Privatization of G.A. airports

JEP

Does It Really Matter....?
Staff member
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.
 
[ QUOTE ]
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."

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, but this guy just "happens" to forget to mention that he looks for tax breaks from city government and tax write-offs everyway he can with his business. Public airports are called public for a reason.

A$$es like this really tick me off.
 
A "$200,000 toy"... What a nimrod.

He probably doesn't realize that if you've got a $200,000 aircraft, you're probably less likely to accept user fees and increased costs.
 
David Price is starting to own everything.....He owns American Golf which owns and operates almost every golf course in the US and now he owns the Largest GA airport Mangement company.....I can't believe Santa Monica airport hasn't been renamed after Price....
 
Minneapolis has public golf courses, right? Well, I suppose this butthead thinks that those should be privatized as well? How about the parks there? Or the stadiums built with public money?

People like this guy never forget that government monies fund a lot of things they don't use, which they might think are a waste of that money. However, they forget that government monies also fund a lot of things that they use which many others find just as wasteful!
 
I work at Santa Monica airport and I see that with AAC taking over the only noticable differences are the increased fees, etc.
I know Mr. Price and he is a nice guy, but dang, do you have to make profits off us while most are scraping to get/keep our planes in the air.
 
I fly my ""$200,000 toy," (that I paid less than the cost of a new ford Explorer" out of two privately owned public use airports. cheap fuel no fees ( hanger rent)

This company sounds like the "Signature Aviation" of small airports, once they are in, what are you going to do? Go somewhere else...we are the only guy in town...
 
[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]
Northwest 10 Heavy, slow your approach, you're following a Cherokee on a two-mile final


So, by this guy's reasoning, roads are for $20,000 go-karts and public schools are just social clubs. Grandstanding, plain and simple! Dick Daley also claimed Meigs was only used by an exclusive group of elite playboys.

I don't think its possible to nickel-and-dime and airport to profitability. That means raising rent and closing the smaller facilities. Good thing "AAC the FBO" knows "AAC the Owner."
 
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