Airport prepared to fly solo / Departed private manager left innovative lesson plan for authority to follow
Source: Chris O’Malley, Indiana Business Journal, Sat. July 21 - 2007
The Indianapolis Airport Authority, which has assumed management of the city’s airports from BAA, said it paid the British firm $21 million over nearly a dozen years to bring brand-name stores and restaurants to a terminal where concessionaires long had gouged passengers.
The BAA contract unceremoniously expired on July 15, and authority officials now taking the helm for the first time since 1995 say they’re confident the millions of dollars in tuition schooled them to continue to innovate as they prepare to open a new terminal.
But those now running what was the first airport in the nation to be privately managed will have to be diligent to boost revenue, to resist the kind of government patronage alleged by BAA’s former Indianapolis director—and to stay current with peers, observers say.
........ If anything, Kish sees advantages to returning to municipal management. Besides saving an average of $1.75 million a year by not having to pay BAA management fees, municipal management removes the need for BAA oversight by the airport authority.