Northwest’s airport weighs valet service

Restroom facelift also in budget plan

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport officials are considering adding a valetparking service for passengers in the coming year, as well as an option to get their vehicles cleaned and serviced while they’re away.

Passengers and car-rental firms have pushed for a valetparking operation for some time, said Scott Van Laningham, the airport’s executive director. “While you’re gone, you get your car cleaned up and the oil changed - it would be a nice customer convenience,” he said.

The service would be possible with the planned addition of a $2.68 million carwash facility for rental cars, part of the airport’s proposed 2013 budget. The airport authority will consider the $58.68 million spending plan during a meeting 11 a.m. Wednesday at the airport.

Most passengers won’t notice the biggest changes planned in the proposed budget, Van Laningham said.

The airport also would continue its $40 million project to rebuild the facility’s main runway, which was damaged by a chemical reaction that cracked its pavement. All flights startedusing an alternate runway this fall. The project won’t be completed until 2014, Van Laningham said.

Other changes passengers would see include $300,000 in restroom renovations off the security-screening area in the main airport.

The 15-year-old main airport building is due for some facelift work, Van Laningham said. That’s why airport officials plan to spend about $100,000 in the coming year to design a remodeling plan for the main lobby, a project they hope to complete in 2014.

He said the hope is to give visitors a “sense of place” at the airport at Highfill, near Bentonville. Officials from the airport visited the Springfield-Branson National Airport’s new terminal and noticed how the wallpaper included outlines of the distinctive lakes in that area. Northwest’s lobby remake “is an opportunity to do the same sort of thing, to give visitors a first impression of our area,” Van Laningham said.

While the airport authority will likely decide Wednesday whether to approve the carwash facility, the members won’t decide until laterwhether to offer valet parking and related services.

Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock offers valet parking, spokesman Shane Carter said Monday. The service doesn’t include cleaning or servicing cars while passengers are away, he said.

Also in Northwest’s proposed budget: A 3 percent pay raise for airport employees.

A new position to hire a third shift maintenance supervisor.

$500,000 in engineering work to start redesign of the taxiway. It is also experiencing cracking and will need to be replaced.

Business, Pages 19 on 12/11/2012