Touching Base With Krys Bart ...

... the incoming chair of the American Association of Airport Executives in Washington recently led to a one-on-one interview for the upcoming July print edition of AIRPORT BUSINESS. Number one on Bart’s agenda as AAAE chair, of course, is funding and system reauthorization. She’s also in the midst of putting in an in-line baggage screening system at Reno-Tahoe International Airport; recently unveiled the Registered Traveler program; and, is in the initial stages of terminal expansion.  A few outtakes from the interview ...   On the overall issue of security funding for U.S. airports ... “I believe security funding should come out of the general fund; it’s a national security issue. It should not be a system fee. It’s a general fund responsibility.†  On the impact an in-line system will have on terminal expansion plans ... “One of the real positive things about the baggage handling system that we hadn’t thought of until we got into the design -- because the entire ticket counter area is going to change, and the way we do business focusing more on technology and designing for technology -- we are going to end up with, like, 90 ticket counter spaces; significantly more than we have now. When you couple that with technology and that they’re checking in at home, that removes a significant population away from the ticket area. So we will be able to utilize our ticket area for a much longer time than we had originally anticipated, which is good. It allows us to focus on construction of the concourses, which is exactly the space that we need.†  On a criticism by some airport members that the airport associations should be lobbying hard on the user fee issue ongoing between the airlines and business aviation ... “Airports do not run the system, we run part of the system. We don’t have a role with user fees, for example. We negotiate with our tenants in the form of user fees, and that’s our role. We have so many stakeholders who have varying opinions; I think we want to be collaborative with all of the stakeholders. Not taking a position on user fees for general aviation, say, helps us remain collaborative.†  Thanks for reading. jfi