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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-08-18 Airport Committee Minutes Meeting Agenda City of Bangor Airport Committee Meeting City council Chambers rd 3 Floor August 18, 2010 5:00 The following City councilors were in attendance: Gerry Palmer, Pat Blanchette, Hal Wheeler, Cary Weston, and David Nealley. Also in attendance Mike Boyd, President of the Boyd Group. The following City staff was also in attendance, Rebecca Hupp, Tony Caruso, and Risteen Masters. Councilor Palmer opened the meeting. Agenda: 1. Presentation and Discussion with Mike Boyd.  Mike started off by staying Airline Industries, do not invest in Airlines. Airlines are not a good investment.  Not a good career path for pilots or flight attendants.  Airlines forget the customers; all they are interested in is the bottom line.  Not a fun business to be in.  Airline industry is not expanding in the U.S.  Things on the horizon are not pleasant.  Air traffic is going down, in 2012 it may go up.  Delta, U.S. Airways and Canadian are adding flights.  Bangor is in line for larger seats in 2011-2012, typically 65-76 seat planes.  General Aviation are having cut backs. Some states are not selling gas (100L) for Airlines.  Bangor is filling their seats on the planes, most of our planes are 50 seat Jets.  July traffic is down, capacity was down more.  The Boston flight is no longer economically.  The Continental flight MAY be back.  Portland today has lower than average fares do to the larger population center than does Bangor, that’s brought larger Airlines with more low fare seats.  Airlines are adding capacity here in Bangor.  Bangor has demonstrated opportunities for additional Air Service.  Airlines are interested in Bangor (i.e.: Chicago with United or American, and U.S. Airways adding Charlotte, and Delta to Memphis).  Bangor is working on a Small Community Air Service Grant. Discussion/Questions: Councilor Nealley asked about the United Airlines that was here years ago, if it was a different United that was thinking about coming back here. Mike responded and said that United wants to fill up passengers, and it is in a position to stay here at least five years. Bangor has the strength like Delta, U.S. Airways and Allegiant, that is will fill the planes. He also said basically for the incentitive we have to “kiss” the Airline. Councilor Weston thanked Mike for being here and doing the presentation. Councilor Wheeler-asked with the increase of fuel, as costs increases, will the land transportation take away from the Airline Industry. Mike responded by saying we don’t have ground transportation, to take people everywhere. Then Wheeler indicated that people will drive to destinations like Bangor to Boston and Portland to New York, using ground transportation instead of Air Service. Mike indicated that Bangor is the Center Point we draw people in, as our region grows we are the gateway to Maine. Councilor Palmer asked about the GA/Corporate side, is there a future in this service? Mike responded that the costs are going up and the Aviation is going to be expensive. He also indicated that all Aviation services were going to get costly. They will charge more for all services. 2. Discussion of HUD Sustainable Communities Grant Application. Rebecca discussed this Grant. It is to provide regional planning; regional partners buy in, Federal dollars in the region/state. This Grant will authorize City of Bangor and other Departments used these grant monies. We are asking the Committee to recommend and approve this action to ratify staff action by rd the 23. Councilor Nealley motioned and Councilor ___ seconded it. 3. Small Community Air Service Development Grant Application. Rebecca discussed that back in 2005 we applied and received this grant to bring in low cost service to Bangor. This was the Allegiant Air Service. We are applying for this service again, it is a 7 million dollar grant that we are applying for, which is for adding Hubs i.e. DC, Chicago, Charlotte. Also to get a low cost Air Airline to Bangor. With this Grant we are requesting Marketing dollars, requesting risk abatement dollars, and risk adverse. We have strong demand, high fares, and a great track record. The Key consideration is a local match, commitment and community involvement. Which we have, i.e. Mobilize Maine, BRDA, and CVB. The State of Maine, Maine Department of Tourism is funding us $25,000, the City of Bangor needs revenue. The timeline for this is next fiscal year, but the application is due next month. We are asking for $50,000 - $75,000 for this program. Discussion/Questions: Councilor Wheeler asked about the Grant dollar amount. Rebecca responded that the Grant is approximately $500,000 we are still putting it together. This is due in two weeks, which we only received this about 3 weeks ago. We would like to have a 10-20% match for this Grant. He questioned if the State of Maine is subject to pressure from the congressional Delegation about supporting this Grant. Rebecca responded we are going to get a joint letter of support. Nealley did comment by saying we do need to improve the Air Service and that he feels we need to fully support this Grant. Motioned on this passed by Councilor Blanchette and seconded by Councilor Wheeler 4. Airport Marketing and Public Relations Update. A. Airport Customer Forum B. Trade Show and Business Development Activities/Events-This also goes along with The Airport Customer Forum. This was a one day event. This is our second year putting this event on. The attendance had doubled. The Partnership was very successful. Last year we had about 12 or 13 attendees and this year was 30 attending. C. Passenger Statistics.-Mike covered this in his presentation that the July numbers were down. Discussions/Questions: Councilor Nealley made the comment that the local media doesn’t always put positive news on the front page. The meeting adjourned.