Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-01-09 MinutesFAYETTEVILLE EXECUTIVE AIRPORT BOARD MINUTES January 9, 2014 MEMBERS PRESENT: Darryl Riddell, Josh Mahony, Bill Corley, Mike Gibbs, Marty Burggraf, Ken Haxel, Rick Bailey (via Skype) MEMBERS ABSENT: None OTHERS PRESENT: Wayne Jones-MCE; Warren Jones-AA&MM; James Nicholson - Financial Coordinator; Lauren Treat -Administrative Assistant; Neal Bilbe-City Government Channel; Tim McCarley; Ray Boudreaux -Airport Director; Terry Gulley - City Transportation ITEM #1: Welcome. Vice Chair Gibbs. Gibbs welcomed everyone. The first order of business was to elect the chairman for the New Year. Boudreaux said the board selects its officers from its members. Bob Nickle served as chairman since 2005. Corley nominated Gibbs for chairman and Burggraf seconded. Mahony also suggested himself and Darryl for a chair position. Burggraf nominated Riddell for secretary. All were in favor of Gibbs moving up to Chairman, Mahony becoming the Vice Chair, and Riddell filling the role of Secretary. ITEM #2: Approval of the Airport Board Minutes of the December 12, 2013 meeting. A motion to approve the minutes with the proposed change was made by Bill Corley, and seconded by Darryl Riddell. The motion carried. ITEM #3: Receiving of Reports. A. Director Boudreaux, Aviation Director. Boudreaux said at the tower program is good until the end of FY2014, though after that, there are no guarantees. He briefly discussed his end of year (final quarter) report. Overall, 2013 went well. Overall, operations increased by about 300 over the last year. However, Boudreaux said operations were down a bit over the last nine months (when the City took over the FBO). Unfortunately, the City just happened to take over right when the sequestration hit. Military traffic dropped this year but that was out of our control. Also, there was a spike in fuel prices over the summer which might contribute to the lower operations. We started 2013 with ten hangars for storage and we finished the year with only three rented for storage. Few airplanes come into the area each year so we did very well. Boudreaux welcomed Riddell to the board. Gibbs said he looks forward to serving with him. Corley asked Riddell if there has been an uptick in people buying airplanes in the NWA Region. Riddell said that the pleasure aviation sector has diminished. He doesn't know if there will be an increase in that area any time soon. This is partially due to the economy and partially to the cost to own/operate an aircraft. Riddell said business aviation tends to follow the economy and he anticipates that end of the industry will grow. Boudreaux said the month of December was not that great; we only sold about 15,000 gallons of fuel. An average month is somewhat over 25,000 gallons. The low sales are probably because of the snow and ice. B. Financial Coordinator James Nicholson, Budget Report. Fuel sales were scarce in December. Operations were essentially even with last year's number; we had about 1% more this year. Fuel sales were about 3.5% off of last year's number. Over 50% of fuel sales are itinerant jet sales, 25% are based jet sales, and the other 25% is 100LL sales (split equally between base and transient customers). He said that Drake Field still has the highest jet fuel price in the region, though it is better than when Million Air was here. Nicholson said if you take out the startup costs from the FBO, we made about $25,000 this year. This is a positive sign for the airport. Nicholson mentioned that we will have to start paying for the fuel trucks beginning in March. Corley asked if we might look into buying a truck. Gulley said the benefit of us renting the trucks is that they do all of the maintenance. Boudreaux said they do the valve, the re-fueler pump, the tank, etc. but they do not do maintenance on the truck itself. The City's transportation department does that. Boudreaux said we could buy one, but we have to make sure it is certifiable. Riddell said leasing versus buying is a good decision since we just started the FBO and we are still leaming. Maybe in the future, buying the trucks would make more sense. Nicholson said there is an alternate leasing agreement where we could lease -to -own. It takes about five years or so. Nicholson said he recently set up an appointment with a representative from the IRS. We should be able to apply for the reimbursement for the excise tax, etc. about two weeks after the meeting. Discussion of DLA back -payments, the money Million Air owes the airport, and the airport's budget followed. C. Administrative Assistant, Lauren Treat, T -Hangar Report. Reported all hangars are full with three rented for storage. D. Wayne Jones, McClelland Engineers, Construction Report. Final inspection was December 20 and 15 items were noted. Wayne said he has been checking on those items. Boudreaux said he will put in for a design -only grant for the apron repair. Wayne said they have put in a grant task order for that project and Boudreaux which will be presented to the city council soon. Boudreaux said the next big project on our five year plan is to repair the terminal apron. Wayne said this been on our five year plan for five or six years and the apron itself is about 33.5 years old. We can finally do this; we have been saving money from the AIP. We will have $450,000 available, which is about the cost of the project besides the cost of hiring the engineers, etc. Gibbs asked for a motion. Riddell made a motion to go further with the application for the AIP grant and seconded by Josh Mahony. Motion carries. E. Museum Executive Director Warren Jones, Museum Report. Warren said the museum has been closed almost every day during December and only had two visitors in the last day. He said the gas bill will be steep, but less expensive than fixing a broken pipe in their water system. Warren held a Christmas party at the museum for a group of 4`h graders. Patrick Carter (NFlight) & the Amelia Earhart Foundation helped fund the event. The children were under the impression that they would get to tour the museum and maybe open a present. Warren dressed up as Santa and each of the children received remote controlled helicopters. Carter surprised the children and took them up for a ride the Stinson. Additionally, Warren said that Holcombe Elementary School will keep track of Carter's flight around the world, which will be captured on his NFlight camera. F. Marketing Committee Chairman Bill Corley, Marketing Report. Corley asked if the airport should begin a marketing campaign for the FBO (vs. selling or PR instead)? Next, he asked if the airport decides to do a marketing plan, will the goal be to get a measurable payout/return on investment? And finally, who is the target audience? Corley said in his professional opinion, jet customers will be the only target market that will provide a payout. Boudreaux agreed that if the airport wants a return on investment, the focus must be jet sales. However, an increase in tower operations could be an alternative goal. Corley said another option would be going the sales route, like Pete Mastroianni did for MA, instead of a marketing plan. Corley said it is possible for the airport to get a ROI and he said he is meeting with Marilyn Heifner of the A & P Commission to find out what kind of metrics they use. Corley predicted an average increase in sales by 4 or 5% which translates to about a $37,500 increase in gross sales. Corley said most of the airport's traffic will not be reached by marketing — they fly here because they are coming to Fayetteville for some other reason. Mahony suggested that the board talk to other businesses in the area and encourage them to have their clients fly into Drake Field in exchange for an incentive such as a base tenant rate on fuel. Gibbs said a marketing plan is typically five to ten thousand dollars, plus however much else is needed to actually execute the plan. The execution costs could potentially cancel out the revenue generated by the marketing efforts. Corley asked about increasing military fuel sales. Boudreaux said Mastroianni helped with that until the end of last year, but even without him, we are still getting military traffic. Drake Field is listed online as a contractor for DLA fuel. Gibbs said that the board might be able to put together a minimal marketing plan. Corley agreed. He said he unsure that spending $10,000 on a brand new marketing plan is worth it. Corley said we might consider following an existing example. Riddell said corporate jet pilots are often bored sitting out in the terminal lobby. He suggested that we talk with them and ask them why they are here. Haxel said the pilot and crew typically decide where the plane stops — not the aircraft owner. Haxel said food draws in flight crews. More discussion followed. A strategic planning meeting was scheduled for January 14 beginning at 10:00 AM. ITEM #4: Old Business. Resolution concerning contract tower program Boudreaux referred to McKinney's request last month about the Board putting together a resolution calling for ATF money to fund the tower. He said this request is no longer necessary because funds have been found. McKinney said that is satisfactory for him. Boudreaux said this resolution may be necessary in the fall, however, depending on what happens this year. Advertising policy for terminal lobby Boudreaux said XNA makes about %2 million a year on indoor advertising. He admitted FYV is not nearly as big as XNA, but we could sell a little signage space in our terminal lobby. The proposed cost is $200/mo. for a wall -mounted, poster -style ad. Boudreaux said he finds it difficult to promote base tenants' competitors, but the airport is a municipality so we have to do business with whomever wishes to pay the cost. Tenants will be offered a discount on ad space. Corley asked about equal opportunity advertising rules. Mahony said because we are a municipality, we cannot appear to offer anybody something that is not offered to someone else. Boudreaux said we might have four or five spaces we could offer. Riddell said we should not clutter up the terminal and make it look tacky. Corley asked the board to keep in mind that he already has a client who is interested. Gibbs said he would like to survey our tenants about allowing advertisements in the airport. Boudreaux agreed. ITEM #5: New Business. A. Department of Aeronautics Grant Changes Boudreaux said the participation rate is raised by $50,000 by each category. The revenues are coming in which means airplanes are being sold, fuel is being sold, etc. Things are looking good. ITEM #6: Other Business. A. Items from the Public. None B. Items from the Airport Board. Mahony said he has been keeping up with the news about how a driver's license may replace the third class medical certificate for flying under VFR rules. The FAA said they will go back and look at the petition. If this passes, it could be a good thing for sport aviation and might mean another plane or two at Drake. Boudreaux said they are trying to save recreational flying. Corley said another huge development is that three oil companies are close to formulating a replacement for MOLL gasoline. This could change the future of general aviation. Nicholson said that is unleaded gas for airplanes. Boudreaux said this change could take effect as soon as this year. Bailey apologized via Skype for his absence. He also apologized for his lack of fuel buying the last three months; he will be unable to fly for another three months. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 3:25 P.M. Darryl Z-13- t Date February S. 2014 Mayor Lioneld Jordan 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 Dear Mayor Jordan, Please accept this letter as formal notification of my intended retirement from the City of Fayetteville. I have greatly enjoyed working at the Airport and along with the staff am justifiably proud of the progress made in the last 12 years. My intended last day will be March 28, 2014. Brenda and I do not plan to leave Fayetteville except when traveling. We both have long histories as public servants and plan to find places to continue to serve the Citizens of Fayetteville. Brenda is currently serving on the Library Board. As President of the Arkansas Air and Military Museum Board, I will continue to volunteer at the museum. This will be my third and probably my last retirement so it is bittersweet. I have never been without a job where I felt that I could make a difference in the community, the nation or the world. It is time however, for me to make room for someone young and energetic with new ideas who also wants to make a difference in the community, the nation and the world. I know that with the right encouragement and support, our Airport can be the very best GA Airport it can be. Thank you Mayor for your support. While I no longer will be an employee, I am very much interested in our great community and as a citizen I hope you will call on me should you need my experience. I currently serve as Chairman of the Board for the Northwest Arkansas Certified Development Company and Vice Chairman of the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District Board. I have served at the pleasure of the Mayor since arriving in Fayetteville as one of the City's three representatives. I would be happy to continue to serve, should that be your wish. I also plan to continue to serve as Past President of the Arkansas Airport Operators Association and will take it on myself to introduce our new Airport Director to the organization and the important folks at Arkansas Department of Aeronautics and the FAA. In our fair City, I have been nominated to serve as President of the Fayetteville Downtown Rotary Club for 2015-16. Rotary is a great service club that works in the community and in the world. I will be looking for great projects to benefit our community for my year as Rotary Club President. I have been honored to serve the citizens of Fayetteville. The future is bright for our airport and I know the staff will support the new leader to y6ze each and every opportunity. COL USAF Director of Aviation