11/14/07 - Airport expected to turn profit in 2008

Recent construction of 10-bay hangar attributed to $1,350 gain that could reach $20,000 by 2009

Bob Ellis/staff photographer
Kris Sims of Groton refuels his Cessna 150 at the Cortland County Airport Tuesday afternoon. Sims was preparing for a flight around the county. The 2008 county budget forecasts the airport, which has long maintained a deficit, earning a $1,350 profit.

(As Published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The Cortland County Airport will likely move out of the red and into the black in 2008, for the first time in at least recent memory, county officials said Tuesday.

A new hangar completed this fall and another that is expected to be finished next fall should mean that the airport on Route 222 in Cortlandville will no longer operate at the expense of taxpayers, county officials said.

The county’s $114 million 2008 tentative budget predicts that the airport, which is operated by the county Highway Department, would generate a profit of $1,350 next year.

In 2007, the airport cost taxpayers $7,500 and $15,609 in 2006.

The airport’s proposed budget for 2008 is $210,200.

The improved financial condition of the airport can be attributed to a new $408,000, 10-bay T-hangar that the county finished building last month, said county Highway Superintendent Don Chambers.

“When we’re completed next year, there’ll be four T-hangar buildings on the property,” Chambers said Tuesday.

In September, the county received $405,500 from the Renew and Rebuild New York Transportation Bond Act of 2005. While $5,000 would go toward airport parking lot lighting, the remainder — along with a $45,000 county contribution — would be spent on the construction of a final T-hangar.

The other hangars on the property were likely built in the 1970s, Chambers said.

The hangars attract aircraft to the field, Chambers said, and more aircraft means more aviation fuel sales by the county.

Each 10-bay hangar generates about $25,000 in annual income, and although only a $1,350 profit is anticipated for next year because the final hangar would not be finished until November, Chambers said that the airport should turn a $20,000 profit in 2009.

Seven of the bays in the new county-built hangar have been leased, with two more leases soon to be signed. County Administrator Scott Schrader said the final lease would not be finalized until after the first of the year.

Schrader said that when he began his job in June 2003, the county was not “really utilizing that airport to its potential” and that it had been operating at a loss of around $30,000 in previous years.

“They (the Legislature) actually invested in an airport, and I actually think it’s going to be making dividends,” Schrader said.

Chambers said that now, the two companies that operate out of the airport, All About Flying and Seven Valley Aviation, are also thriving.

Schrader said the county should continue to make capital improvements to the airport, and hopefully would receive federal funding to do so.

However, once the final hangar is completed next year, Schrader said the county would “sit back and evaluate, first,” before proceeding with any new projects, such as possibly acquiring more land.

The county still has to clear some obstructions at the airport that the Federal Aviation Administration requested by removed. The last plan to get rid of them was rejected by the feds.

The Legislature approved a study of how best to remove the obstacles in July, to be completed by engineers MacFarland Johnson Inc. at a cost of $50,000.

The obstacles are primarily trees, but also a few antennae and utility poles that pose a problem for airplanes entering and leaving the airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration paid for 95 percent of the study and the state and the county split the remaining 5 percent.

The need for the assessment comes after the FAA would not support a plan to mitigate obstructions surrounding the airport with a precision approach path indicator (PAPI), a system that guides planes in and out of the airport and past obstructions.

The study is complete and the FAA is reviewing the latest plan, Schrader said.

I appreciate the efforts of the Legislature to invest in the County airport. They saw that by spending a little money, they can actually turn a profit.

But they can approve a study for $50,000 to have an engineer to look at airport obstructions (County paid 5% or $2,500), but can't get secure funding for a master plan for the County?