Friday, May 22, 2009

Another Reason Not To Privatize The Airport

Greg Kowalski, at Metro Milwaukee Today, discusses the news of Southwest Airlines coming to Milwaukee. He makes quite the astute observation at the end of his post:
Lastly, to insert some politics into this, Southwest’s entry at Mitchell is a primary reason as to why Mitchell International shouldn’t be privatized, as Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker wants so badly. The airline’s entry at our airport shows that there are reasons to fly out of Milwaukee, and that Milwaukee is becoming a bigger part of Chicagoland travel. If Mitchell can expand by adding a larger runway and perhaps adding more gates and another concourse, you could see an airport that could take on Midway Airport and impress over 10 million people within 150 miles of the airport. Privatizing isn’t a good option for both reasonable travel and positive investment at the same time.
Besides the fact that privatizing the airport would be a risky venture as illustrated by the problems they're having at Midway, this only goes to show that Walker is a bad county executive and would be an even worse governor.

3 comments:

  1. While I am not sure if privatizing Mitchell is good thing, what Mr. Kowalski says doesn't make much sense either.
    First, how are you going to make a larger runway- where are you going to put it? The north-south runway is as long as it can go. You are also restricted by the east-west runway as far as making it longer.
    Further, if the private sector took over, don't you think they would add more gates or another concourse if it is financially feasiable? Of course they would. they want to make money.
    Further, Don't you think Southwest would have come to Milwaukee regardless if the airport is private or public. To say what Kowalski is saying is just crazy talk. Southwest will go where there are sufficient customers regardless who owns the airport.
    Now, again, I don't know if it is a good idea or not and like Midway, it's going to take a lot of money to make it happen.

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  2. Southwest will go where there are sufficient customers regardless who owns the airport.
    But will there be sufficient customers in the future if they are forced to go elsewhere all in the name of corporate profit?

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  3. If I may respond to Dan's comment...

    There have been plans to construct another, larger runway at Mitchell. When the 440th Refueling Wing left Milwaukee, the county and media were floating around the concept of acquiring that parcel, as well as other properties along Howell and a small neighborhood near the College & Howell intersection, for this runway. The new runway would also have likely included a new concourse. The main reason for a new runway, at least back then, was due to the fact that larger aircraft would need the additional pavement. Furthermore, FAA regulations now are very strict in terms of having open space surrounding runways so incidents like what happened at Midway a few winters ago, where a Southwest jet skidded off the runway and into an intersection...and almost into nearby homes and businesses.

    Yes, a private sector entity could very well invest in such expansion. However, if one thinks such investment will occur with little-to-no increases in rents to airlines and businesses in the concourse and fees towards passengers would be sorely mistaken. Unfortunately, it's these increases that would likely make the private sector entity avoid expansion even if the possibilities and desire are there. They know as well as any other businessman that if rents go up significantly, airlines wouldn't appreciate it and likely wouldn't expand at Mitchell unless it's absolutely necessary. If anything, you'd probably have a decrease in both passengers and airlines utilizing the airport.

    What's funny with all of this is, well, if the private sector owned the airport and saw the need for additional expansion, they'd likely plea with the very people that sold them the airport for financial assistance. In all likelihood, Milwaukee County taxpayers, regardless of who owns what, would pay (a little or a lot) for any Mitchell expansion. Why? You'd have the private entity use the argument posed in the paragraph above regarding huge negatives relating to drastic increases in rates and fees if the entity had to face expanding the airport alone.

    Personally, I'd like to see Milwaukee County taxpayers maximize any such investment at Mitchell. Selling ourselves short to a private entity, which will likely come back to us sooner or later for help in expanding the airport anyways, doesn't seem like either the right or sound solution.

    Oh, and Southwest wouldn't enter Mitchell if the rates for leasing the gates wasn't fair. With Milwaukee County taxpayers owning the airport, we can actually work with airlines like Southwest and encourage them to come to airport, and opportunities are endless. Also, with the airport being owned by the taxpayers airlines are least confident that the airport will at least stick around for tens of years to come. Private businesses can go bankrupt, and the size of the business doesn't matter.

    All of those points, Dan, with all due respect, aren't "crazy talk"

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