There are some 17,490 airports in the United States, of which 5,089 are publicly owned. Out of all these, only 680 are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and only 403 have enough volume of flight operations to warrant a control tower. A mere 50 airports account for 82 percent of all air traffic. The American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) estimates that only about 500 airports employ a full-time manager.
Airport management is a small area it employs only about 10,000 people. Until recently, it was also a fairly closed club, and the vast majority was men who more often than not were World War II pilots. Now, a new breed of airport manager is appearing on the scene, one who is much better equipped to deal with an extremely complicated environment.
Airport managers must balance conflicting interests: local political entities, which are usually their employers; private companies, which are their tenants; airlines, which are both an air-port's client as well as its product; the community, which benefits materially from an airport's services, but pays a price in noise and air pollution; and the airport's customers, the air travelers, who may or may not be from the community.
There is an intense love/hate relationship with their airports, which airport managers feel deeply. Airport management comes into direct conflict with communities when they seek to expand, yet many communities would undergo economic hardship were it not for the commercial vitality brought by the airports.
An airport is a fascinating mixture of a political entity, a commercial venture, a public utility, and a service utility. Managing an airport is akin to managing an entire city, with shops, restaurants, hotels, transportation systems, parking lots, fire and police protection, and tens of thousands of people.
The primary responsibility of an airport manager is to operate a safe facility; the primary task is raising funds to keep it safe. Maximizing safety can pit manager against community on issues such as noise abatement (the safest takeoff or landing may exceed accepted noise levels) and runway obstructions. It can also prove costly, especially in terms of maintaining expensive crash-fire- rescue (CFR) equipment and manpower when statistics say they are not needed.
Airports are like any other municipal entity, said one airport manager. We all compete for dollars. Everything is a compromise. Grooving costs $1.10 a square foot, and you have a runway 7,000 feet by 150 feet. Do you do that or buy a fire truck? Or do you make sure there is adequate drainage? And on and on and on, you put your dollars where they do most good. That's management.
"Airport management always had two basic goals," said an-other manager, "to be a safe airport facility for the public to use and to be a business and make ends meet. I have always seen a conscientious effort for safety projects-nothing is ever done that would compromise safety. But the definition of safety is elusive. The airport manager knows what is safe."
Deregulation, which gave airlines freedom to enter and exit markets, has added a new dimension to airport management.
Airports are now faced with the problem of competing for passengers as well as for airlines. In this new environment, airports are caught in a catch-22 that forces them to concentrate more on passenger conveniences, such as terminal facilities and parking lots, that make their airports more attractive to passengers be-cause, without passenger numbers, they will not have the airlines to draw the passengers in the first place.
Under deregulation, airlines also can change their capacity and equipment, which can also present a problem if an airport is not prepared for the change in the makeup of aircraft that are coming in.
As a result, some airports, such as Washington National, are getting more traffic than they were designed for, while others, like Raleigh/Durham, are underutilized.
Then, there are the airport tenants-the shops, restaurants, car rentals, and other services-that can generate as much as 75 percent of airport funds. These funds are critical. If airlines had to bear the brunt of the airport costs and if fees were too high, they would move to another airport.
Landing fees are dramatically affected by the number of landings; the more landings, the lower the cost for each one. An airport that is losing traffic becomes even more uneconomical to the remaining carriers.
A portion of airport operating funds is raised from tax revenues, but a large part comes from the bond markets. Even here airport managers are being frustrated by the competitive marketplace. Bond ratings, which determine how high an interest rate the airport must pay, depend largely on projections of future traffic, how dependent the airport is on any one carrier, whether there is a competitive airport offering cheaper fees or better service, and whether there are expectations of large financing needs.
An Example: Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport
Out of some 35,000 people who work at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport, only about 20 are responsible for administration (the rest work for airlines and concessionaires). The entire department consists of 160 people (not including fire fighters and police), of which 100 are in maintenance, most of the rest are in clerical positions, and a few others "could as easily be in the insurance business," said John R. Braden, director of marketing in the airport commissioner's office.
"You get very specialized in what you do," said Braden. "Not much of what I do is transferable to another field."
Airport authorities tend to have more staff and more independence from the local political organization than airports that are operated as a city department. In Atlanta, the airport is operated as a city department, and the commissioner of aviation, who theoretically has airport experience, is appointed by the mayor. Under the commissioner, are the deputy and a group of directors of accounting, properties management, marketing and public relations, maintenance, operations, planning, noise mitigation, and community relations? There are a few other staff positions, such as a technical person who acts as a liaison with the Westinghouse Company, which operates the airport's "People Mover" system.
Since the airport is operated as a city department, requests for new staff are filled through the city's personnel department. The department sends over candidates, and the commissioner of aviation makes the final choice.
"At a smaller airport, the biggest function of the manager is to keep enough money in the till to repair potholes. At a big airport, you become a landlord. You build huge facilities and lease them," explained Braden.
But, Atlanta had a tougher challenge. A short time ago, Atlanta was only a regional airport. Largely because of its excellent marketing, the airport has become a major hub for domestic and international traffic and a catalyst to the commercial boom in the Southeast.
Despite the fact that the airport collects $3 billion in income (which translates into an economic impact of $7 billion) and is the largest single employment center in the city, there is an intense relationship with the community. "It is more of a hate relation-ship," declared Braden. 'The community thinks more about the noise than the $3-billion-a-year income. We spend a lot of time and money to cultivate good relations in the community. Atlanta would dry up and blow away without the airport."
Braden's advice for getting into the business: "People generally get into the airport system at a smaller airport and then move up by getting a lesser job at a bigger airport and moving up slowly.
There are a lot of peripheral jobs at airports with fixed-base operators, such as refueling aircraft, pumping air into tires. You learn a little and move up a bit until you can find an assistant-operator or clerk's job at an airport. You have to stay abreast of new developments. You join AAAE, which does a lot of work helping airports find qualified applicants, but also keeps the circle closed."
