Dream of flight lives on for airport

10/19/03

By Chris Marr, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

Richard B. Russell Regional Airport - built in 1947 as a Naval training base - is the anchor of Rome's decades-long aviation history.

And since a late-1990s restructuring transformed the county-owned airport into a money-making operation, who would blame Russell Field's management if it sat back and enjoyed its recent success?

That's not what airport manager Mike Mathews has in mind.

With a wish list that includes a 2,500-foot runway extension and the startup of an aviation mechanic school through Coosa Valley Technical College, Mathews and the airport's commissioners are looking for ways to make Russell more of an asset to Floyd County and the surrounding region.

"We'd like to attract some maintenance business, maybe a commuter airline and cargo," Mathews said. "I think cargo service is a definite possibility in the future."

Each of the services has the potential to create jobs and make Greater Rome more attractive to new industry, says Hans Rogers, chairman of the airport commission.

"Maintenance is my favorite because it allows us to provide jobs with minimal disruption to the area," he said.

An airline could set up a maintenance hub at Russell without an extension to the 6,000-foot main runway, since planes coming for maintenance would be light, with no passengers or cargo. Heavier planes would need extra runway length to take off and land comfortably.

But what Russell does need to get into the maintenance business is a nearby school to train aviation mechanics.

They're working on it.

Coosa Valley Tech has assured the airport commission that the school is interested in teaching aviation maintenance at the airport, but Russell Field will have to help pay for the needed equipment and instructors.

"The aviation maintenance school is something we're interested in," said Coosa Valley Tech president Craig McDaniel. "I'm probably a year away from being able to commit money to it, and then it will take probably another year to get everything set up."

The college is also looking at offering the first two quarters of flight school, after which students would transfer to Georgia Aviation and Technical College in Eastman.

"Our mission is work force development," McDaniel said. "These are good-paying jobs, and because of our location we'd be serving Birmingham, Atlanta and Chattanooga areas as well as the airport here in Rome."

Nationwide, aircraft mechanics average $25 an hour and professional pilots earn an average of more than $100 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2002 National Compensation Survey.

Once the mechanic training is in place, attracting an airline to set up a maintenance hub at Russell will not be a far-fetched possibility, Mathews says.

AirTran recently looked for an airport outside Atlanta where it could do routine maintenance, but couldn't find a suitable place and chose to go to the Orlando area, he said.

"Maintenances like building where there's a school. It gives them a good pool of labor," Rogers added.

Airlines are attracted to places like Rome because they can avoid the detailed regulations they have to follow when flying in Atlanta air space.

That advantage could also help Russell Field dip into the cargo business someday, as a hub for a shipping company or a local manufacturing industry.

"I think we would be in a perfect position if someone wanted a small cargo hub," Mathews said. "I think that will happen in the next five years."

Any major cargo movement likely would require the long-desired runway lengthening, a project Mathews thinks will cost $8 million and could take seven to 10 years to get done.

"Before 9-11 we were real close to that money I think," he said.

Land for the extension likely wouldn't be a problem, Mathews added, since the airport sits on 1,000 acres and he knows of 200 more available acres nearby. But funding for this kind of project is hard to come by, he says.

"The (Federal Aviation Administration) doesn't believe in funding potential use. They fund current use," Rogers said, meaning the airport would have to show a present need to extend its runway.

The airport's traditional formula for paying for upgrade projects is 90 percent federal money, 5 percent state money and 5 percent local money, he added.

And not all upgrades are as extensive and costly as the desired runway lengthening.

Within the last two years, the airport's ramp area has been extended and a taxiway parallel to the main runway has been built at a cost of $1.5 million.

Russell Field also installed high-intensity lights for $250,000 on its main runway to improve pilots' visibility when landing at night or in bad weather, and the airport is making security improvements such as fence installation, brighter outdoor lighting and keycode-entry gates for $165,000.

The physical improvements are relatively minor compared to the management shuffling and financial turnaround the airport underwent about six years ago.

When Rogers joined the airport commission, managers seemed to think county-government entities were supposed to lose money, with the exception of longtime airport commissioner Thom Holt.

"There were some years it lost serious money," Rogers said. "Thom had been struggling to convince the other members that the airport could make money."

The commission brought Mike Mathews on as airport manager, laid off most of the airport's eight employees and set a strict no-overtime policy.

"We started charging closer to market price for hangars and fuel," Rogers added.

The airport gradually cut its losses through the late 1990s and has made a profit since 1999.

Russell Field reported $158,541 in profit in 2002, on $721,119 of revenue - a 22 percent profit margin, as Rogers proudly pointed out in the airport's annual report.

"A lot of airports can't say that," Mathews said.

As it stands now, the airport is a little like its own self-contained economy - with more than 70 homes (for planes, not people), a fuel station, a deli and a rental car service.

The airport draws most of its revenues from rental and lease fees for hangars (about $200 a month) and from fuel sales, which have increased by almost 40 percent during the last five years.

"For the past three years we've been breaking records on our fuel sales," Mathews said.

Russell sees 65 to 90 aircraft pass through per weekday, and from 75 to 110 aircraft a day on weekends.

Weekday traffic is primarily corporate travel, while the weekenders are often recreational trips, Mathews said.

"We're kind of a halfway point between the Illinois/Michigan area and going down to Florida," he said. "They make this one of their stops because we have a deli on the field they like and good fuel prices, and we know them by name pretty much. I guess we're lucky to be the halfway point."

The airport - with its offices open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week - handles the traffic with 4½ full-time positions and salaries of $109,916 in 2002.

And Mathews sees that as proof of how efficient a county-owned airport can be. "I think we do a pretty good job with the amount of people we have and the number of hours we're open."