AirportBusiness Blogs

Well, I got to OSH and back on one of my most stress-free airline trips in years. All the flights were on time, and the trip was actually enjoyable.

This was a watershed trip in that it marks a great change in my preparation for airline travel.

A few years back most travelers shifted to smaller, lighter, wheeled luggage. It made life easier on the smaller regional airplanes growing in popularity. Now all that will change.

Now most airlines seem determined to charge me for each checked bag after the first—free—bag. Some even threaten to charge for the first.

Before my next trip I plan to buy one very large, wheeled bag. If they are going to charge by the bag, I’m gonna check a biggun. That bag will be packed carefully, to stay under the 50-pound max, but at least I won’t have to carry on a bunch of stuff.

I usually take a lot of my books with me to sell on site. That won’t work if I take only small bags. That big bag will be packed with clothes and some books, and you can bet it will weigh 49.5 pounds.

Funny about the airlines. When they started flying smaller airplanes, they wanted us to check most everything, and to carry smaller carry-on bags. We did.

Now we’ve got our closets full of small, rolling luggage and they are going to charge for more than one bag. Once again, we’ll adapt. 

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… an ongoing emphasis on technology continues to reap benefits in efficiency and reducing costs to airlines while improving the passenger experience. Back in the mid-90s when AIRPORT
BUSINESS did a cover story on YVR, that was the overriding message. It remains so today.

I recall being impressed with Kevin Molloy back then – he had been brought on to head up I.T. for Vancouver and was the first management level person I had met at airports who was directing information technology. He talked then of having to convince his I.T. staff that it was OK to put away their screwdrivers and to quit focusing on fixing computer problems. Their new focus was to be on integrating I.T. into the management of the airport. Staff members were assigned to departments so they could get a handle on what challenges managers were facing in their operations, and in turn uncover how I.T. could play a role in tackling those challenges. Today, that approach seems only logical; back then, it was nothing short of revolutionary.

While at YVR this week to get an update on Vancouver International for our annual August Canadian Issue of AIRPORT BUSINESS, Molloy related how technology has had an impact on operations, passenger flow, check-in, reducing costs to carriers, and enhancing the customer experience. He and Larry Berg, CEO at YVR, continue to emphasize that technology is often the answerto finding solutions to challenges facing airports – including reducing costs to airlines. This may be no more true, they say, then with processing international passengers – not only is YVR a major gateway between the Pacific Rim and North America, it will also be handling travelers to the 2010 Winter Olympic games to be held here.

Interestingly, this week the Air Transport Research Society, in a study to measure the cost-competitiveness of 134 airports worldwide, reported that YVR remains the most efficient and cost-competitive airport in Canada and the ninth best in North America, despite a rising Canadian dollar that gives a competitive advantage to U.S. airports. No surprise here. Look for more details in our upcoming August issue.

Thanks for reading. jfi

I’m off to Oshkosh tomorrow (Saturday) for my second-fastest OSH trip. The fastest was the time I went up, spoke for a corporate meeting downtown—Lancair, I believe—then came home. I never even got into the airport that trip.

On this trip I speak at Theater in the Woods on Sunday night, July 27, the night before the show officially opens, then come home on Monday morning, the opening day of the show. Theater in the Woods always draws a big crowd on the night before the show opens and it’s just “plane” (pun intended, I’m afraid) fun.

There’s nothing like a big crowd of aviation people who just got to OSH and expect a good time. It’s one of the best audiences a speaker ever had, and certainly one of the most aviation educated. Many fascinating/funny aviation stories just can’t be told to nonaviation audiences. You have to explain so much to them that the story loses its appeal before you get halfway through. At OSH they stay way ahead of you.

It’s gonna be fun. I’m looking forward to it.

I’m also looking forward to speaking for a large fly-in in Steamboat, CO, next month. They have arranged for me to fly in a hot air balloon, which I have never done before. Can you imagine a balloon trip over the Rockies? Hot dog!

More later on both of these trips.

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… identifies an emerging group of “no monkey business” general aviation users, according to association president Phil Boyer. The long-time AOPA head, who is retiring at the end of 2008, was a keynote speaker at last week’s annual meeting of the Southwest Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives.

According to Boyer, AOPA originally did what he calls the psychographic analysis some ten years ago to determine why its pilot members fly. The pilots fell into five categories …

20% - ‘Be all you can be’
10% - ‘Auto pilots’ … little emotional reward; flying is “a job”
18% - The ‘experientials’ …those who fly for the experience
27% - The ‘evangelists’ … very emotional about flying and very active at the airport
25% - The ‘dreamers’ … they rent; don’t own; fly the least and aren’t active at the airport

The association recently redid the same survey, at which time the new “no monkey business” group surfaced. The latest results …

19% - ‘Be all you can be’
8% - ‘Auto pilots’
31% - ‘Experientials’
12% - ‘Evangelists’
11% - ‘Dreamers’
19% - the ‘no monkey business’ flyers … goal-oriented; “This is a means of transportation.”

In other words, the results show that, at a minimum, a fifth of GA pilots today see the aircraft as a tool, which falls in line with the growth of business aviation over the past 15 years. What may be a growing concern, however, is the significant drop in ‘evangelists’, those who Boyer calls the “poster children of GA” and the group that tends to be most active in airport issues.

Meanwhile, Boyer expresses concern in the continuing drop in the pilot population, which today he puts at less than 600,000 for the first time in 25 years. In response, AOPA has launched a “Let’s Go Flying” campaign to “cast a wider net” to attract newcomers to flying. Check it out at www.letsgoflying.com.

Thanks for reading. jfi

… calls for a greater “partnership” between airports and business aviation as communities across the U.S. face decreasing passenger service by the air carriers. Brown, the senior VP of operations for the National Business Aviation Association, was speaking to airport managers at the annual meeting of the Southwest Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives in Mesa, AZ.

“We think we’re facing the need to form a partnership with smaller communities and their airports,” says Brown. “And when it comes to security, I think there’s an opportunity for a partnership there as well.”

Brown calls business aviation in the U.S. a “fairly mature market,” but reports that the industry segment is experiencing double-digit growth offshore. And, while the entry of very light jets into the market could in time have an impact, he says the movement is more of an evolution than a tsunami.

As part of the partnership, Brown calls on communities to use “good science” when considering restrictions to their airfields and cautions that putting restrictions on business aviation could be a detriment to their access to the air transportation network. He says there has been “way too much creativity” by some communities to hinder their airport operations, particularly in Connecticut, Florida, and California.

“As the carriers pull out of communities, there’s an opportunity for business aviation to fill the void,” says Brown.

He also advises airports that NBAA has a staff of some 85 technical support personnel who can aid communities when proposals for airfield restrictions arise, and he encourages airports to contact the association to see how the two segments can better work together in the future.

Thanks for reading. jfi

Nobody ever got a better sendoff than Don Langford.

It’s hard to describe Don, because he was so many things. He was a writer (check out his aviation book, Are We There Yet?), a FedEx pilot experienced in everything from Cubs to 747s (including cropdusters, helicopters, LSA, ultralights, and gliders), an ATP mechanic, a homebuilder, engineer, and LSA distributor. He had flown thousands of hours all over the world and wasn’t finished yet.

Don had just sold an LSA amphib, and he and the new owner (also a very experienced pilot) were flying in the aircraft.  We really don’t know how it happened, but somehow they ended up upside down in the Tennessee River. None of us could believe it.

A crowd of Don’s relatives, general aviation friends, and airline pilot friends showed up for the funeral. (I’ve not seen that many airline uniforms in one place since they gave away free copies of USA Today at the Atlanta Airport.) 

Later there was another crowd at a covered dish dinner in Don’s honor at Moontown Airport outside of Huntsville, AL, where Don hangared his Wag-A-Bond.

Four of us spoke briefly at the funeral service, and it quickly became evident that most everybody there had been helped by Don Langford. He had helped so many with mechanical problems, instructed others, and befriended others in a thousand ways.

Don had helped me in a way I will never forget. My son Kevin discovered computers at the age of ten. At 12 he bought one (half his money and half ours). His mother and I couldn’t keep up. We didn’t know what he was talking about half the time, and we had a not-so-secret fear that he might end up breaking into NASA’s computer (we lived in Huntsville, AL).

When Kevin was 14, Don Langford got Kevin a job with a small computer engineering company. Kevin worked there after school and weekends until he went off to college. Today Kevin is an engineer himself, and vice president of a Silicon Valley computer hardware/software company. I credit those years of his youth spent working with adult engineers.

I credit Don Langford.

Don left a huge hole in aviation and in the lives of many aviators.

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… is that fewer and fewer piston-aircraft owners are buying it. The latest hard number I can find comes from AOPA, which reported an 18 percent drop in avgas sales during the first quarter of 2008. As the price of fuel has continued to escalate, it’s safe to assume that number is growing.

AIRPORT BUSINESS was originally launched as FBO magazine in 1986; in 1993, we added airport managers into the circulation mix and changed the name to reflect the change. Shortly after our launch we added the popular ‘Fuel Watch’ department, which tracks monthly retail fuel sales and prices for jet-A and avgas at airports across the U.S. The numbers come from Avcard, which tracks its credit card sales and then provides us with composite numbers for various markets. The department has been quite popular with fixed base operations, other airport-based businesses, and airport managers.

As we put together our August issue of AIRPORT BUSINESS we came across an issue we hadn’t encountered before. The numbers on avgas sales in U.S. markets has so deteriorated that Avcard was unable to provide us meaningful numbers for most of the markets.

Meanwhile, surfing the Web this morning, I found two stories that relate: one tells of an environmental group that is again pushing EPA to force aviation to get the lead out of 100LL avgas; the other tells of the decline in general aviation in Australia, where fuel prices and the loss of GA airports are serving as catalysts.

Reading the tea leaves, it’s not difficult to foresee change on the GA horizon. Defining the change is a bit tougher. Will we see a category of aircraft (pistons) begin to disappear? Or will new engines and alternative fuels provide new opportunity and new growth?

A bigger question may be: Will the declining numbers in avgas sales lead to the decision by oil companies to quit producing the product? Of all the products that an oil company extracts out of a barrel of oil, avgas is at the bottom of the opportunity list.

Thanks for reading. jfi

Cap’n Randy Sohn is one of the most interesting people in aviation. He has been everywhere, flown everything and knows everybody in aviation. He retired as a captain with Northwestern, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The story is that Cap’n Randy is licensed to check out anyone in any airplane, whether he has ever flown that model before. I don’t understand that, so don’t ask me for details.

Recently I talked with one Hugh Wheelless, Jr. who grew up as the son of Hugh Senior, a legendary man who owned and ran a very large aerial application (cropduster for the unwashed) operation in Dothan, AL. At one time they operated a fleet of B-17s which they used, oddly enough, to spread Mirex poison to kill fire ants in the south.

Hugh, Jr. mentioned to me that one of those B-17s was the currently-famous “Aluminum Overcast.” I hadn’t known that and was greatly impressed. I sent a message to Cap’n Randy because I knew he had worked with Hugh Wheelless, Sr. at one time, and I wasn’t sure he knew about the Wheelless-Aluminum Overcast connection. I should have known better.Cap’n Randy sent back to me a detailed account of the entire history of the Aluminum Overcast, including everyone who ever owned the airplane before, during, and after the Wheelless ownership.You could have knocked me over with a feather. The things this man knows and on which he keeps records is absolutely astounding.If you would like to know how to get a copy of Cap’n Randy’s history of Aluminum Overcast, please leave your name and e-mail address in the comment section or write directly to me at ralph@ralphhood.com.

… where the new sheriff in town is Atlanta’s airport general manager Ben DeCosta. Concealed weapons are the issue, and DeCosta and other Atlanta officials are taking a hard stand against a new Georgia state law (House Bill 89) that permits citizens with firearm licenses to carry concealed weapons aboard public transportation, in state parks, and elsewhere. DeCosta’s response: Not in my airport.

Good for him. He may not be Wyatt Earp, but DeCosta is taking the lead in seeing that guns don’t proliferate in his territory.

Of course, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that reaffirmed an individual’s right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, it was expected that new legal battles would arise over gun ownership. It’s just nearly impossible to believe that the first significant battle would come at a U.S. airport, where the need for security has become inherent since 9/11.

Says DeCosta, “We have the legal grounds to take this stand, and we are also driven by my unwavering belief that guns have no place at airports.” While DeCosta cites the Georgia Code (Section 16-11-127) that includes a “public gathering exception,” Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin is calling on Washington to resolve the issue. One suggestion: Mandate that any public facility receiving federal funding be declared a gun-free zone.

DeCosta also cites support from airport groups, AAAE and ACI-NA, and quotes AAAE president Chip Barclay who, in a letter of support, says that “any and all attempts to prohibit weapons from our nation’s airports are necessary and must be supported.”

This is not about gun ownership rights; it’s about sanity. We already have enough stress bouncing off the airport terminal walls these days without having to worry if half the folks hanging out pre-security are packing weapons – concealed, no less.

Writer Jay Bookman of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution may have said it best: “Like so much about the gun issue, this is more about symbolism than practical effect. But the symbolism in this case works against the gun lobby, which may find it has significantly overreached and chosen poor ground on which to fight.”

Thanks for reading. jfi