REGIONAL AIRPORT BOARD: Airport Board Increases Rental Car Fee
MONEY TO HELP IN BUILDING PARKING DECK, CAR WASH
Thursday, November 19, 2009
HIGHFILL — People who rent vehicles at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport will pay more.
Airport officials are looking to save money for a future parking deck or second car wash.
The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority Board of Directors at its meeting Wednesday approved charging a $3.50 per day fee, for a maximum of three days, on vehicle rentals. The fee was $3 per rental vehicle contract, regardless of the number of contract days.
Those who rent vehicles at the airport paid the fee to pay off a car wash that vehicle rental companies use, said Scott Van Laningham, regional airport chief executive officer.
The airport will keep $10,000 per month from the new fee, Van Laningham said, and place the money in escrow to pay for future needs, including perhaps a parking deck.
The car wash operator will keep some of the fee to buy supplies, pay for water and operate the wash, Van Laningham said.
The airport board also approved paying Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson Architects in Fayetteville $66,834 for pre-bid services for a second floor concourse, that would cost approximately $20 million.
The pre-bid services include architectural fees, gathering and drafting documents, attending meetings and other work related to assembling bid packages for the concourse, said Airport Director Kelly Johnson.
The airport likely would get federal grant money for the second-floor concourse, which would add more gates for airlines, Johnson said.
In other business, airport officials reported 45,838 paying passengers boarded planes in October, down 4.64 percent from the 48,072 paying passengers in October 2008.
The regional airport gets $23.64 in revenue for each paying passenger. Fewer passengers boarding planes can mean less operating revenue.
From January through October, 430,209 paying passengers boarded planes, down 7.2 percent from the 463,599 paying passengers who boarded flights from January through October 2008.
Johnson said she didn’t know specifically why air travel is down at the regional airport, but noted that is the case with most airlines nationwide.
American Airlines, which has several flights from the regional airport, reported 7.12 million system-wide passengers boarded in October, a decline of 4.2 percent from the 7.43 million passengers who boarded in October 2008. American Airlines also cut its capacity by 7.3 percent, according to a company news release.
Thanksgiving travel is unlikely to increase traffic at the regional airport or elsewhere, according to the Air Transport Association of America.
The association predicts a 4 percent decrease in Thanksgiving holiday travel this year compared with 2008. Airlines cut flight schedules, meaning any available flights will be full, according to the association.
However, Allegiant Travel Co., whose Allegiant Air subsidiary flies from the regional airport to vacation destinations like Los Angeles and Las Vegas, reported October traffic increased.
Allegiant Air had 359,084 passengers in October, nearly a 29 percent increase from the 278,497 passengers in October 2008.
Allegiant in September announced it would fly from the regional airport to Orlando, Fla., starting today. The Orlando flights will depart Thursdays and return to the regional airport on Sundays.
Comments
To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers. Please read our comment policy.
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Registration is required to make comments. Click here to LOGIN.
You can register for FREE to post comments and receive alerts.