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November 29, 2003 Richmond Times Dispatch – Virginia
Priming the Airport’s Pump
Attracting a low-fare airline doesn't come cheaply.
During the past two fiscal years, the president and CEO of Richmond International Airport, Jon Mathiasen, spent a total of $17,653 for travel, lodging, meals and related costs for out-of-town trips, according to financial records.
One of the main targets of the airport chief's attention has been Southwest Airlines, the discount carrier that Richmond has been courting for years.
According to the records - which cover the period from July 2001 through June 30, 2003 - Mathiasen and other airport officials spent $10,388 on travel, meals and other costs related to visiting Southwest's headquarters in Dallas.
Mathiasen hosted three meals for members of Southwest's schedule planning department, including one dinner in late 2001 that cost $1,329.
According to Mathiasen, the Dec. 19, 2001, dinner at the Star Canyon restaurant in Dallas gave him a chance to meet with 20 to 25 Southwest employees.
"We had a room there with a long table," he recalled. "It was during the holiday season when most people are in town."
The airport chief said the $1,329 dinner tab was "reasonable. It's part of the continued marketing" of Richmond's airport.
Mathiasen released tallies of his travel and entertainment costs - along with those of his marketing and finance officers - after a Freedom of Information request by The Times-Dispatch. During the two-year fiscal period, the airport CEO reported making 25 out-of-town trips, ranging from short jaunts to aviation conferences to Charlottesville ($118.48 for lodging and meals) to longer trips to airline and professional groups around the country.
His most expensive trip was the late 2001 trip for the dinner for Southwest's staff in Dallas. Adding air fare ($784.50) lodging ($314.97) and telephone ($95.29) for the one night stay, that trip totaled $2,524.22.
Mathiasen also has traveled to New York to visit with executives of JetBlue Airways, to Atlanta to meet with Delta Air Lines and to Washington to meet with Virginia congressional staffs.
Airport staff travel to JetBlue in New York - another low-fare carrier courted by the airport - totaled $4,321 during the two-year period.
Southwest Airlines and JetBlue each have indicated an interest in coming to Richmond, but neither has made a firm commitment.
Airport officials have argued for years that the only way to knock down Richmond's high fares is to increase competition with a discount airline. Two officials of the Capital Region Airport Commission - the publicly appointed board that oversees the airport and its staff - defended the need for the airport CEO and others to make such business trips.
"That's one of our directives," said John V. Mazza Jr., the board's chairman from Chesterfield County. "We want them to beat the bushes, and it's like any business - to beat the bushes you have to get out on the road."
Robert F. Norfleet Jr., who heads the group's finance and audit committee, noted that the commissioners have significantly reduced their own travel costs in recent years.
According to the airport's figures, the staff and commission combined spent $76,624 for conferences and travel in fiscal 2003 compared to $175,011 four years earlier.
"But what Jon and the other staff members are doing is going about the business of the airport," said Norfleet, a retired bank executive. "To my way of thinking, there's an implied cost of doing business if you want to attract a low-fare carrier."
Yet part of the high cost of doing the airport's business is its high fare structure. Mathiasen's two-year travel bill was escalated by the cost of airline tickets.
The most expensive ticket: $1,194 for a round-trip flight on Delta Air Lines to Dallas.
Besides his forays to low-fare carriers, Mathiasen has visited Delta's Atlanta headquarters, gone to Las Vegas for a meeting of airline executives and traveled to New York to meet with Federal Aviation Administration officials.
The airport chief also hosted a Nov. 18, 2002, luncheon for congressional staffers at The Capital Grille in Washington that totaled $1,1101.33.
According to Mathiasen, nearly 30 members of the staffs of several Virginia congressmen attended. They came from the offices of Reps. Robert C. Scott, Eric I. Cantor and Randy Forbes. Staff members from the offices of Sens. George Allen and John Warner also attended, Mathiasen said.
"We did a hard-hitting presentation about the high fares in Richmond," Mathiasen said.
The 2002 luncheon was held, he said, to increase awareness about fares as the airlines lobbied Congress for subsidies.
"We think it was worthwhile," he said, adding that he continues "to dialogue on the congressional level."
Mazza, the airport commission chairman, also attended the congressional lunch. The airport has paid lobbyists, he said, but sometimes it is more effective to have local officials make their case.
Richmond's airport marketing and lobbying strategy stands in contrast to Norfolk International Airport.
"My lobbying is done by letters, e-mails, faxes and phone calls" to congressional representatives, said Ken Scott, the long-time executive director at the Norfolk airport. " I don't go there and take staff to lunch. I don't find it that productive and I get excellent support from our congressional delegation."
Norfolk's airport also sends some staff members on marketing trips, spending $20,970 during fiscal 2002 and 2003, according to Scott.
But Scott said he made only one trip himself, costing $1,632.50.
That bought a round-trip ticket to Dallas on May 14, 2002, to visit Southwest's headquarters.
Scott did not pay a hotel bill because he caught a flight back that night, he said.
Southwest has served Norfolk since the fall of 2001. After announcing plans to come here, too, the airline later backed off. It has since said it might come here in two years.
Richmond's Mathiasen noted that none of his travel spending, or that of his staff, came from local, state or federal funds.
The travel and entertainment expenses come from airport operating funds from sources such as concessions and parking fees.
Mathiasen, whose current salary is $175,000, is a public official who reports to the airport commission.
Richmond International has done some local entertaining to promote new airline service. On June 12, the airport spent $2,500 on a luncheon at The Jefferson Hotel for travel agents and Northwest Airlines.
A similar event for Delta Air Lines was held last Jan. 29 at Maymont. The lunch, catered by Incredible Edibles, cost $2,175.25.
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