"Montana airport director to receive raise, bonus, contract extension"

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Airport director to receive raise, bonus, contract extension
By Peter JOHNSON
The Great Falls (MT) Tribune


The Great Falls Airport Authority Tuesday gave airport director John
Faulkner a highly favorable evaluation behind closed doors and then voted to
give him a raise, a bonus and a further contract extension during the public
portion of its meeting.

Faulkner received a 4 percent raise, to $143,312 in annual salary, and a
one-time bonus of $5,000.

The board closed its meeting on privacy grounds to discuss Faulkner's job
performance, authority chairman Jim Morin said.

Authority members evaluated Faulkner, who is completing his second full year
as director, on six performance areas: administration, business development
and marketing, operations, organizational planning, coordination and
community relations.

"In the aggregate, we ranked John very highly," Morin said. "He received
excellent ratings from the board pretty much across the board."

In addition, the authority, which in February voted to give Faulkner an
early contract extension to 2016, added an additional year.

His new contract will extend through May 31, 2017.

"The bonus represents recognition by the board that his performance has been
particularly outstanding the last two years," Morin said.

Faulkner has helped grow airport service by attracting low-cost Frontier
Airlines to fly summer flights, has spearheaded terminal building
construction improvements set to start this summer and has led the effort to
get Glacier National Park to recognize Great Falls as its eastern gateway in
its marketing, Morin said.

He also praised Faulkner's leadership in recruiting new businesses to the
airport, including some unnamed projects in the works, and integrating the
airport staff into a strong team.

"The airport is financially strong and moving forward, and a lot of this has
been through (Faulkner's) leadership," Morin said.

"I consider myself very fortunate to have a great relationship with a
supportive board as we try to put our strategic goals for the airport in
place," Faulkner said after the meeting.

"We're making progress, we've got great relationships among the board and
staff," he said. "And I really enjoy my job."

Passenger use and airport revenue have grown about 20 percent over two
years, he said.

Those increases helped spur additional flights by Allegiant Airlines and
were a factor in low-cost Frontier Airlines launching new summer flights in
mid-May.

"As in life, success breeds success in the airport business," Faulkner said.
"As the Great Falls airport's passenger volumes grow, the word spreads, and
that drives more business."

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