As one travels the annual fall conference circuit, one gets the sense of the mood of the industry -

For airports, one concern is who is going to pay for the in-line baggage screening systems that are mandated and ultimately needed; yet, Congress (the 800-pound guerilla behind all of this) and the Bush Administration seem to be turning a blind eye when it comes to actually funding what they say they want.

Then there’s capacity and the return of congestion. Airports want more freedom to operate as businesses, to be allowed to operate as their markets demand to meet local capacity needs, but they feel constrained by the feds.

There’s the issue of access to airports. More and more, airports are arguing that market forces such as peak period pricing need to become a reality so that the system can be better regulated based on demand and on how many people are sitting in that aircraft. This is a sticky issue.

Airports want to get the best utilization out of their facilities. Yet, business and general aviation argue that they have a right to equal (read: no peak period pricing) access. Historically, FAA has supported bizav and GA on this; it’s changing as we speak.

Then there’s the TSA. They say they want to communicate; then they don’t. They say we need to screen, daily, all workers who come onto secure areas on airports, but airports think background checks should be enough. There’s a conflict here.

ongress tells TSA it needs to give airports the option to take over passenger screening operations, but then TSA gives little direction on why airports would want to do this. The thinking in the back of many people’s minds is that TSA is now a bureaucracy and like many bureaucracies it doesn’t want to give up what it has.

Attending the NBAA convention in Las Vegas, one gets the sense that the business/general aviation sector is improving ... guarded optimism, one might call it. As one supplier put it, “This year we had the best month in our history and we had the worst month ever.” It’s definitely a mixed bag out there.

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Finally, a personal note. In our professional lives, we all have people who help us along the way. Call them mentors; call them friends. The one thing you can do is call them anytime with a question. For me, one such person was Loretta Scott, who is retiring as director at the Grand Prairie, TX airport at the end of the year.

Loretta, we wish you good health and happiness in the years ahead.

Thanks for reading.