Airport Business - 6

INSIDE THE FENCE

Published by

AUTHOR Joe Petrie, Editor-in-Chief

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VOL. 33, NO. 7

Should Your Airport be a Private Affair?
QUICK QUESTION for you: How
financially sound is your airport?
For many of you, the answer is fine. Flights are
expanding, more people are traveling, cargo is expanding
and demand for concessions are growing.
But for many smaller commercial airports and general
aviation airports, things might be a little tougher. It can
be hard to attract more traffic in your region and even
more challenging to get flyers or corporate aircraft to
base themselves on your field.
Coupled with continued needs on airport
infrastructure with only so much AIP funding to go
around, it's creating plenty of stress on your finances.
But is it time you consider privatization of more
services to address these needs?
I recently attend the P3 Airport Summit in San
Diego, where some experts say it's not just a good idea,
but it might be more appealing to smaller airports than
you think.
Privatization isn't a new idea in the U.S. Individual
terminals at airports like JFK have shown it can be a
cost effective way to make enhancements to the facilities
without stressing public dollars.
However, it's still a highly contentious topic. St. Louis
leaders are looking at the move, but politics has gotten
ahold of the issue, especially on the revelations of political
groups helping fund the efforts for the city.

But smaller airports might avoid these pitfalls. Jorge
Roberts, CEO of AvPorts told the summit smaller or
general aviation airports have performed well for
privatized airports, with there essentially being no limit
on how small of a facility can be managed by private
companies.
Propeller Airports CEO Brett Smith said the new
facility his company runs at Paine Field outside of Seattle is
getting rave reviews from the community since it opened
as an alternative to Sea-Tac. Despite just opening, it's
even expected to be financially sound in the near term.
I'm not someone who finds public entities to be an
anachronism, but there are instances where it could make
sense. If your airport authority is using revenues from its
commercial airport to subsidize smaller general aviation
facilities, it might make sense to privatize the small airport.
Privatization isn't a cure all for airports, nor is it
something all of you should look at doing. But if there
are some issues in the system you
can't address or some challenges
that are impossible to tackle due
to current restrictions, it might be
worth at least kicking the tires on
privatization to see if there's any
potential solution.
- Joe

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6 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019

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Airport Business

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