Brownfield sent this post:
I have to question the money being spent at the El Paso Airport.
The following is a press release after city council approved the spending request.
$139M in Projects Includes Rental Garage, Runway Work
City Council approved the Department of Aviation’s five-year capital improvement plan this week which includes $139 million worth of projects planned for the El Paso International Airport. The projects listed in the plan should begin between fiscal years 2014 and 2018.
The largest single project will be the $45 million expansion of the rental car lot into a parking structure. The three level garage will be used by rental car companies for pick up and return of automobiles used by travelers. The Consolidated Rental Car Facility will be located immediately to the west of El Paso International Airport’s main terminal, steps away from the baggage claim area. |
| Concept design of the rental parking structure in the Southern Industrial Park Master Plan. |
Included in the structure will be Ready and Return areas, customer kiosks, fueling and car wash areas, a light maintenance facility, and vehicle storage for use by the rental companies. It will include 650-700 parking stalls and be designed using Smart Growth and Congress for New Urbanism principles, including a focus on pedestrian accessibility.
Runway and taxiway work will use approximately $55 million over the next five years. Smaller projects include improvements to Airway Boulevard ($1 million), replacement of baggage claim units ($2.8 million), airfield perimeter roads ($3.35 million), and an upgrade to the central plant ($5.6 million).
Federal Aviation Administration grants will provide $55.97 million in funding with another $20.2 million coming from the Airport Enterprise Fund. Another $45 million will come from Customer Facility Charge fees and $18.3 million from Passenger Facility Charge fees.
END OF PRESS RELEASE
Comment
I can see the runway and taxiway improvements. The airfield perimeter roads are a disgrace and need urgent updating. I have no idea what the “central plant” is and therefore cannot comment intelligently about it. As for a parking garage are they kidding? What for? Damaging hail? Increasing demand? No and no. See the below article on El Paso airport passenger counts.
From another press release
Down 5.5 percent year over year for the first 7 months.
Passenger traffic at El Paso International Airport increased slightly in July from June, but decreased almost 9 percent from a year ago, new data show.
Passenger traffic for the first seven months of the year was down 5.5 percent from the same time in 2012, the airport reported.
The airport was used by 254,150 passengers in July – up 2,475 passengers from June, but down 24,198 passengers from July 2012. For the year through July, the airport was used by 1.59 million passengers – 92,364 fewer passengers than for the same seven months in 2012.
Freight traffic declined 3.1 percent in July compared to July 2012. For the first seven months of the year, freight traffic declined 6.8 percent compared to the same time last year to 51,431 tons.
END OF PRESS RELEASE
What about the Wright amendment dying in October of 2014? For those of you who do not know….the wright amendment affects El Paso and Albuquerque by making mainline commercial flights into and out of Dallas Love Field flights stop in places like ABQ, ELP, AMA, LBB, MAF before going to PHX LAX SAN LAS SFO etc and vice versa. Once this agreement dies in 2014 SWA will be able to overfly ABQ ELP etc and go non stop from Dallas Love to LAX SAN SFO PHX LAS. No question this will reduce the number of flights offered by SWA in and out of ELP.
Brownfield
elpasospeak 
The City Council had it easy on this one as they do on most of the airport business. They only had to “approve” the Dept. of Aviation’s plan which includes all of the funding for the projects. Yes, passengers and customers are supposed to pitch in on those costs, but why worry so? I’d say the Dept of Aviation is doing a pretty good job and we have plenty of other things to object to City Council about that will have an impact our property taxes.
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It’s ironic how we (the collective “we”) are concerned about federal spending except when it is spent in our community. And every other city/state has the same hypocritical mindset. God only knows what would happen to our local economy if El Paso was no longer the beneficiary of so much continued government spending.
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Brownfield makes an interesting point about the expiration of the Wright Amendment.
Fewer flights in and out of El Paso will be just one more reason for businesses to not relocate to El Paso and a lifestyle factor that will reduce people’s interest in living here. Management of companies that do have operations in this area will use that as an excuse to make fewer trips to El Paso. This will negatively impact some local businesses like hotels, which will reduce the HOT tax revenue needed to pay for the ballpark. If the number of flights are reduced local airline jobs will be reduced.
This is the kind of stuff that isn’t being discussed and addressed while our leaders and management are focused on their own agenda. They’ll get around to it after the ballpark opens, which will be too late, especially if the ballpark opens late, which it most almost certainly will. Best case, it will open unfinished just so they can say it was “opened” on schedule. If they fail to open on schedule, watch to see what contract concessions are made to Mountainstar. You can almost bet that the city attorneys did not protect us on the completion date.
The “central plant” refers to the utility plant, assuming that our airport officials use the same terminology as other airports. But who knows? We live in our own little world with our own ways of doing things.
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