Most Airports Have a Dedicated Airport Authority

Dec. 27—A group seeking to shift Toledo's primary airport to the control of a distinct governing body would be following the practice of most other primary airports in this part of the Midwest, a Blade survey found.

A Blade survey of 53 primary airports in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Illinois found that most are operated by a dedicated authority — almost always with the words "airport authority" in the name. Primary airports are defined as serving at least 10,000 passengers per year.

Those include most of the primary airports near Toledo, such as Detroit Metropolitan-Wayne County Airport, Akron-Canton Airport, Fort Wayne International Airport, John Glenn Columbus International, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (in Hebron, Ky.), and Capital Region International Airport at Lansing.

A few airports are operated by their local government, including Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Gerald R. Ford International Airport at Grand Rapids, Mich., and James M. Cox Dayton International Airport at Dayton.

A movement aimed at bringing the control of Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport under the control of a dedicated authority has gained enough traction to have money set aside for a professional evaluation.

Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz and the Lucas County Commissioners have earmarked $75,000 each to hire a Virginia aviation consultant to study governance of Toledo Express. They plan to seek approval for that study early in 2021.

The airport 25 miles from downtown Toledo and just east of Swanton has been managed for nearly half a century by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. The airport is one of many functions the agency and its 13-member board oversee, also including Toledo's Lake Erie port, its shipyard, train station, bond financing for other counties, economic development, downtown parking, and real estate development and management.

A sense that the airport could prosper better under a dedicated board of directors is fueling a new look at airport governance by the Toledo and Lucas County governments.

Airports have been known to change operators, but rarely. In 1980, Columbus city spun off management of the airport now named after the late astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn to the Columbus Regional Airport Authority.

Anthony Plucinski, the manager of the city-owned Akron Executive Airport, said a dedicated authority might be "overkill" for a small airfield such as his. For a bigger airport that is competing for passenger-serving airlines, a dedicated authority might make sense.

"With a larger airport where you're trying to make the airport profitable, it helps to have another set of eyes and it doesn't get lost in the shuffle," Mr. Plucinski said.

The city-county study, when it is done, will survey the views of the airport's stakeholders.

Zachary Cheema, president and chief executive officer of Grand Aire, Inc. — one of three fixed-base operators at Toledo Express — said he has not heard any details of the proposed change and doesn't see the need to change airport management, summarizing his view as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

"As far as I can see, the port authority does everything they can to keep everything running. Even through the Covid time they did everything they could to keep it running," Mr. Cheema said. "I'd love it to be busier. Everyone would. I think it's going to get better."

Also in favor of keeping the port authority in charge is Dr. Joseph Rusin, a local orthopedic surgeon who owns a hangar and a jet at the airport.

Although he thinks Toledoans don't fully appreciate the convenience of travel from Toledo Express, he feels the airport is a port authority priority.

"I don't see a shortcoming to the way it's run, and I don't feel the port authority ignores it, because we've seen improvements in the runway, equipment, everything," Dr. Rusin said. "They have been very, very good. We have no problems taking off, landing, maintenance — actually pretty much anything. The only thing is, obviously, it would be nice if it was a little bit busier."

One obstacle to an airport-only governing body that would have to be reckoned with is its fiscal feasibility.

As of Nov. 30, Toledo Express was running a deficit of $285,259. The port authority's fiscal 2021 budget projects revenue of $4,419,532 and expenditures of $4,407,534, for net income of $11,998.

Opie Rollison, who served 18 years on the port authority board, was a regular critic of mission creep: the board taking on too many responsibilities.

Any plan to transfer airport management to an airport authority, he said, would have to address the question of who subsidizes the airport if revenues fall short of costs.

"If you separate out that authority, are you — the city, the county, the taxpayers — prepared to take on that burden and make sure it's funded?" Mr. Rollison asked. "When you're starting from scratch in today's world, that's something that needs to be taken into consideration."

Changing to a new authority likely would have to involve splitting off part of the port authority's long-standing 0.4-mill levy to support the airport, which would require voter approval.

John Szuch, a longtime port authority board member, said he believes the authority is doing all it can to maximize passenger service.

"The overall economies of the aviation industry are working against the smaller airports," Mr. Szuch said. "The three to four carriers that are an opportunity for us, I can tell you the port authority is pretty much in constant contact with those airlines and we do offer incentives for them to bring more business here. In that area of the airport, I don't see what anyone can do that would generate more passenger traffic then what we are trying to do."

He said there may be more the airport can do to promote ancillary economic development in and around the airport.

Thomas Winston, the port authority's president and CEO, said the agency's depth and resources are a benefit to the airport, not a hindrance, thanks to its ability to share costs for administration, technology, and insurance.

Mr. Winston said he and a colleague attended airport conferences this year in Louisville and Denver, and "there was not an airline that asked the question or was concerned from the standpoint of what our governance structure was. Airlines are looking at relationships and we have them."

As an example of the agency's ability to bring resources and expertise to Toledo Express, he cited the port's pending ribbon-cutting on a new air cargo operation expected to bring 100 jobs starting around April. The port authority board earlier this year approved a $1.7 million appropriation from its reserve fund to develop the facility.

"I'm not sure other communities have the resources of a port authority that we have here," he said.

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