Blueprint For the Future

There’s a widening gulf in America these days. No, I’m not referring to politics. Lord knows we’ve heard enough on that topic lately and are ready to take a break, please.

What I’m referring to is the state of today’s airports. With the consolidation of airlines and the plateauing of passenger traffic over the past couple of years, two main camps are emerging. There are those doing nothing, that feel this is not the time to spend even a dime on improvements, and there are those still managing to create new opportunities while working within the realities of today’s environment.

Keeping our airports compliant and competitive costs money. How we approach meeting the needs of our passengers and tenants — and the spending that takes — is a game changer.

An airport that leaps to mind is Long Beach Municipal, one of the cover stories in this issue. It’s getting ready to debut a new concourse that is “flexible and scalable and does not increase the rates to its airlines.” Further, the management team believes that building a concourse with a lifespan over 30 years is wasteful, because changes within our industry will make it obsolete before then. Hence, the concourse was built for far less money than many might expect. With a new attitude and philosophy, officials in Long Beach focused on creating new revenue-generating amenities to stay competitive and modern.

Lesson learned? While funding and support for public works projects may be tough to come by these days, there are alternatives that create win-win situations and allow airport leaders to “sell” new terminals and concourses to their communities. It’s a new iteration in today’s airport economic climate.

This is the last issue of 2012 and a great opportunity to thank everyone for a terrific year. The support we received from airports, consultants and suppliers was outstanding! It allowed us to lead the industry in coverage, producing substantive stories involving myriad airports. In addition, our website traffic more than doubled, which is a sure sign that our articles are seen time and time again. Special thanks to the writers, proofers, graphic artists and web professionals who’ve created our issues. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Cheers,

Paul