Vendors, parking, public areas all part of 5-year blueprint

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer accardi@htimes.com

New food vendors, more parking spaces and a place to watch planes take off and land are just a few of the new features planned for Huntsville International Airport's $87.7 million expansion.

The improvements are expected to take place during the next five years.

"With this plan, we can accommodate all aspects (of airport growth) for the next 10 years and beyond," said Rick Tucker, executive director of the Port of Huntsville, which includes the airport, the International Intermodal Center and Jetplex Industrial Park.

Last year, 526,968 passengers boarded planes at Huntsville International. That number is projected to reach 590,127 in 2007, 670,433 in 2012 and 831,200 in 2022. Those figures represent projected normal growth of 21/2 percent a year, based on Federal Aviation Administration forecasts.

"We're well above that pace now," Tucker said. "We're at a 12 percent pace (in passenger growth) this calendar year."

Plans call for several additions and modifications, including:

• Adding two air-conditioned jet bridges with baggage lifts to the concourse and installing new carpets, wall coverings and ceiling tiles in the concourse.
  
  
• Expanding passenger security screening lanes in the concourse from two to four to ease congestion during peak travel times, and moving checked baggage screening from the ticket lobby.
  
  
• Adding 1,600 spaces to the parking deck, for a total of 3,200 spaces, and building a toll plaza north of the current toll booths.
  
  
• Expanding the baggage claim area to accommodate another carousel.
  
  
• Upgrading the electronic flight schedule displays throughout the airport and installing them in the waiting area in front of the terminal building.
  
  
• Expanding the food and beverage concessions area in the concourse.
  
  
• Modifying the entrance access road to the terminal.
  
  
• Providing larger public waiting areas at checkpoint security and modifying the entire front of the ticketing lobby to give more room for people meeting passengers. The waiting area at the checkpoint and the ticket lobby will feature a two-story vaulted ceiling, and panoramic windows will be installed to let passengers and others see aircraft operations and the terminal front at curbside.
  

Construction is expected to start this fall on the first phase of the concourse work. Airport officials said they will work to ensure passengers aren't affected much by the construction.

"We'll make it as easy and convenient as possible," Tucker said.

The Huntsville/Madison County Airport Authority was to review the capital improvement plan this morning before considering a fiscal 2005 budget.

In the cost breakdown of the full project, about $30.3 million will come from the airport's capital improvement account, generated from airport operations; $28.3 million from federal discretionary money; and $23.4 million from FAA entitlement money, which is granted to airports based on passenger traffic. Also, nearly $4.7 million is expected to come from passenger facility charges. The local charge is now $3 on each airline ticket, but that will increase to $4.50 next year. Huntsville International receives about $1 million a year from those charges, Tucker said.

About $4.5 million in entitlement money has already been set aside for the program. "We're committing entitlement money at a rate of about $3.6 million a year through fiscal year '09 for these projects," Tucker said.

The most expensive item in the capital plan is a station for check-in baggage screening - at a cost of more than $26.8 million - that would be built in a basement area. Plans calls for most of that money to come from the federal government and about $1.3 million from passenger facility charges.

The baggage screening project depends on the federal discretionary money, which airports must compete for, he said.

The second most expensive part of the project is the $25 million parking deck expansion. The final scope of that project will be determined by a financial feasibility study and the level of discretionary money it receives, officials said.

Stan Hogan, the airport's director for capital improvement, said charges to the airlines that serve the airport won't change.

Officials are holding down costs in the capital program by more than $30 million by proposing that the airlines have common use of some airport facilities, such as gate areas.

The airport plan is the result of an 18-month planning process, which included taking an inventory of facilities, forecasting growth and analyzing future requirements.