Mark R. Twombly is the AOPA Airport Support Network volunteer at Page Field in Fort Myers, Florida.
A reporter from the daily newspaper called the other day to ask a few questions. I breathed a sigh of relief when she said she worked the business desk and not the police beat. She explained that she was researching a story about our general aviation airport. I assumed I was on the reporter's call list because I'm involved in the airport users group.
It's usually cause for concern when the general media starts asking questions about the local airport. An accident — heck, a flat tire — launches the TV microwave trucks, which careen through traffic to set up for a live feed at the airport. Maybe someone noticed an open gate and figured the terrorists who surely lurk in the shadows outside every airport fence were now streaming onto the field. But the business reporter wasn't calling to discuss airport safety or security.
She wanted to talk about growth. As in 68 new T-hangars under construction (to bring the total hangar count on the field to 188), 39 more tiedown spots, 270,000 square feet of additional ramp space, a new self-service fueling location, improved self-maintenance facility, a $30 million FBO in the planning stages, new taxiways, new corporate hangar sites, etc., etc.
As I write, the story has not yet appeared in the paper, but I'm reasonably certain it will be positive, or at least not aggressively negative. She tipped me off when she lobbed this softball up and over the plate: "If someone asked you why Page Field is a good airport, how would you answer?"
An easy homer. "It's got everything," I said. "Primary and crosswind runways, a precision approach, an air traffic control tower, a good FBO, self-service avgas at a discount, first-class maintenance and avionics shops, hangars and paved tiedowns, two well-established flying clubs, an EAA chapter, several flight schools, a pilot shop, an excellent charter operator, a used-aircraft broker, and a convenient urban location. The only thing missing is an on-field restaurant."
Compared to many airports that battle mightily with deficit finances, struggling tenants, hostile neighbors, and apathetic or unsympathetic government landlords, we have an embarrassment of riches at our airport. Why? Part circumstance, part design.
The area has been growing exponentially ever since air conditioning and mosquito control made it tolerable for northerners. The one thing I learned in economics class is that a growing population of residents, businesses, and visitors is better for the local airport's health than a declining population.
The airport used to be the only game in town. In 1983 a passenger-carrying Boeing 727 whistled in a couple hundred feet over the roofs of cars traveling U.S. 41 and, thrust reversers bellowing, rolled the full length of 6,400-foot-long Runway 5 for the last time. The next day a brand-new international jetport seven miles to the southeast opened for airline traffic. Page became a reliever, the official GA-only alternative to the new commercial field.
With the loss of all that easy airline revenue, Page struggled, and had to be subsidized by the international airport. That's no longer the case. The newspaper reported recently that Page is expected to enjoy a $1.2 million surplus in the 2005-2006 fiscal year. The money goes back into the airport, blending with federal and state grants to fund improvements such as the new hangars and ramp expansion. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work?
Yes, it is, and what has happened here should be instructive to lots of other airports around the country. A couple of decisions by the agency that manages the two county-owned airports have been crucial.
One was to gain control over the major income-producing activities at the general aviation airport — retail fueling and the leasing of land and facilities. Cut out the middleman and the diversion of profits into private hands.
Don't like the idea of the government taking over and monopolizing what traditionally has been the province of competitive private business? Neither do I, but we better get used to it. The FAA condones it, and struggling publicly owned airports may see it as the only route to survival.
The second move was to maximize the income potential of airport-owned property and buildings. The old airline terminal is now rented to a state police lab. A shopping center outside the airport fence pays the county an annual land-lease fee plus a percentage of annual gross revenues. Other outside-the-fence tracts have similarly been leased and developed.
Not every publicly owned airport is in a position to attract new development, but many are. The key here, I think, has been professional management at the top levels of the county's airport agency. Several are active pilots and, for the most part, they are a few steps removed from the rough-and-tumble politics that often spell trouble for GA airports. In fact, they've helped educate the politicians to whom they ultimately report.
Yes, we have it pretty good here, but we — the users — also put in time to try to keep it that way. We meet regularly, monitor airport policy initiatives, and speak up when we think it's necessary. Just last week, quite a few of us met publicly with airport managers to object to the size of proposed increases in hangar and tiedown fees.
We spoke, and they listened and pledged to go back and reconsider. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work?
