CC MInutes - 06/25/03 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Mr. Noble referred the council to data regarding the performance measure related to travel out of Eugene as opposed to travel from Portland, which indicated Eugene was increasingly losing traffic to Portland. He had been asked over time if Eugene-Springfield had sufficient demand to support an airport and why airlines left if the demand was sufficient. He said that demand was sufficient, but the answer related to how good air service was as well as the fare levels. The airport had no control over fares, and travelers would likely continue to pay a small premium to fly out of Eugene rather than Portland. Mr. Noble said that communities such as Spokane, Billings, and Boise had similar catchment area populations but four times the service and four times the activity. That was due in part to the fact that those areas did not have a competing airport within a two-hour drive. Mr. Noble said that many local citizens decide to drive to Portland both to save money and because they were unable to get a seat out of Eugene for capacity reasons. He said that more local air service was needed. Mr. Noble briefly noted the governance models for other Oregon airports. Mr. Noble emphasized the importance of getting behind and supporting local air service, no matter the model of governance. Mr. Corey said there were approximately 17,000 airports in the United States. Of those, 3,500 had one lighted runway. There were no more than 500 with commercial airline service. About 50 percent of all United States airports provided more than 50 percent of all boarding. There was a great diversity in size and service provided by United States airports, and it was difficult to generalize about them. Mr. Corey said that Eugene's airport was unique. With the exception of some state-run facilities, most airports across the country were run by a local unit of government. Mr. Corey said that generally, organizations consider alternate forms of government for airports because the local government wants to get rid of a "hot potato," such as an environmental issue that the local government does not want to bear the cost of alone. He said that there was no history of a local government creating a port authority or special district to give up control of an airport that ran smoothly. He called attention to the information provided to the council regarding special districts in the meeting packet. Mr. Corey concluded by saying that the airport was not a hot potato; it was running smoothly, it was funded regionally by all its users, and had a good record of success in meeting its performance measures and other measures of success. He recommended that the City continue to own, maintain, and operate the Eugene Airport. Mayor Torrey called for questions and comments. Responding to a question from Ms. Bettman, Mr. Noble indicated that approximately 50 percent of all travel from Eugene was business-related. Ms. Bettman agreed with Mr. Noble that good air service was imperative to economic development. She believed the issue was one of regional economic development. She suggested that the time to regionalize the airport was when it was solvent, as it was now. Ms. Bettman was perplexed by the staff recommendation to retain the airport as a municipal airport for that reason. She favored regionalizing the airport to the entire catchment area to secure a broader base of funding. Ms. Bettman did not want to see the airport having to go to the Eugene taxpayers after the reserves were exhausted for money to upgrade runways or to make the airport more viable. She wanted to examine the potential of an airport district. Such a district could assess service charges. Ms. Bettman wanted to explore the difference between the use of the MINUTES - Eugene City Council June 25, 2003 Page 3 Work Session