Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust board members on Thursday approved the $170,485 purchase of an airfield sweeper truck to keep debris off the runways and taxiways at Tulsa International Airport.
The board also approved professional service contracts for air service development as well as the quarterly inspection and maintenance of eight passenger boarding bridges.
Jeff Hough, deputy airports director of engineering and facilities, said the airport staff has had to rebuild several times the 1999 airfield sweeper truck that has 3,266 hours on the sweeper and 5,260 hours on the engine.
"It's a front-line piece of equipment we really need to have," Hough said. "We use it on the airfield to sweep up debris that could be sucked into jet engines. We have been putting this off for several years, and it's now to the point that operating it is becoming dangerous. Pieces are flying off at a high rate of speed."
Low bidder for the sweeper truck was Frontier Equipment Sales LLC, of El Reno, whose bid was $35,500 below the budget for the project, officials said.
The board also approved a not-to-exceed $30,000 one-year contract with EMRC IV LP, of Haltom, Texas, for quarterly inspection services and maintenance of eight passenger boarding bridges at Tulsa International Airport. The one-year contract has four one-year renewal options.
EMRC's bid was the lowest of four received, and it was evaluated based on a five-year life cycle of the contract, Hough said. The combination of EMRC's inspection fees, no cost escalation over the life of the contract and hourly rates for repair services (if needed) produced the lowest overall cost to the airport, the engineer said.
Trustees approved a not-to-exceed $11,500 professional services agreement with Sixel Consulting Group Inc., of Eugene, Ore., for air service development at Tulsa International.
Today, four airlines provide daily passenger service in Tulsa: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.
"This firm (Sixel) has had success working with the target airlines we are looking at," said Airports Director Jeff Mulder.
Additional air service will be a tough sell in today's economic environment, says a study by Moody's Investors Service that Mulder provided to the board.
"Moody's outlook for the U.S. airport sector remains negative due to the uncertainty surrounding the key growth drivers of economic conditions, airline capacity expansion and federal funding," the Moody's report issued Monday says. "Moody's ... does not expect the sector to stabilize until consistent positive enplanement growth is achieved. The sector outlook has been negative since August 2008 and we expect it to remain negative until enplanement growth reaches a sustained growth rate of 3 percent or higher."
In September, passenger enplanements were down 6.6 percent at Tulsa International compared with September 2011. In the first nine months, enplanements decreased 1.2 percent compared with the same months last year, airport executives said.
"Our opinion is that seat capacity is likely to fall further as the year progresses due to route restructuring by most major airlines," Moody's says. "The consolidation that has occurred in the airline industry over the past three years has given airlines considerably more market power to raise and maintain higher fares on top of the ancillary fees that have become so commonplace.
"These higher prices will combine with high unemployment and low household wealth levels to limit enplanement growth from a sizable rebound in 2012."
Moody's said the bankruptcy of American Airlines, which operates 16 daily flights and employs 7,000 people at Tulsa International, could mean a 5 percent to 10 percent reduction in seating capacity at the Fort Worth carrier as part of its restructuring process.
The board recommended to the City of Tulsa the $10,293 sale of an 1.58-acre tract of land north of Port Road to Danny's Auto Salvage.
The property is not needed for airport purposes, does not have road access to Port Road and is adjacent to Danny's Auto Salvage, airport officials said.
Trustees recommended acceptance of a Deed of Release from the Federal Aviation Administration to remove restrictions and grant assurance obligations for the property.
Major actions by the Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust
-- Approved contract for $170,485 purchase of airfield sweeper truck
-- Approved not-to-exceed $30,000 one-year contract for quarterly inspections of eight passenger boarding bridges
-- Approved not-to-exceed $11,500 professional services agreement for air service development
-- Recommended to City of Tulsa sale of 1.58-acre tract of land north of Port Road
Source: Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust
D.R. Stewart 918-581-8451
Copyright 2012 - Tulsa World, Okla.
