Does anyone have experience with the company American Airport's Inc?
I live here in a Minneapolis suburb and the local airport commision is rumored/looking into this. See article in today's Mpls paper:
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MAC awaiting proposal from firm to develop small airports
Dan Wascoe Jr., Star Tribune
Published July 28, 2003 MAC28
A California company that runs general-aviation airports from Pennsylvania to Midway Island is being considered for a potential role in the future of six small reliever airports in the Twin Cities area.
The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), prodded by Northwest Airlines, is looking at ways to trim or eliminate the agency's subsidy of the reliever airports. The commission has operated the airfields at a loss to attract the owners of small planes and divert them from mingling with much bigger, faster planes at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Scott Fuller, a vice president of Santa Monica-based American Airports Corp., has met with MAC members Robert Mars and Mike Landy and Executive Director Jeff Hamiel and his deputy, Tim Anderson. Landy, a St. Cloud businessman and city council member, said he is waiting for a proposal from the company to address the relievers' financial burden.
"We maybe need a sea change in the way they're operated," he said.
Mars, a Duluth businessman, said the relievers' dependence on the commission for substantial support is "bizarre," especially if a private company could make the smaller airports self-sustaining. Noting that the commission does not charge landing fees to owners of private planes at the relievers, he said, "If you have a $200,000 toy, you ought to be able to pay for it."
Hamiel said that Mars is "asking the right question: Can a number of the relievers be self-sustaining?" But he said changing the system would require changing state law.
Many plane owners already pay rent on commission land where they have built hangars.
The six relievers are St. Paul Downtown, Anoka County-Blaine, Crystal, Flying Cloud in Eden Prairie, Lake Elmo and Air Lake in Lakeville.
South St. Paul owns and operates another small airport that is not part of the commission's network.
Hamiel and Landy said that American Airports seemed more interested in developing property at the reliever airports than in operating the airfields. Fuller said that his company had done both and that it remains "very interested in the reliever airport situation" in the Twin Cities area.
"We are waiting to hear when they are going to pick up the issue again," he said, noting that the commission delayed action on the reliever airports earlier this year.
American Airports says it is the nation's largest general-aviation management company. Its eight managed airports include five in Los Angeles County and one each in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Midway Island. It says it has signed a 50-year lease to manage and develop New Orleans Lakefront Airport.
Dan Wascoe Jr. is at dwascoe@startribune.com.
I live here in a Minneapolis suburb and the local airport commision is rumored/looking into this. See article in today's Mpls paper:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAC awaiting proposal from firm to develop small airports
Dan Wascoe Jr., Star Tribune
Published July 28, 2003 MAC28
A California company that runs general-aviation airports from Pennsylvania to Midway Island is being considered for a potential role in the future of six small reliever airports in the Twin Cities area.
The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), prodded by Northwest Airlines, is looking at ways to trim or eliminate the agency's subsidy of the reliever airports. The commission has operated the airfields at a loss to attract the owners of small planes and divert them from mingling with much bigger, faster planes at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Scott Fuller, a vice president of Santa Monica-based American Airports Corp., has met with MAC members Robert Mars and Mike Landy and Executive Director Jeff Hamiel and his deputy, Tim Anderson. Landy, a St. Cloud businessman and city council member, said he is waiting for a proposal from the company to address the relievers' financial burden.
"We maybe need a sea change in the way they're operated," he said.
Mars, a Duluth businessman, said the relievers' dependence on the commission for substantial support is "bizarre," especially if a private company could make the smaller airports self-sustaining. Noting that the commission does not charge landing fees to owners of private planes at the relievers, he said, "If you have a $200,000 toy, you ought to be able to pay for it."
Hamiel said that Mars is "asking the right question: Can a number of the relievers be self-sustaining?" But he said changing the system would require changing state law.
Many plane owners already pay rent on commission land where they have built hangars.
The six relievers are St. Paul Downtown, Anoka County-Blaine, Crystal, Flying Cloud in Eden Prairie, Lake Elmo and Air Lake in Lakeville.
South St. Paul owns and operates another small airport that is not part of the commission's network.
Hamiel and Landy said that American Airports seemed more interested in developing property at the reliever airports than in operating the airfields. Fuller said that his company had done both and that it remains "very interested in the reliever airport situation" in the Twin Cities area.
"We are waiting to hear when they are going to pick up the issue again," he said, noting that the commission delayed action on the reliever airports earlier this year.
American Airports says it is the nation's largest general-aviation management company. Its eight managed airports include five in Los Angeles County and one each in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Midway Island. It says it has signed a 50-year lease to manage and develop New Orleans Lakefront Airport.
Dan Wascoe Jr. is at dwascoe@startribune.com.