"Sky's the limit for new Gary airport director"

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Sky's the limit for new airport director
Experience helps career take flight
BY JIM STINSON
The Gary (IN) Post-Tribune 


When Chris Curry was 15, he wanted to do something few people could do. He
told school officials then he wanted to be an air-traffic controller.

"I wanted a challenge, I guess," said Curry.

Fewer than five years later, he was off and running, first in Guam, kicking
off a 20-year military career in aeronautical management that helped him
land his current job as director of Gary/Chicago International Airport.

Like his mentor, former director Paul Karas, Curry has big plans for the
airport.

They include two extended runways, at least one commercial passenger
airline, which it now has with SkyValue USA, and a train stop.

Yes, a commuter train stop. It seems Curry still likes a challenge.

Curry has in his office a drawing of a much larger airport, with a link from
the South Shore Line, which Northwest Indiana legislators hope to link to
Munster, Valparaiso and Lowell. Curry hopes in the future people will be
able to get on a train and arrive at the airport.

The airport's 20-year-plan even visualizes a new terminal with dozens of
gates.

The ideas are plausible, Curry says, with O'Hare International Airport and
Midway International Airport operating at high levels. And Curry has won
favor with important political figures who support the expansion, from
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to Gary Mayor Rudy Clay.

In a recent interview, Curry showed off top road-and-snow equipment that
Chicago airports sold to Gary. He said Daley understands keenly that if the
Gary airport succeeds and expands, more job creation and money could come to
the entire Chicago area.

And preparing a 20-year plan keeps the air routes regulated by the U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration, Curry said.

Getting the job

Curry became director in August when Paul Karas, former director, left for
an air-transportation consulting job with CRA International in Chicago.

Karas said he was looking to replace the long vacant position of deputy
director in 2003, when he met Curry. At the time, the airport was improving
its navigational approaches for current and future use. The airport's close
proximity to Midway meant Gary airport had to update its approaches.

The airport hired Jeppesen Sanderson Inc., a Boeing Co. subsidiary and a
provider of aeronautical charts. Curry had been hired by Jeppesen Sanderson
after retiring from the Air Force in 2002.

In late 2004, Curry accepted an offer from Karas for deputy director.

"I was also looking for someone who could eventually take my position,"
Karas said. "He is proactive, things I look for. Someone who is thorough."

Curry, 42, was born in South Carolina and grew up in Savannah, Ga. In 1981,
he graduated from Jenkins High School. He soon joined the U.S. Air Force and
was sent to Guam, even though at the time, he had no idea where it was.

His Air Force career sent him all over the world, to South Korea, Tampa,
Germany and finally, the United Kingdom.

Curry worked as director of airfield management and air-traffic control at
Royal Air Force Mildenhall, a U.S. Air Force base in England.

He said that the majority of air traffic controlled by military bases tend
to be commercial flights using their air space. Curry was working in a
control tower in Fairford, England, controlling commercial and military
traffic, when terrorists struck New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

After President Bush ordered all commercial flights grounded, the United
Kingdom followed suit. Curry, who also had oversight of six other bases in
Europe, had to account for all U.S. flights in Europe.

Curry retired from the Air Force in 2002 with the rank of master sergeant.

By the time he left, he had received a bachelor's degree from Embry Riddle
Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. Curry is not a licensed
pilot, but has flown in simulations.

A new challenge

Being a career soldier may be easier than managing the politics and lobbying
that now surrounds the Gary airport.

In many ways, Curry arrived at the top job at a great time: The Republican
governor, Mitch Daniels, is an avid fan of the airport and wants to help
Gary's Democratic leadership make it Chicagoland's third metropolitan
airport.

On Oct. 13, Daniels arrived with a $20 million check from the Major Moves
program. The money will assist the airport in expanding its main runway, and
with moving a nearby rail line. Airport officials said the budget and
revenues will grow dramatically by 2009, when major reworking begins.

The airport knows success. It successfully won Boeing Co.'s bid to house its
corporate jet fleet.

The airport handled 660,000 pounds of cargo in 2005, Curry said, and since
Jan. 1 it has managed 30,000 flights or operations. It sells jet fuel cheap,
and it doesn't have the Chicago-imposed fees O'Hare and Midway have.

The U.S. Army National Guard also plans to expands its base at the airport.

But Gary's bright, attractive passenger terminal, with its three gates and
free parking, had no commercial passenger service for the first time in
years throughout most of 2006. That will change shortly.

At the same Oct. 13 press conference, Curry announced SkyValue USA, a
Florida-based subsidiary of SkyValue Ltd. of England, would provide
commercial passenger service beginning Dec. 1.

It was certainly a boost to an airport fighting to maintain commercial
passenger service since Pan American, Hooters Air and SouthEast Airlines all
failed. Curry said those failures had less to do with Gary, and more to do
with the national problems of small airlines.

SkyValue is different, he says, because the operators are mainly focused on
air travel. Hooters was a restaurant company, he said, and the Pan American
brand, by 1999, had become owned by a train company owned by Guilford
Transportation Industries.

"SkyValue is run by airline professionals who have a significant amount of
time in the industry," Curry said.

But Curry said the "home run" will be to attract an airline with a
connection to a hub. That will allow passengers to connect to other domestic
and international flights, he said.

The federal government recently gave the airport $600,000 to help attract an
airline with just such a hub connection. The airline will be able to use the
grant for marketing purposes.

Curry is optimistic, and said the grant has stirred interest, although he
didn't name airline suitors.

"The home run is to attract an airline that can take our market to the
world," Curry said.

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