Detouring through Charlotte onto Memphis

When I woke up this morning my plan was to fly to the ACI-NA Air Cargo Conference in Memphis. My ticket says I was to get there through Chicago. 

When I saw the weather map in the morning paper, I figured the chances of that happening without incident were low. 

Indeed, I got a robo call from United on the drive to Dulles saying my flight had been cancelled. I called the United Premier Executive line and they did a great job re-booking me to Memphis through Charlotte on US Airways. The woman on the phone couldn’t have been more helpful or pleasant. 

I had the same experience at the US Airways counter at Dulles, at the Harry’s Tap Room restaurant there, at the gate and on the flight. 

NASCAR on display at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport

Speaking of the flight, US Airways finally made the right decision and stopped charging for drinks so I had a tomato juice. The flight attendant admitted that it had been pretty boring when they were charging; almost no one bought a drink, but there were certainly a lot of stern stares. 

So I am here at Charlotte, amid all the NASCAR memorabilia, eating a slice of Sbarro’s pizza. Soon I will be on the way to Memphis, where I plan to try some BBQ tonight – I’ve never been to Memphis but I LOVE BBQ. 

All through this day, I have run into courteous, hard working people whether they work for the airport, airline, TSA, the restaurants or some other entity. The day has not turned out like I planned, but some times those days are best. Oh, and I became a Great Uncle today for the third time too! 

Filed under: Airlines, Airports, Travels

A Confused Forbes Got It Wrong

There are certain media outlets one thinks provide good information, well documented and presented.  Forbes magazine is normally one of them. 

Just recently, though, they produced an ill-informed piece, actually blaming airports for high air fares.  As if airports set the fare.  Ridiculous.  It is just terrible, completely misses the mark.  We wrote a response to it, which is posted on the Forbes site and on ours. 

This wouldn’t be so bad in and of itself if Forbes wasn’t a publication that so many people rely upon for good information.  Indeed, some newspapers around the country have taken the article and made it the basis of pieces on their own community’s airports, exacerbating the problem and spreading misinformation. 

This reminds me of a similarly misinformed, misguided, effort by the Business Travel Coalition last year during the height of the fuel crisis.  I wrote about that report on this blog at the time, and many newspapers picked up on BTC’s predictions of communities losing all their air service (most of which were about as accurate as my prediction of the Tampa Rays winning the World Series). 

It is incumbent on those in whom the public places trust to get their facts right.  We have reached out to the authors of the article to try to educate them, but in the meantime, a number of communities around the country have begun reacting to the article in predictable ways.  Airport managers in those communities are working to set the record straight. 

It is frustrating to see so much misinformation out there, but we at ACI-NA will continue to work to combat it.

Filed under: Airlines, Airports, Travels

It Was Only a Matter of Time . . .

Just read a story that really caught my attention.  It appears that Ryanair is considering charging passengers to use the restroom on its flights. 

I sure hope this is one of those joke stories.  But it is a fact that the unbundled fees that airlines now charge here in the U.S. in lieu of a fare increase (I  recently wrote about the $7 fee for a blanket in a bag on one airline) really got their start as a result of a trend begun by Europe’s low fare carriers — especially Ryanair.  

I was amused at the comments of Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary that no one in the history of Ryanair has ever gotten on board one of their planes with less than a British pound in their pocket.  But I am amused at the thought of a planeload of well-lubricated British soccer “fans” returning from a match somewhere on the continent, lining up and fumbling in their pockets for a pound.  Hmmm.  Sounds like fun.  Maybe they will need a credit card machine on the door.  And will they charge by the use, or put a timer on it so someone who, ahem, takes a little longer can’t get out without putting a second pound into the slot. 

This all sounds like a skit on Saturday Night Live or Mad TV, but remember what I said earlier.  A lot of these airline fees charged in the U.S. got their start on Ryanair. There was a time when people laughed at the thought of a charge for a pillow or a blanket.  No one is laughing now. 

There is a silver lining though.  The folks who write those Flomax commercials will have a lot more material to work with!

Filed under: Airlines, Airports, Travels

Others join the cause to fight congestion

I’m writing this on the Amtrak Acela Express, returning from New York. I was attending the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s NextGen Symposium. 

NextGen refers to the project to (finally) modernize air traffic control and turn it into a satellite-based system. The Port Authority runs the New York area airports which are among the most consistently delayed in America. Modernizing air traffic control would go a long way to alleviating those delays. 

The Partnership for New York City estimates that delays and congestion will rob the area of $80 billion in economic activity the next decade and a half. I think that number might be low. But even it if it right, if you look at the country as a whole the number would be more than a trillion — easy. Anyone think we have a trillion dollars of economic activity to throw away? 

The Port Authority brought together a number of aviation interests, but more significantly, brought together leaders in the business, labor and civic communities. The National Alliance to Advance NextGen is composed of nearly 100 organizations representing millions of people. ACI-NA is a member of this coalition. 

That is critical. Failure to do something about this issue has an enormous economic cost. But participation in this debate has been limited to aviation interests. By expanding the universe, the Port Authority has performed a valuable service by demonstrating the true economic cost of inaction.

Filed under: Airlines, Airports, Government policy, Regulators, Travels

An Aviation Gentlemen Retires

The conclusion of this week will also mark the retirement of one of the industry’s great airport managers and one of its true gentlemen, Don Smithey.  

Don runs the airport in Omaha, Nebraska, and has done so since 1989. During that time, traffic has doubled, and he has managed to attract and retain service from Southwest Airlines. Doing that means that inflation adjusted prices out of Omaha are actually far lower than they were in 1989, a difficult feat for a mid-sized city like Omaha. Don has also invested heavily in improving the safety of the airport. 

Don has also mentored a number of impressive airport professionals over the years including Brad Livingston, who now runs the airprot in Madison, Wisconsin and Steve Coufal, who will take over from Don next week. 

When I was in state government, it was a truism that the companies we tried to recruit to come to our state wanted to know about two things:  transportation and education.   don’t know much about the education system in Omaha and in Nebraska, but, now that I know Don and the work he has done, it is no surprise to me that so many businesses have located in Omaha.  Susie Buffett (yes, from THAT Buffett family) is on the airport board out there.  

A number of years ago, I helped put on a conference in Omaha sponsored by ConAgra, a major agricultural and food company. The CEO of ConAgra was there, as was then-Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr – all for our little conference. But what I recall was the spirit and energy of the place. I didn’t know Don then, and that conference would have occurred early in his tenure. But given what I know now, it is clear that Omaha is the kind of place where the community works hard together to make it a better place, and that Don Smithey was right in the middle. 

Don will retire to his place in Iowa, but has assured me that he will actively follow events and trends in our industry. I will miss his support and his active involvement and wish him all the best.

Filed under: Airlines

Who Wants to Invest in Infrastructure?

The National Governors Association (NGA) is meeting in Washington right now.  When I was in state government in Virginia, I was very involved in these meetings and I know the three-day NGA Washington meeting is among the most substantive and important on the calendar here in D.C. 

The meeting comes just days after the President signed the stimulus bill.  On Saturday, the governors held a debate on infrastructure investment, sponsored by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.  I had dinner the night before with former Virginia Gov. Gerald Baliles, my former boss who is the Director of the Miller Center and who persuaded Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell to hold the debate.  Rendell is chair of the NGA.  That event, part of the Miller Center’s debate series, will air on PBS sometime in the next few weeks.  There is a lot of talk at the governors’ meeting about investment in infrastructure. 

As I was preparing earlier this week for a presentation to the board of directors of Jacksonville Airport Authority, I thought a lot about the NGA and the infrastructure debate. I thought about the work I have done on this topic over the years, including one high level commission in 1992 that recommended more than $10 billion in new infrastructure spending annually (over and above what was already authorized) — and was criticized for being TOO TIMID!  Times have changed. 

Aviation is the transportation mode that is best able to generate its own investment, whether from the ticket tax, from the passenger facility charge (PFC), from airport bonds, or from airport revenues.  Yet, incredibly, our users, as represented by the airlines oppose generating resources for investment.  To me, this is incredible!   I have never met a passenger who feels we have more infrastructure than we need, but airlines have largely succeeded in pushing the passenger out of the way in this debate. 

Airports do not need new general tax dollars to invest in our nation’s economic future.  (Though the general fund should support more of the FAA’s operating budget than it does now, but that is the subject for a future piece).  Airports are ready to go.  Congress, by allowing more bond financing in the stimulus bill, has already made a start, and can go even further by raising the limit on the PFC user fee (local money that is project based and does not support a bureaucracy). 

I was on a flight last week and was told I could have a blanket — for $7!!  It came with ear plugs and eye shades and a drawstring bag with the airlines’ logo on it.  And the airlines don’t want Congress to add $2.50 to the PFC limit to build runways, taxiways, terminals and other important infrastructure.  Is there a group of passengers out there who really believe we have all the infrastructure we need and has been pushing for that $7 blanket bag?  I doubt it.

Filed under: Airlines, Airports, Government policy, politics