilot in a Navajo on that trip, and still thought it was hot stuff.

Then came the 1980s with even more changes. In 1986 FBO magazine came along and later evolved into Airport Business. Since the late 1980s, Airport Business magazine’s State of The Union report has explained the changes far better than I can.

So, what’s the state of the industry? Changing.

We’d love to post your comments. Please click the comment tab.

… the incoming chair of the American Association of Airport Executives in Washington recently led to a one-on-one interview for the upcoming July print edition of AIRPORT BUSINESS. Number one on Bart’s agenda as AAAE chair, of course, is funding and system reauthorization. She’s also in the midst of putting in an in-line baggage screening system at Reno-Tahoe International Airport; recently unveiled the Registered Traveler program; and, is in the initial stages of terminal expansion.  A few outtakes from the interview …
 

On the overall issue of security funding for U.S. airports …
“I believe security funding should come out of the general fund; it’s a national security issue. It should not be a system fee. It’s a general fund responsibility.”
 

On the impact an in-line system will have on terminal expansion plans …
“One of the real positive things about the baggage handling system that we hadn’t thought of until we got into the design — because the entire ticket counter area is going to change, and the way we do business focusing more on technology and designing for technology — we are going to end up with, like, 90 ticket counter spaces; significantly more than we have now. When you couple that with technology and that they’re checking in at home, that removes a significant population away from the ticket area. So we will be able to utilize our ticket area for a much longer time than we had originally anticipated, which is good. It allows us to focus on construction of the concourses, which is exactly the space that we need.”
 

On a criticism by some airport members that the airport associations should be lobbying hard on the user fee issue ongoing between the airlines and business aviation …
“Airports do not run the system, we run part of the system. We don’t have a role with user fees, for example. We negotiate with our tenants in the form of user fees, and that’s our role. We have so many stakeholders who have varying opinions; I think we want to be collaborative with all of the stakeholders.
Not taking a position on user fees for general aviation, say, helps us remain collaborative.”
 

Thanks for reading. jfi

Yesterday’s USA Today bemoans the passport mess. In case you’ve been too busy to notice, this year (some five and a half years after 9/11/2001) the guvmint began requiring passports for re-entry from Bermuda, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Congress passed this law in 2004, so the guvmint had three years or so to get ready for the expected deluge of passport applications.

Well, you guessed it. The guvmint blew it. They are so far behind handling passport applications that people are being forced to cancel long-planned vacations. Those people are complaining mightily to Congress, which is reacting typically—cut the budget and extend the deadline (to as late as 2009 for some travelers).

Folks, here is one fiasco you can blame totally on the guvmint. They passed the law. They, according to USA Today, failed to properly inform the public. They failed to get ready for the increase in passport applications. They are backing out with extended deadlines, rather than solving the problem.

Can you imagine Wal-Mart not eagerly preparing for an expected surge in the sales of one product? I can’t. But this does happen on a regular basis in the hotel business. A huge hotel will—with the help of the local tourism board—eagerly seek out a major association and sell it hard on having the  convention at said hotel. The hotel will book that convention a year in advance. Then, when a convention attendee complains about slow/poor service, the hotel will say, “I’m so sorry, but you know we have a huge convention here, and a full house,” As if that makes bad service okay.

When that happens, I am prone to respond in mock astonishment, “Holy cow, didn’t you know they were coming?” They fidget and stammer but have no real answer.

There is a difference, though. You can choose to have your convention somewhere else next year. You can’t choose to do business with another guvmint.

This law was set up so that air travelers must have passports first, long before land and sea travelers. Seems like we all oughta be irritated about that.

Thank goodness my passport doesn’t expire until 2015. Maybe by then the guvmint will give up and put Wal-Mart in charge of passports.

We’d love to post your comments. Please click the comment tab at the top.

… held this week in Washington, D.C. is understandable, given the fact that Congress hasn’t yet made up its mind on how it wants to fund the system, and at what levels. And there’s the rates and charges dispute at LAX, awaiting a final DOT ruling, that could impact how airports negotiate with airlines in the future. 

It was a perfect environment for DOT Secretary Mary Peters to arrive on the scene and answer some questions. Madame Secretary breezed in, mostly pointed to the department’s funding proposal offered up last February – to a Congressional yawn – and scooted off while providing nary an answer. Secretary Peters did offer one rallying cry: “Don’t give up on the PFC front.” At this point, it appears passenger facility charges will be capped at $6, and not indexed for inflation. (Airport groups continue the fight, as the U.S. House considers its reauthorization bill.) 

Another anticipated speaker, and much more entertaining, was Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderfer. The start-up carrier is hubbed out of Columbus, OH, and got more than its share of up-front publicity with its guarantee that each of its flights will offer a number of seats for only $10. The airline opened for business – all online – and sold 90,000 seats the first day, says Diffenderfer. “The key to it was … the $10 fares,” he says.  He had the audience’s attention; after all, airports nationwide are desperately trying to increase air service to their communities. Want Skybus? Then guarantee 25-minute turns, says Diffenderfer. “We will not fly into an airport that can’t do that 25-minute turn,” he says. Part of the philosophy is to fly into secondary airports near population centers, with notable exceptions OAK and FLL. One has to wonder if congestion-challenged Ft. Lauderdale was put on probation from the start. 

Thanks for reading. jfi    

We had a family problem this week, the sickness of an aged and beloved relative, and all three of our kids came in from all over. Son Brett flew in from Gibraltar, Kevin flew from Boston, and Melanie, thank goodness, drove in from Atlanta. Everybody had serious travel troubles except Melanie.

Kevin and Brett ran afoul of this week’s widespread nasty weather. Kevin’s flight was delayed out of Boston just enough to keep him from catching his connecting flight out of Atlanta (surprise, surprise). He finally arrived a bit over two hours later than scheduled. No big deal.

Brett, however, arrived more than twenty-four hours late. Getting from Gibraltar to New York’s JFK was no problem. At JFK everything hit the fan. His late afternoon flight was canceled, and they rebooked him on a flight scheduled to leave at 8:30 the next morning. It didn’t. It left just late enough to make him miss his connection out if Atlanta (does someone have a super computer that works it out that way?) so they booked him for another flight that also arrived later than scheduled. And that wasn’t the worst part…

Now, more than twenty-four hours after Brett’s actual arrival, he still doesn’t know where his luggage is.

Except for the (inexcusable) missing baggage, I’m not even mad at the airlines about this one. Weather is just not their fault. Many disagree with me on this (good friend Clyde will probably write a nasty comment below). They think the airline should pay for room and meals when flights are delayed/canceled because of weather. I don’t. I want them to cancel flights when the weather is bad, and I don’t want cost to be part of the decision process.

When I was flying genav aircraft I canceled when, in my opinion, I wouldn’t feel comfortable tackling the weather as I saw it. I got right determined about that.

I once called the FBO for which I sold airplanes to report that, because of icing, I was leaving an Aztec more’n 100 miles from home and coming in via rental car. A good friend and high-time pilot said there wasn’t enough ice out there to worry about in an Aztec. Said if it was him he would fly it on home. I said, “Hell, I didn’t say you couldn’t fly it. I said I wasn’t going to fly it and I’m not.”

I want airline pilots thinking the same way, and I don’t want them worrying about the cost. 

Readers of long standing (surely there must be a few of you) will remember that when we lived in Huntsville, AL, I regularly attended breakfast meetings of the Greater Northern Alabama Lying Pilots’ Coffee-Drinking & Hangar-Talking Society. Those meetings are one of the great things that I miss about Huntsville.

This week I traveled to Huntsville and attended three such meetings. For our first meeting we ate breakfast, drank coffee, and talked from eight ‘til eleven in the morning. The restaurant was serving lunch by the time we left.

The loosely knit and informal society includes two airline pilots, the owner/pilot of a high-tech aerial photo company, and one physician (yes, he did own a Bonanza for awhile). One of the airline types also owns an LSA distributorship. It’s a highly knowledgeable aviation group, but they still let me take part.

We solved most of the world’s problems in three days. The ones we couldn’t solve we blamed on somebody. We touched on the European Union, China, Boeing, Airbus, VLJs, LSAs, and more than a few genav aircraft and their companies. We spent one hour this morning bragging about what great pilots we are, then spent another hour admitting stupid things we had done in aircraft—some dramatically stupid—and how grateful we are that we survived them.

I got back home about sundown today, tired and worn out. Then I checked my e-mail, which included a message from a truly professional pilot who told me he still remembered a compliment I gave him when he was 21. Made my day. I moved from worn out to cloud nine instantly.

All in all, it was a great week for things aviation.

We’d love to post your comments. Please click the comment tab at the top.

… and the peripheral threat to JFK International Airport was all over the news this past weekend. The good news is that the concept of threats to pipelines and fuel farms is well known to airport and law enforcement groups. Attend any group discussion on terrorist threats and aviation, and fuel farms and pipelines surface as a serious consideration. What may be even better news, according to media reports, is that federal agencies (CIA, FBI) are cooperating more fully – a goal of post-9/11 investigations.
 

The thought that kept recurring with each updated news report was this: Most of the people who are responsible for the operation and safety/security of fuel farms, pipelines, and airports probably responded with, “It reaffirms what we already suspected and have been watching for.” It heightens the awareness of the reality and in turn the need. They may have also thought, “Maybe the general public will believe there remain serious threats out there.” (A skeptic might suggest that if it doesn’t involve liquids or shoes at the screening station, it’s a passing notice.)
 

Some in the media are downplaying the significance of the arrests, citing that the “plan” was in its very early stages and underfunded. To them, I guess, the closer we are to actual devastation the more serious the crime. Another thought might be, the earlier we get ‘em the better. Is there a different level of “serious” that we put to someone planning on blowing up JFK (and getting caught) versus actually blowing up JFK? (Perhaps the Democrats are working on legislation.)
 

One question that has surfaced here comes from an article in Newsday which looked at JFK neighbors who had no idea that a pipeline runs under their neighborhoods. For airports across the U.S., forthcoming airport meetings could see citizens coming in and asking for pipeline diagrams.
 

Thanks for reading. jfi