"Nashville Airport slow to recover: Travel levels still down 2 years after attacks"

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Airport slow to recover: Travel levels still down 2 years after attacks 
By BUSH BERNARD
The Tennessean


Two years after terrorist attacks brought the aviation industry to a halt
nationwide, business has yet to recover fully at Nashville International
Airport.

The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority has cut back on costs, raised
some short-term parking fees and is turning a profit, but it could be
another two years before the airport sees travel levels comparable to those
before the attacks, airport President Raul Regalado said.

''We're not out of the woods yet,'' Regalado said. ''We still have our cost
containment measures in place. We're looking for new revenue opportunities.
It's still going to be a couple of years before we see any recovery in the
industry.''

The airport remains in good shape financially, and some aspects of airport
businesses are doing better than others. In his monthly report to the
airport authority yesterday, Regalado noted that gifts, news, food and
beverage sales are up over pre-terrorist attack levels.

Parking, the airport's single largest revenue source, was about even with
pre-attack levels in July, thanks to an increase in short-term rates the
board approved last year. The number of people using the parking lots
remains below pre-attack levels, however.

''The economy continues to be challenging,'' he told board members.

Passenger levels at the airport for the first eight months of this year were
off 11.4% from the first eight months of 2001.

July was the best month since the attacks, with 388,815 people getting on
planes at Nashville International. While that was 3.5% higher than last
year, it's 7.2% below passenger boarding levels in July 2001.

The major airlines that use Nashville International aren't faring any
better.

In July, United Express was the only airline to show passenger gains over
2001 levels. The consortium of regional airlines that flies under United
Airlines' banner has added several flights since it took over United's
Nashville service in April 2001. United cut back its Nashville offerings in
early 2001 because they weren't profitable.

Airlines have an average of 408 flights in and out of Nashville, down from
418 before the attacks. In the months after the attacks, flight levels were
down to 380 or less.

Much of the flight gains have come from airlines using smaller, more
economical jets on many of the routes in and out of Nashville, said Hugh
Smith, the airport's chief operating officer.

The airport is stepping up efforts to recruit more flights to the airport,
Smith said. An airport official attended the International Air Service
Development Forum and made presentations to eight international airlines
about opening service to Nashville.

In addition, the airport will host a dinner and reception for aviation
executives next month at a conference at Gaylord Opryland Resort and
Convention Center.

The board yesterday approved spending $7.6 million on three construction
projects around the airport that will prepare for growth. Another $3 million
will go to design the relocation of Donelson Pike to make room for airport
improvements.

Regalado is also lobbying for federal funding for a $30 million project
tentatively scheduled to begin next year that would move bomb detection
machines out of the airport lobby. That would reclaim a 15-foot deep strip
space in the ticketing area lobby that will be needed once passenger levels
return to their previous levels.

''Right now it's not a problem, but once we get back to those levels we had
before 9/11, this will be a major problem,'' Regalado said.

Attached Graphic:

Airport's aftereffects

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