"Phoenix Gateway airport seeing more fliers"

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Gateway airport seeing more fliers
By Art Thomason
The Arizona Republic


Despite Federal Aviation Administration forecasts of slow passenger growth
for domestic carriers, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport's numbers are rising,
the airport's chief executive said this week. 

Lynn Kusy said Gateway is benefiting from a dramatic increase in passengers
using the airport's biggest carrier, Allegiant Air, and more than $200
million in nearly completed construction projects that will bring hundreds
of new jobs and college students to the former Air Force base. 

The first of the moves begins in a week when Arizona State University
Polytechnic's faculty and staff start moving into three new buildings
comprising 240,000 square feet to accommodate the school's nearly 9,000
students and growth that continually exceeds projections. advertisement  

Before the year ends, Embraer Aircraft Holding Inc., a Florida subsidiary of
Brazilian airplane manufacturer Embraer, should start business in a new
maintenance-and-service center, and Cessna, is on track to relocate its Long
Beach, Calif., operations to a 101,000-square-foot, two-story service
center.

All is not well, however, on the hangar and office-space front, Kusy said.

With the number of general-aviation operations in decline, Boeing moving out
of two large hangars due to its government contracts ending, and the closure
of Silver State Helicopters, a national flight-training school, the vacancy
rate has risen to nearly 40 percent, Kusy said.

Passenger counts are expected to shrink during the summer but rebound in
late fall with expectations that Allegiant will replace some of the six
routes it dropped and add new destinations with shorter distances.

Queen Creek Town Vice Mayor Gail Barney, a member of the airport's governing
board, said the shorter routes could be an asset to the airport for
passengers wanting to avoid long waits.

"Shorter routes should make Gateway an attractive alternative," he said. "It
kind of spreads people out, and it's easier to do."

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