Boosters of Airport Go on Tour

November 10, 2003

Boosters of Airport Go on Tour
Visit to Texas facility seen as fact-finding

Baton Rouge Advocate, LA

The quest to build an international airport near Donaldsonville heads west
Nov. 17, when state and local officials visit Alliance Airport in Fort
Worth, Texas.

The Texas facility is an industrial airport that state officials hope to
use as something of a model, said Glenda Jeansonne, executive director of
the Louisiana Airport Authority.

"It is a world-class facility." Jeansonne said. "That is what we are
trying to develop here."

State officials have tried off and on since 1992 to build a futuristic
transportation center with links to water, rail and highways.

Last year, the airport authority picked a 25,000-acre site that spans
parts of Iberville, Ascension and Assumption parishes. But the big hurdle
remains -- finding private investors to finance most of the $2 billion in
initial costs and much more later.

Jeansonne said discussions with private investors, including some in
Europe, continue.

Alliance is run by a company headed by the son of Ross Perot, the Texas
billionaire and former presidential contender. The senior Perot donated
the land and financed the business facilities. The airport is owned and
operated by the city of Fort Worth.

Alliance is the centerpiece of a 9,600-acre development that includes 100
companies that invested $4 billion and created more than 18,000 jobs.
Alliance includes access to highways and railroads and opened in 1989.

The latest list of travelers on the Nov. 17 trip has 26 officials, LAA
officials said. That includes Glen Smith of LaPlace, chairman of the
authority; Jeansonne; Secretary of State Fox McKeithen and aide Al Ater;
state Reps. Emma Devillier, D-Plaquemine, Roy Quezaire, D-Donaldsonville
and Robert Faucheux, D-LaPlace, and Ascension Parish President Harold
Marchand.

Alliance officials will describe how the airport evolved and give visitors
a tour.

The delegation plans to fly from New Orleans to Fort Worth and return the
same day. Jeansonne said the visit will cost taxpayers about $3,000. The
authority has an annual operating budget of about $450,000.

Louisiana officials are finishing the project's master plan, which spells
out specifics of the airport. Jeansonne said that, once that is done,
private investors will have a better idea of exact costs if they get
involved.

Gov. Mike Foster, who leaves office in January, has given the airport
verbal support from time to time. Smith, the LAA chairman, has discussed
the project with Republican Bobby Jindal, a former health and education
official, and Democrat Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who meet on Saturday in
the runoff for governor.

Jindal said he believes it is up to private investors on where airport
plans go next.

Blanco said that, if private investors take the lead, she would favor
state help in financing infrastructure around the airport at some point.
She praised the effort by local officials to make the project come to
life. "It is the way you build your economy," Blanco said.


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