Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-03-06 Minutes Final New Hanover County Airport Authority March 6, 2013 Page 1 NEW HANOVER COUNTY AIRPORT AUTHORITY REGULAR PUBLIC MEETING March 6,2013 CALL TO ORDER The New Hanover County Airport Authority met on Wednesday, March 6, 2013, at Wilmington International Airport, 1740 Airport Boulevard, Wilmington, North Carolina. Chairman Kays called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Airport Authority members present were Charles Kays, Chairman; Tom Barber, Vice-Chairman; John Lennon, Secretary; and Al Roseman. Carter Lambeth was absent. Also present were Jon Rosborough, Airport Director; Julie Wilsey, Deputy Airport Director; Jim Morton, Finance Director; Gary Broughton, Operations Director; Rose Davis, Executive Assistant; Gary Taylor, Operations Manager; and Caitlen White,Marketing/Accounting Assistant; and Steve Bright and Amy McLane, Talbert & Bright, Inc. Whitney Prease, Facilities Director; and Wanda Copley, New Hanover County Attorney were absent. Guests present were David Culp of Wilmington Aviation Foundation, Dick Butler, Jordan Nason and Fenton Maxwell of Cumulus Broadcasting, Kevin O'Connell and Gerry Tremblay of Aero Service. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The Authority has reviewed the minutes of the Regular Public Meeting on February 6, 2013. Mr. Barber MOVED, SECONDED by Mr. Lennon, to approve the minutes of the February 6, 2013 Regular Public Meeting as submitted. Upon vote, the MOTION WAS APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY. Mr. Lambeth was absent. PUBLIC INTRODUCTIONS AND COMMENTS Dr. Kays asked guests to introduce themselves before he turned the floor over to David Culp, Chairman of the Board of the Wilmington Aviation Foundation (WAF), who addressed the authority on the future of the WAF a/k/a The North Carolina Museum of Aviation. Mr. Culp explained that the WAF has been working for 16-18 years to create an aviation museum in Wilmington. The Airport Authority established the WAF and several authority members have been on the WAF board. The WAF would like the authority to consider the direction for the WAF. The WAF needs a location on the airport property in order to go active and obtain aircraft for the museum. Currently WAF has a small display in the TT,M terminal that it shares with the Battleship for aviation related displays. In response to Dr. Kays' inquiry about the Aviation Museum of North Carolina (AMNC) in Asheboro, NC, Mr. Culp responded that it was established by a gentleman who had a collection of aircraft before he created the museum. A.MNC's walk-in crowd is not large but a lot of aviation people fly in. New Hanover County Airport Authority March 6, 2013 Page 2 In response to Mr. Barber's question about membership and the funding source of the WAF, Mr. Culp indicated that WAF currently has no funding source. Without the prospect of having a location, they felt there was no need to solicit funds. The foundation members are members because they love aviation and include Anna Pennington, Dan Hickman and Matt Matthews. Dr. Kays and Dr. Roseman have been WAF board members and the authority has a seat on the WAF board that is currently vacant. In response to Mr. Barber's question of how the authority could help WAF, Mr. Culp explained that to get airplanes from the military and to be a museum, you have to have a facility, which includes a fenced in area, a building or both, and a certain amount of staff with minimum salaries. The WAF hasn't been able to meet all of these requirements thus far. Mr. Culp indicated that it all depends upon property and having a place for the museum and he asked if staff and the authority would look at ILM's Master Plan and decide if there is any property that isn't going to be used for the airport's Business Park. Dr. Kays asked the staff to do a cursory evaluation of the master plan, maybe not a recommendation particularly, but offer some opinions as to what property might be available at some time in the distant future for the WAF. ADVERTISING AGENCY PRESENTATIONS Dr. Kays turned the floor over to Dr. Roseman who explained that staff sent out a Request for Proposals to 8 advertising agencies and 3 responded and they will give their presentations to the board. Dr. Roseman introduced Colonial Marketing and their owner, Rod Flinchum, and agents Frank Zumbro and Jessica Kirk. Colonial set up and Mr. Zumbro presented. Colonial's proposed brand signature was "ILM—Forever Skyward" and their creative pitch included "connecting the people, places and things we love." In response to Dr. Kays' question regarding a monthly retainer, Mr. Zumbro responded that Colonial has a base retainer of$500 - $1000 monthly. Dr. Roseman introduced Viamark Advertising and their agents Bea Raybourne, Angi Israel and Laura Kincaid. Viamark set up and presented. Their slogan ideas were "Fly easy, Fly ILM", "My ILM" and "Non-stop." Following Viamark's presentation, Dr. Kays asked for local references and asked about their monthly retainer and Viamark responded they do have a retainer that is negotiable based on the client but is usually from$500- $1500 a month. Dr. Roseman introduced Fourth Day Advertising and the owner Sandy Collette and her production partners Brian Donovan and Neal Petrosky of Etc. Media and Kathy Fields of Seaway Advertising and Design. Ms. Collette set up and presented. New Hanover County Airport Authority March 6, 2013 Page 3 Ms. Collette indicated that Fourth Day does not charge a retainer or an hourly wage and doesn't mark up TV, radio or print production. Fourth Day does not charge ILM to distribute press releases and doesn't hand-off clients to a less experienced employee. When you hire Fourth Day Advertising you get her nearly 40 years of experience in all facets of advertising and marketing. Ms. Collette turned the presentation over to her production partners Etc. Media who focused on using TV and radio to drive social media growth. Dr. Roseman asked everyone to rate the agencies to get a general public reaction about the presentations. Mr. Lennon responded that there was more to this decision than just the presentations and a lengthy discussion followed regarding the creative aspects and how to best compare the three agencies. It was agreed that the board would review the proposals presented by the agencies and staff would check references for each agency and this topic would be discussed at the next board meeting. SPECIAL EVENTS None to report. FINANCE REPORT Mr. Morton reviewed actual revenue and expenses for the month of January. Mr. Morton reviewed ILM's cash report and summary of accounts for the month of January. Mr. Barber asked about the commission revenue from the rental car agencies being down 27% and Mr. Morton indicated it was due to the time of year. The commission revenue is on an even spread but this time of year it drops. Mr. Morton reported that in January, compared to last year, even though enplanements have been down, ILM was up 2.5% on rental cars, so the revenue stream on rentals is holding, which is great to see. On the parking side, revenue is down 5%. Mr. Morton reported the PFC Application was submitted to the FAA and showed the 3"thick binder document that included the 40 projects submitted and staff should hear something by July. Mr. Morton indicated that the rental car facility funding was approved by the county to advance ILM the funding for the rental car facility and the county is working on the interlocal agreement to move forward when the project is ready to go out for bid. Mr. Morton updated the board on the budget process indicating that staff is working internally on the proposed budget for FY 2014 and will bring a budget presentation to the board at the April meeting for review and will ask that the budget be approved in May for public review and then in June the board will make the final approval for the budget for FY 2014. FACILITIES Dr. Kays inquired about Whitney's absence and Julie reported that he was at an AAAE Conference on construction in Memphis and also met with our new FAA counterparts. He met with Mr. Phillip Braden and Ms. Chastity Clark. New Hanover County Airport Authority March 6, 2013 Page 4 Ms. Wilsey discussed four action items for authority members' approval, including: 1. A work authorization with Talbert &Bright for the design and bidding of the RWY 17-35 overlay project. The cost is a lump sum fee of$329,600. 2. A contract with East Coast Contracting in the amount of$466,825 to construct and install the new storm water pipeline for the rental car facility. 3. A work authorization with Talbert &Bright and S&ME for the construction administration and testing for the rental car pipeline project in an amount not to exceed $26,879, which consists of construction administration of$16,000 and a testing budget with S&ME not to exceed $10,879. 4. Authorization for staff to engage in contract negotiations with Catlin Engineers and Scientists. This contract will be an on-call arrangement for up to 3 years to consult ILM on environmental issues. Mr. Lennon MOVED, SECONDED by Mr. Barber to approve the facilities action items discussed above. The MOTION WAS APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY. Mr. Lambeth was absent. Mrs. Wilsey updated Authority members on current projects. The ads are in the paper for the rental car service center and drawings are ready with a pre bid meeting in March, a bid date of April 26, and a tentative start date in June. One pipeline is finished in the business park conveyance and that project should be completed in the next couple of weeks. Mrs. Wilsey reported that ILM received the Green Plus highest rating and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce will have an article about IT M in their publication this quarter and Caitlen White was able to put a nice article about ILM and Green Plus on our Facebook page. According to Green Plus, ILM is the first airport in the country to be certified. Finally, Mrs. Wilsey reported regarding the easements on the approach to RWY 17 for the extension of the runway, that there are 6 landowners that staff will send a right-of-entry form so boundary surveys and appraisals can be completed. Those letters will go out in the next week or two. There was some discussion about who the property owners are and Mrs. Wilsey provided a list of the property owners for the board to review. GOVERNMENT Mr. Rosborough reported on sequestration and what the impact has been. It represents about 2.2% of the overall government budget. Right now the bottom line is no impact on our airport at all. You hear horror stories of possibilities of longer wait lines and that has not been the case. This just unfolded March 1St and it will go on for about a year. New Hanover County Airport Authority March 6, 2013 Page 5 Mr. Rosborough stated TSA made an announcement that effective April 25th they are going to allow a few items to be carried on that were previously banned, like a small pocket knife, lacrosse sticks, billiard sticks, hockey sticks, ski poles and as many as 2 golf clubs. MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Mr. Morton reported that ILM did a great promotion last month with Cumulus to generate new email addresses and ILM picked up another 425 email addresses for our email blast and also a 60% increase in Facebook likes. PLANNING &DEVELOPMENT Mr. Morton updated the board on the hotel feasibility study and indicated it was coming back positively but was delayed in order to get information from Net Jets and the number of hotel stays they might generate in the community. Mr. Morton stated that Net Jets booked over 700 hotel rooms last year in Wilmington and the military booked between 200-300 rooms when the Harriers come in on the weekends to do their training. SPG is integrating and analyzing this information and should have the feasibility study finished next week. OPERATIONS REPORT Using charts for illustration, Mr. Broughton reported TT.M's airport statistics for the month of February, including fuel price comparisons, fuel flowage amounts, airfare comparisons with MYR and RDU, total passengers handled and total seats available. Mr. Broughton indicated that fuel flowage for January 2013 was up 8.3% from January of last year. Dr. Roseman initiated a discussion about reporting the fares from Fayetteville and Jacksonville on the fare comparison charts and it was decided that Mr. Broughton would report these numbers since he tracks them but not necessarily put them on the charts. Mr. Broughton was asked to report on Tuesday's fare prices, which is generally the cheapest day to purchase tickets, and to add only the non stop flights from Fayetteville and Jacksonville to the charts. Mr. Broughton reported the total number of passengers handled in February was 51,298, which is down 8.68% from February 2012 and down 1.57% from February, 2011; and the total passengers handled year-to-date was 105,429, which is down 5.9% versus the year-to-date statistics for February 2012. Mr. Lennon inquired about the number of passengers handled being down so much and Mr. Broughton responded that our numbers reported at the board meeting are estimated loads for February because the official numbers are not usually in by meeting night while the other numbers on the chart are official numbers and our numbers reported at the meeting typically increase. Mr. Lennon expressed concern about the decrease and Mr. Broughton pointed out that ILM now has one less LGA flight and no longer has Allegiant, which was 11,041 passengers from last New Hanover County Airport Authority March 6, 2013 Page 6 February and American Eagle last year boarded 1,698 passengers. ILM also had 16 cancellations this February due to the weather and only 11 cancellations due to weather last February. ILM's load factor for February, 2013 was 72%. In February of 2012, there was an extra day and almost 1000 passengers we didn't have this year. Mr. Broughton reported the total number of seats available during the month of February was 34,299, down 14%from February 2012, or approximately 5,633 seats. Year-to-date available seats are down 11.5%. Mr. Broughton reported ILM's international traffic using US Customs statistics for February 2013: 213 aircraft were cleared, which was up 3.4% versus February 2012; and 982 persons were cleared, which was .8% less than last year. Year-to-date, US Customs has cleared 409 aircraft, which was 1.4 % less than 2012, and 2,233 persons, which is 7.6% less than 2012. Mr. Broughton reported that Delta is now offering a dual class of service on the morning LGA flight, a CRJ700 with 9 first class and 56 coach seats and effective April 9th, US Airways is changing two of the three PHL flights to dual class of service, and they will be running with either an Embraer 170, which is a 69 passenger aircraft or a 175 which is an 80 passenger aircraft which will have 8 or 9 first class seats depending on aircraft. With that April 9th change, ILM will have exactly half of its departures being dual class of service. DIRECTOR'S REPORT Mr. Rosborough reported he was in San Antonio earlier this week at Network 2013 and met with eight carriers, and during the meeting with Delta they informed him that in April or May Delta will be adding a third flight to LGA. Delta also indicated they will be offering a dual class of service on one of the three LGA flights. Reporting on Network 2013, Mr. Rosborough explained that airports and airlines get to set up wish lists of who they would like to meet with and appointments are scheduled. Mr. Rosborough was impressed that ILM was able to meet with as many airlines as they did. Staff met with Jet Blue, Sun Country, Southwest, American, US Airways, Delta, United and Silver Airways. Regarding the American/US Airways merger, Mr. Rosborough reported that the US Department of Commerce and Department of Justice wanted additional information as to the impact of this merger and they are talking with the people at both of the airlines, and hoping to move forward with the merger by the third quarter of 2013. Mr. Rosborough reported the American airlines contact sought him out at the conference and said that American wants to revisit service to Chicago O'Hare out of ILM and that perhaps they pulled out of TT M too soon. It took a couple of months for the data from the last quarter to come in and American had started making money in that last quarter. Mr. Rosborough shared a customer feedback form received through the website. This one rated TT.M as excellent and gave high marks and the customer commented that this was a wonderful New Hanover County Airport Authority March 6, 2013 Page 7 airport with friendly staff, and that it was his first time here and he really enjoyed the atmosphere. There was some discussion about the annual briefing to the County Commissioners being scheduled for Monday, April 22nd at 9 am and that we have about 15 minutes to present. Staff will put together the presentation and Dr. Kays will make the presentation and then open the floor for Q&As. OLD BUSINESS Mr. Rosborough announced Dr. Roseman's birthday on March 12, 2013. NEW BUSINESS No new business to report. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Board, Mr. Barber MOVED, SECONDED by Mr. Lennon to adjourn. Upon vote, the MOTION WAS APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY. Mr. Lambeth was absent. Chairman Kays adjourned the meeting at 7:45 p.m. Prepared by: Respectfully Submitted: Rose M. Davis John D. Lennon, Secretary