"Albany International Airport in New York aims to attract corporate jets, pilots"

Monday, November 15, 2004

Albany International Airport in New York aims to attract corporate jets,
pilots
The Albany (NY) Times Union


COLONIE, N.Y. -- With little control over the financial turmoil roiling the
commercial airline industry, Albany International Airport is broadening its
focus to woo two other groups of potential customers: private pilots and
corporate jets.

"It is a small financial component to the airport finances," said airport
Chief Executive John O'Donnell. "However, we look at general aviation as an
opportunity -- the opportunity to bring in additional jobs."

Aside from corporate jets, which can bring as many as five crew jobs with
each plane, airport officials also are looking to be more hospitable to
small, private plane owners. While they're not the job-generators that the
jets are, and their fuel purchases are small in comparison, they do
contribute to the overall image and atmosphere at the airport, O'Donnell
said.

"They are proponents and promoters of aviation, and that is within our
mission statement," he said.

Albany International's appeal for private planes has faded in recent years
for a number of reasons, with high fuel prices topping the list, area
private pilots say. A lack of maintenance and repair facilities to handle
the many regular inspections required on aircraft, as well as fixing and
replacing specialized equipment, hasn't helped either.

"We would love it," Albany pilot Al Chenot said of the prospect of a
full-service maintenance facility at Albany International. "If there's
something wrong with your plane, a lot of times it's not flyable, and what
do you do? You have to bring someone down from Saratoga."

Chenot is one of several pilots who rent space at the airport's two new
T-hangars, where pilots also can buy fuel from self-service pumps at lower
prices than charged by the only other provider there, Aircraft Service
International Group, known as ASIG. The airport-owned T-hangars are full,
with 20 planes and a waiting list of 17.

The T-hangars and self-service pumps are just one way that ASIG, which had
held a virtual monopoly on airplane fueling and service since the early
1960s, has begun to feel some competition in recent years.

Two years ago, Rochester-based US Airports began offering de-icing and jet
fuel, picking up customers from some of the airlines at Albany International
that otherwise would have done business with ASIG.

This year, Plattsburgh-based Champlain Enterprises Inc., which provides
Continental Connection flights out of the airport as CommutAir, proposed to
build a 120,000-gallon fuel farm and to offer de-icing and maintenance
services, to become Albany's third so-called fixed-base operator.

That proposal touched off an unusual outburst by ASIG President Keith Ryan
at the Albany County Airport Authority's August meeting, where he suggested
his company might not carry through with $1.75 million in improvements to a
hangar ASIG now leases from the airport.

"We'd like to feel a little love, which at this point, we don't," Ryan said.
"We feel the airport authority would prefer us to pack up our assets and
leave."

The ASIG terminal, previously known as Signature Flight Support and Page
Avjet, serves as the airport's gateway for many of the region's celebrity
visitors. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and presidential candidates pass
through, as do corporate CEOs and the occasional movie star.

As a result of ASIG's fierce reaction to the proposal, Champlain Enterprises
was persuaded to pull its fueling and de-icing proposals while airport
officials conduct more research on the implications for the overall aviation
services picture. However, the airport authority did approve Champlain's
proposal to offer maintenance and repair services for other airlines and
privately owned aircraft.

Since the company already has its own CommutAir maintenance staff at Albany
International, it makes sense to offer those services to others, said John
A. Sullivan, Champlain's chairman and CEO.

"We're going to hang out our shingle and see who shows up," he said of the
maintenance and repair business. And the fuel and de-icing trade? "We're not
trying to get in and duke it out here with anybody. We just dutifully
submitted our application, and we await the good graces of the airport
authority," he said.

O'Donnell said the authority now is working cooperatively with ASIG to
attract corporate jet customers to the leased hangar ASIG promised to
renovate. There are no corporate jets stationed at the airport now.

"There are many aircraft positioned around the New York metropolitan area
and Boston that could easily be positioned here at Albany," O'Donnell said.
"We believe we could provide competitive hangar lease rates, competitive
fuel costs and mechanics."

Winning over pilots who own smaller single- and twin-engine piston planes,
however, may be a different matter.

Aside from the self-serve fuel at the airport's T-hangars, which was priced
last week at $3.09 a gallon, ASIG is the only fixed-base operator offering
fuel for the planes -- at the current price of $3.80 a gallon.

"Aircraft Service International is probably the highest fuel price we've
been able to find," said Craig Dotlo, a northeast regional representative in
Connecticut for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The group has
more than 400,000 members around the country, representing about two-thirds
of all U.S. pilots.

"In addition, they charge a $13 landing fee for aircraft that aren't based
at Albany, plus there's a $10.56 parking fee and a $15 terminal fee. Those
are a lot of fees," Dotlo said. "It's pretty excessive for an airport the
size of Albany to charge that much."

Douglas Lonnstrom, a professor of quantitative business analysis at Siena
College in Loudonville and director of the Siena Research Institute, keeps
his single-engine Cessna Skyhawk tied down with ASIG and usually fuels up at
Albany. But he said he knows other pilots who fill their tanks or store
their planes elsewhere because of the fuel prices at the airport.

Columbia County, where the price for 100-octane aviation gasoline, or avgas,
used by smaller planes is $2.80 a gallon from Richmor Aviation, is one
popular alternative.

So is Schenectady County Airport, which has some 140 single-engine planes
and 10 private jets, said airport Commissioner Stephen Israel. That's where
Roger Hannay, chief executive of Hannay Reels, a longtime manufacturer of
metal reels to store hoses and cables, keeps his company's corporate jet.

He also keeps a Piper at a company-owned airport in Westerlo, but he said
the set-up in Schenectady County was a good fit when he went shopping for a
home for the jet five years ago.

"There was a nice hangar available at the time that was being vacated, and
the fuel prices are better there," he said. "Albany (International Airport)
was never too much of a consideration for us. Schenectady has a lot less
traffic, so it's easy to get in and out, and I like sharing the airport with
our friends at the 109th Airlift Wing across the way" at the Stratton Air
National Guard Base.

O'Donnell is hopeful that Albany International and the aviation services
providers can put the pieces together in a way that meets the companies'
financial needs, satisfies more owners of private planes and benefits the
airport.

"I would say we're in a transitional state. Everyone is coming to the table,
and we're having very open discussions regarding the direction of the FBOs
on airport," O'Donnell said. "Our pitch is that we want to have as much
competition here at the airport as possible to keep the fuel prices low and
to keep the ground services prices low."

The talks are ongoing, and "right now, we've got some peace," O'Donnell
said. "If everyone's making money, everyone's being profitable, they're
satisfied. It's when someone challenges their business plan that they get
upset. I understand that, but it's our mission to grow the airport, bring
more business here, and build more corporate and general aviation traffic."


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