CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland has moved to shore up city-owned Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, but a clear picture of how badly the coronavirus crisis hit the airport’s budget won’t be known for some time.
The answer to that will ride on how quickly air traffic returns – and the business in the airport that accompanies it, according to Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration.
Ultimately, if there’s a shortfall, the bill will fall to the airlines.
Under the city’s agreement with air carriers that use the airport, the airlines pick up the costs that remain after airport-generated revenue is exhausted.
The airport has increased revenues it raises each year and now generates slightly more than half of what is needed for operations.
The 2020 budget for Department of Port Control – which also includes Burke Lakefront Airport and some waterfront properties -- projects about $170 million in expenditures.
Cleveland received $46 million in coronavirus emergency aid from the Federal Aviation Administration to help the budget through the year.
Jackson last week broke down how that money will be used:
The airport also has moved to cut expenses -- about $14 million projected for 2020, principally by spending less on outside contractual services and not filling open positions, the administration said in an email to cleveland.com.
Collection of parking fees, suspended in March at the onset of the coronavirus crisis, will be resumed June 1.
Parking fees are a major source of airport revenue. In 2018, the airport collected $38 million from parking and ground transportation fees.
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While the master agreement with the airlines, in place through 2021, would require the carriers to cover any shortfalls, the budget is reviewed periodically and fees, such as landing fees, could be adjusted over the course of the year to help meet costs, the administration said.
At this point, though, the carriers have not made specific cost cutting requests, the administration said.
The coronavirus crisis drove down traffic in April more than 96% from April last year and more than 92% from March 2020. This was expected to be a record year for traffic at Hopkins, but year to date totals for passengers through April are down nearly 40% from 2019.
That decline means revenue the airport gets from items such as concessions, parking and fees on ride services are depressed.
That’s been the case with all airports nationally, though.
Data from the federal Transportation Security Administration shows the number of passengers passing through its security checkpoints daily is a tiny fraction of what it was a year ago.
For May 28, for example, TSA reported fewer than 322,000 passengers were screened at airports across the country. That compares to nearly 2.5 million for the same weekday a year ago.
The airlines have continued to operate, though, as required under terms for $50 billion in grants and loans Congress approved for the carriers in emergency coronavirus aid.
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