D/FW Passenger Total Grows Again
D/FW AIRPORT -- Despite several setbacks during the past 12 months, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport logged its fourth consecutive year of growth.
Its 59.1 million arriving and departing passengers made the 2005 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, D/FW's best since 2000.
But Joe Lopano, the airport's executive vice president of marketing, who presented the year-end numbers to the airport board Thursday, cautioned against getting too excited about the results.
"We're happy that we're ahead of last year, but we're only ahead of last year by a half-million passengers," he said. The airport's passenger total grew 0.9 percent from last year while the industry grew about 5 percent, he said. D/FW was on pace to grow 12 percent before Delta Air Lines closed its hub last winter.
"There's no question this is a volatile business," Lopano said. "These aren't stellar results, but they're not bad, either."
Regardless of the size of the growth, an increase in passengers usually leads to more money spent on things such as parking and retail goods.
The airport recorded a $15.1 million profit on revenue of $475 million. That compares with a $12.7 million profit on revenue of $340 million during fiscal 2004.
Because of the airport's ownership arrangement, any excess revenue for the year goes back to the airlines, based on the size of their operations at the airport.
Fort Worth-based American stands to gain the most with its 84 percent share of passenger traffic.
Parking revenue increased 8 percent to $88.2 million. Concession sales in the terminals grew 9 percent to $32.8 million.
That's not surprising, said Pauline Armbrust, publisher of Airport Revenue News, a monthly trade publication.
"It's a well-run airport," she said. "They really focus on the customer and efficiencies."
The strong financial numbers came despite several rough patches during the year.
In July, the airport opened a $1.2 billion international terminal, but it had to wait more than three months for the building's largest tenant, American, to begin service there.
Because of the terminal construction and several other projects, D/FW's $3.8 billion debt has grown sixfold since 1997. Debt payments grew 62 percent, from $125 million in 2004 to $203 million this year.
And the airport had to cope with a major pullback by Delta, which closed its hub, cutting 261 daily flights and shrinking its presence from 28 gates to four. American expanded to take up some of the slack, but efforts to lure new carriers with incentives have been largely unsuccessful.
The airport also spent money fighting off attempts to end the Wright Amendment, which bans long-haul commercial flights from Dallas Love Field. D/FW has spent about $1.1 million so far on pro-Wright advertising. It has also boosted its lobbying budget by about $200,000 over the past two years, said Kevin Cox, the airport's chief operating officer.
International travel continues to be a bright spot at the airport. A record 5.6 million people left or entered the country through D/FW. It's the third year in a row that international travel has increased.
And the airport is talking with Qantas and Cathay Pacific airlines about bringing their international flights to D/FW.
D/FW ranks as the country's third-busiest airport behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport and Chicago's O'Hare Airport. It had 15.6 million departing passengers through the end of July, the most recent data available from the Transportation Department.
"The international side is the part that's growing the most," Lopano said. "The timing on building the international terminal has been quite fortuitous."
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