"Texarkana board to hold airport finance workshop"

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

City board to hold airport finance workshop
By GREG BISCHOF 
The Texarkana (TX) Gazette


The budget concerns of Texarkana Regional Airport and efforts to get
monetary help from both local city governments will be the topic of
discussion at 5:30 p.m. today in a workshop at Texarkana, Ark., City Hall,
Third and Walnut streets.

The workshop will precede tonight's Arkansas-side city board meeting.

During the workshop, Airport Director Steve Luebbert plans to illustrate how
the recent departure of Atlantic Southeast Airlines, coupled with recent
airline bankruptcies and other factors, have recently pulled the airport's
commercial flights down close to the immediate post-Sept. 11. level. These
factors and the airport's projected $85,000 shortfall by year's end are
expected to highlight the dismal economic picture for local business as well
as the airport's immediate future.

During last month's Airport Authority board meeting, board members discussed
April's commercial flight figures, which indicated meager business growth of
just barely 1 percent above April of last year.

While military air traffic continues to grow, the airports overall financial
short-term prospects remain bleak, Luebbert said.

Luebbert calculated that the Arkansas-side's potential bail-out share would
amount to about $36,700, based on the city's current population.

Besides illustrating the lack of commercial traffic, Luebbert also plans to
convey the airport's financial troubles by showing various sites needing
repair-areas such as chipped and cracked concrete along with a dilapidated
security fence.

Both structural problems apparently were neglected during the last 10 to 20
years to present annual balanced budgets to both cities for approval.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dc/dcboard.php

*****************************************