New Indianapolis Airport Chief Has the Right Skills

November 11, 2003

New Airport Chief Has the Right Skills
Patrick Dooley is well versed in economic planning, retail

Indianapolis Star, IN

The city's future airport director lists among his top priorities
reinvigorating cargo operations at Indianapolis International Airport,
which have declined in recent years with the closing of a postal air
operation.

"We'd like to make sure we have a more diversified mix of cargo
operators," said Patrick Dooley, who on Friday was named to the post
effective Nov. 17 by BAA Indianapolis. BAA manages the airport under a
contract with the Indianapolis Airport Authority.

Dooley will replace David Roberts, a BAA veteran who had held the post
since 1995 and is moving back to home to the United Kingdom, according to
BAA.

Dooley brings business development expertise at an opportune time for the
airport, said John Kish, director of the midfield terminal project at
Indianapolis International.

The airport not only houses an inactive postal air complex but also the
vacant United Airlines maintenance base that employed 1,500 before closing
last summer.

A former US Airways reservations center also languishes and retail
business growth at the airport has been blunted by the post-Sept. 11 air
travel slump.

"I think his appointment is key because so many of the problems and
challenges facing the airport are related to business development," Kish
said.

Currently, FedEx accounts for roughly 50 percent of aircraft landing
weights at the airport, where the company operates its second-largest U.S.
hub behind Memphis.

Although FedEx has steadily expanded the hub and plans growth south of its
current location at the airport, it is by far the largest cargo operation.

That dominant share of cargo widened considerably last year, when the U.S.
Postal Service wound down its postal air hub at the airport, although part
of the hub now is used for trucking operations. The air hub once employed
about 900 workers.

Indianapolis was ranked the eighth-busiest cargo airport in North America
in the previous two years but cargo volume has been falling -- from 1.3
million tons in 2001 to 994,396 tons last year.

Dooley has been working on a business case to convince other cargo
operators to come to Indianapolis.

"Economic development is No. 1 as airport director," said Dooley, who most
recently was vice president of business development for BAA.

Dooley, 51, started his day Monday grappling a giant cup of Starbucks that
a small municipality would covet for use as a water tower. He joined BAA
in 1997 as airport retail director. The native of Syracuse, N.Y., grew up
in retail. Among his earliest memories was using a bread slicer at his
family's bakery. "I'm still amazed I have all my fingers."

Dooley attended Syracuse University but didn't finish his finance degree
there. Instead, he learned from the ground up. He spent several years
working for the Chappels department store chain in New York, starting from
janitor and working up eventually to store manager and assistant
controller.

He moonlighted for a Boston retail consulting firm that eventually hired
him. Former Simon Property Group executive Elizabeth Kraft-Meek heard him
speak at a conference in San Francisco and hired him away. Dooley's duties
at Simon ranged from marketing and training to managing retail operations
at Union Station in the early 1990s. He can't help but point out that the
station's retail business, which ultimately was doomed by the opening of
Simon's Circle Centre mall, was profitable during two of his three years
there.

After operating his own consulting firm, Dooley took at job in the
mid-1990s at Indianapolis Downtown Inc., then was hired by BAA in 1997.

By then, BAA had been operating the airport for two years and had begun
adding more specialty retail stores inside the terminal. Surveys showed
that passengers were not happy with food and beverage offerings, a problem
Roberts ordered Dooley to fix.

"You could buy a hot dog here -- an expensive hot dog," said Dooley. "And,
frankly, a dry and overpriced deli sandwich."

Mary Ann Falatic, current retail director for the airport, said Dooley
thought beyond the traditional food model when they sat down several years
ago to brainstorm about improving the food court.

Dooley pushed for more recognizable brands that passengers could identify
with. "One of the things that Patrick brings to the table is his vision,"
she said.

The airport has expanded its food and beverage offerings from a handful in
the mid-1990s to 23. It also has 12 specialty retailers. A 13th, a DVD
rental store, is to open within days.

Dooley's penchant for business development included sharing the results of
airport passenger surveys with retailers. Some passengers wanted more
products from an airport perfume shop, which subsequently expanded its
offerings. Clothing shoppers wanted items tied to sporting events. A hat
store got the message and stocked up on team paraphernalia for the U.S.
Grand Prix, for example.

Helping terminal vendors succeed is mutually beneficial: BAA's management
fee is based in part on nonairline revenues generated from areas such as
retail. U.K.-based BAA received $1.1 million in fees from the airport
authority last year, down from $2.2 million in 2001 -- due in part to
extra costs associated with Sept. 11, 2001.

Another challenge for Dooley is helping the airport land new air service
to underserved markets -- more difficult given the airline retrenchment
after the terrorist attacks.

He serves on the mayor's air service task force, which in recent years
landed Frontier Airlines and new routes to the West Coast and worked with
ATA to launch new service out of Indianapolis.

Remaining challenges for Dooley include putting together a business case
to convince carriers to improve service to Atlanta -- now an expensive
ticket.

"They have to make money on it (a route), and if they don't they'll pull
the service," Dooley said.

The most vexing challenge for the new airport director, perhaps, is
helping find a new tenant for United Airlines' abandoned maintenance base,
built with more than $300 million in taxpayer incentives in the mid-1990s.
Dooley already has had phone calls from unemployed United aircraft
mechanics.

Dooley said he and city officials have seen a number of proposals from
prospective tenants, although he declines to elaborate. Such a lockjaw
stance has some former United workers who are trying to reopen the base
muttering privately that Dooley has not been forthcoming enough.

Dooley responds that confidentiality is key so as not to blow a deal and
to be fair to all parties.

"We continue to have good interest in that facility. It's still a viable
building."


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