HIGHFILL -- Airport officials are looking for ways, including negotiating temporary contract amendments, to help vendors and operators survive the financial hit they're taking from the covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn.
Traffic at Northwest Arkansas National Airport is off an estimated 95 percent, according to Andrew Branch, chief business development officer. Exact passenger numbers from the airlines won't be available until about April 11, so that estimate relies on numbers from TSA.
The drop became really noticeable after March 12 and leveled out last week to no more than 150 to 200 people going through the security checkpoint per day, Branch said.
"It should come as no surprise to anybody that with the covid crisis traffic is drastically off," Branch told the airport board during a meeting Friday. "This is not just affecting airport revenue or airlines, it's also affecting all the rental car operators, our food and beverage folks, pretty much anybody that relies on air traffic for business at the airport is experiencing a pretty painful adjustment to their revenues."
Food and beverage providers have already been allowed to reduce staff and hours. Paradies-Lagardere, the principal vendor, has three people working, down from more than 70, Branch said.
"They're certainly not generating much revenue," Branch said.
All the businesses have asked for some kind of relief, from deferrals or an easing of rental fees, Branch said. If those businesses have to file bankruptcy, the airport would lose both services and money.
Board members approved the request to negotiate but insisted any changes must be subject to board approval and should consider any financial relief vendors receive from other sources, such as the federal government.
"I like the idea of giving them some relief, but not forgiving anything," said longtime director Stan Green.
Philip Taldo said he'd like to see a "leveling out period" down the road when everyone can assess where they've ended up.
"One thing I wouldn't want to do is give them an abatement now then three or four months from now, we find out that the federal government made them whole on that and we're without the money," Taldo said.
Paradies-Lagardere helped XNA when they came in and set up much of the retail and food and beverage shops in 2011 and have continued to do a good job running those operations, Taldo said.
"We ought to do whatever we can to protect their ongoing business, short of abatement," Taldo said. "Abatement is off the board in any of our agreements."
Any amended agreements will likely be reviewed monthly or revisited when enplanements come back to some predetermined level, board members said.
Board members also asked staff to prepare revised financial projections for the airport, based on the economic downturn.
In other action, board members approved completing all the conceptual design work for the renovation of the second floor of terminal. The board also gave its blessing to plans to complete the TSA checkpoint expansion by adding a fourth lane now, while traffic is low, so that it is ready when passengers return.
NW News on 04/04/2020