Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Aiport one of best in West

Study compares Friedman’s operations to 5 other airports

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By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Compared to five other Western airports considered to be its peers, Hailey’s Friedman Memorial Airport emerges overall as the best managed and the most frugal in expenses.

The conclusion is the result of a so-called "Airport Benchmarking Survey" conducted by the airport’s consultants, Mead & Hunt, to compare similar factors for efficiency of operations.

Airport manager Rick Baird, who also is economical with words, said he was gratified by the results. He told the airport authority’s members during a monthly briefing that Friedman operations produce "a lot more for less" than other airports, and saluted his staff for their work.

In addition to Friedman, five other airports were surveyed: Aspen-Pitkin Airport, Colo.; Durango-La Plata County Airport, Colo.; Gallatin Airport in Bozeman, Mont.; Glacier Park International Airport, Mont.; and Jackson Hole Airport, Wyo.

Mead & Hunt said in the report that the airports selected for the survey "are all non-hub airports serving ski areas and/or mountain resort communities."

Highlights of the study include:

• Although Friedman Memorial had a "significantly lower" percent of airline operations as a percentage of total aircraft landings and takeoffs—11 percent compared to 29 percent averaged at the other studied airports—Friedman’s higher general aviation operations made it the second highest in total operations among the surveyed airports. Friedman also is listed as Idaho’s second busiest commercial field, behind only Boise’s Gowen Field.
   
• Friedman’s enplanements of 75,098 airline passengers during 2003 was the lowest of the six airports, compared, for example, to "Airport B" (airports were identified only by code in the report) that enplaned 281,025 passengers. But despite the low volume of air carrier passengers, the report concluded that although "airports that enplane less than 150,000 passengers per year have trouble generating sufficient revenue to cover expenses ... it is significant that in 2003 Friedman Memorial Airport enjoyed a positive cash position and that the airport did not require a subsidy to cover operating expenses."
  
   
• Friedman had the smallest staff of the six airports—an average of 11 full-time employees versus 18 average for the other airports and a high of 25 for one airport.
  
   
• Friedman had the lowest cost for each enplaned airline passenger: $2.26 versus $4.57 average for the other surveyed airports and $4.69 cited in the 2002 American Association of Airport Executives rates and charges survey. "Friedman Memorial Airport enjoys a higher level of staff efficiency," the report said, but increasing fees to airlines per enplaned passenger to the same rate as other surveyed airports would yield Friedman another $173,476 per year. (Baird has announced he will undertake discussions with airlines on increased fees.)
  
   
• The study suggested that Friedman should study raising its schedule of landing fees. Friedman’s 80 cents per 1,000 pounds of landing weight is lower than the average at the other airports--$1.07 per 1,000 pounds--and lower than the AAAE average of 94 cents per 1,000 pounds.
  
   
• Friedman should consider adjusting public parking rates, now $1.48, and in line with others airports, but below the AAAE average of $3.29 per enplaned airline passenger.
  
   
• If and when Friedman Airport enlarges its terminal or relocates to another site, it should consider a restaurant to increase revenues, which could be as much as $26,284 annually based on current enplanement rates.
  
   
• Friedman’s terminal is undersized at 14,320 square feet, according to the study: Only 25 percent of Friedman’s terminal is rentable, whereas the other studied airports average 48,089 square feet and 65 percent rentable space.

Friedman is engaged in an ongoing multi-million dollar capital improvement and expansion program that will add parking spaces for vehicles, but not for aircraft.

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