"Redding Municipal Airport may add new fee"

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Airport may add new fee
$4.50 charge would help pay for terminal expansion, taxiway repair
By Marc Beauchamp
The Redding (CA) Record Searchlight

      
It may soon cost even more to fly out of Redding.

The city said this week it plans to ask the Federal Aviation Administration
for permission to impose a $4.50 fee on all passengers departing Redding
Municipal Airport -- to raise an estimated $852,000 through 2010 to pay for
millions of dollars of airport improvement projects. The fee would take
effect June 1.

The airport imposed similar fees of $3 and $4.50 in 1997 and 2002,
respectively, which have raised more than $2 million to pay for airport
expansion and improvements.

Such "passenger facility charges" are ubiquitous at the nation's 435
commercial airports, said Rod Dinger, who manages the 1,750-acre Redding
facility.

The money raised will be used to supplement FAA grants to, among other
things, rehabilitate two taxiways, expand the terminal building and pay for
land south of the airport to serve as a safety buffer. The cost of the
projects is estimated at $10.8 million.

Passenger traffic at the airport, which nose-dived after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks, has since recovered to pre-Sept. 11 levels. Last year,
the airport moved 133,412 passengers. United Express' passenger volume has
declined, reflecting the carrier's 40 percent cut in capacity, Dinger said,
but Horizon's volume has more than doubled thanks to its twice-daily service
to Los Angeles, inaugurated in April 2005.

A 2003 marketing survey found that only 42 percent of the people flying out
of the six-county area served by the Redding airport used the facility. The
rest opted to drive to Sacramento or other airports, seeking better prices
or more direct flights, Dinger said.

Dinger is courting United Airlines to offer flights from Redding to Denver
and talking to Delta Airlines about service between Redding and Salt Lake
City.

Dinger's research shows passengers want "reasonably priced tickets, multiple
nonstop destinations, high frequency, large jet aircraft and competition."
On the other hand, he said, the airlines want "high ticket prices, to serve
as few cities as possible, high load factors, to operate the least expensive
equipment and no competition."

Members of the public can comment on the proposed fees or projects by
contacting Dinger at rdinger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or at Redding Municipal
Airport, 6751 Woodrum Circle, Suite 200, Redding, CA 96002.

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