June 03--Morgantown Municipal Airport director Michael Clow told Morgantown City Council that the airport would operate with less money next fiscal year.
Clow attended last week's City Council Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss the airport's budget for the 2014 fiscal year and generally bring Council up to speed on all things airport related.
Clow presented a budget of $2,654,272 for the 2014 fiscal year, which begins July 1. That number represents a decrease of about $177,000 from the current operating budget.
With about a month left on the current budget, Clow said both revenues and expenses are running ahead of last year.
"We 're working diligently to keep [expenses] down," Clow said.
As far as commercial enplanements, Clow said the numbers are slightly ahead 2012's pace. Clow said there were 9,143 commercial enplanements in 2012. Enplanements are tabulated for each calendar year.
"We 're running ahead of where we were last year, but not significantly enough that I feel comfortable telling you that we're going to have 10,000 commercial airline enplanements," Clow said. "But we're working to try to get to that point by the end of the year.
While it's the airport's goal to reach 10,000 enplanements each year, Clow said the majority of the revenue is generated through business clients.
"The big number, 71 percent of our revenue comes from our business aviation clients, which means those people who fly in here in their corporate jets to do business in town. We want to make those guys as happy as we can."
Council member Marti Shamberger asked Clow if the airport has ever considered charging for parking. Clow said it wouldn't produce enough revenue to be worth the investment.
City manager Jeff Mikorski took it a step further.
"That's one of the advantages of flying out of Morgantown over Pittsburgh. One of the bigger costs is paying to have your car parked for an extended period of time."
Clow also gave Council a rundown of some the projects the airport has in the works.
He said the design work for the access road has been completed and a pre-bid meeting was held Wednesday at the airport. He said construction will "hopefully" get started this s u m m e r.
Clow went on to say that the FAA is holding $1.3 million that will be used in terminal project at the airport. He said the total cost of the work will be about $4.4 million
Looking ahead, Clow said the airport will likely need to come up with about $600,000 of local funding for preliminary design and engineering work for a runway extension.
Clow also mentioned the development on the east side of the airport property, and a runway lighting project tentatively slated for 2020.
An area of concern, Clow said, was the recent closure of air-traffic control towers across the country due to Congressional budget cuts.
He said 149 towers around the country were closed.
"Our tower was not on that list, but that doesn't mean it won't be in the future."
He said Morgantown has a contract tower, not an Federal Aviation Administraion (FAA) tower. He said the tower, which is still funded by the FAA, costs about $600,000 annually.
Should it be closed, the impact would be immediate.
He said that on top of a substantial loss of jet traffic, "we will lose our ability to provide separation for the emergency helicopters going into Ruby. If that goes away, they have to go visual flight rules only, which means fewer people will get into the hospital, particularly in bad weather."
One item that was not discussed is that Clow may be catching his own flight in the coming days. Media reports out of Florida list him as one of four finalists for an Okaloosa County airport director job that garnered 89 applicants.
According to one report, onsite interviews will be held for the position on June 11.
Clow moved from Florida to take the Morgantown job and previously told The Dominion Post he would have to consider the position if it is offered.
Copyright 2013 - The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
