Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 2, 2001
TAMPA -- Faced with soaring security expenses and falling passenger revenue, Tampa International Airport prepared Monday to redraw its budget, chopping staff and salaries and postponing what was once a desperately needed new parking garage.
It also prepared to raise parking rates to generate more revenue.
Fifty-four staff positions that had been approved earlier this month by the board of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority would go on indefinite hold and new vacancies would not be filled except police and public safety slots.
Design and planning for renovations to Airside C would be delayed, as would new rental car garages and the parking structure planned to go over the top of the new remote parking lot at the south end of the airport property.
The cuts, which will be presented to the board Thursday morning, are designed to clear out nearly $7.6-million -- 13.2 percent -- from the new budget of nearly $63.7-million, which was adopted by the board just five days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Projects already under contract, such as the reconstruction of Airside E, renovations to the ticketing level of the main terminal and the acquisition of Drew Park property, would continue.
The cuts were prompted by projections that authority income, anticipated before Sept. 11 at $130-million for the new fiscal year, will be no greater than $115-million.
"These are serious times for this facility," said Louis Miller, executive director of the aviation authority. "We have to do whatever we can to be sure this place stays safe and secure, and those costs are rising and will continue to rise. At the same time, we have a fiduciary responsibility to keep the airport viable, and that requires making choices."
Miller, who wanted to hold the line on parking rates, now says he cannot. He will ask the board Thursday to approve an increase in the daily cap on parking in the long-term lot from $8 to $10 and an increase in the daily cap at the remote lot from $6 to $7.
"There will be an increase at short-term, too, but we haven't decided yet what it should be," he said. "The hourly rates won't change."
Miller has put his own salary on the line to help deepen the budget cuts. He had not requested an increase in his annual salary of nearly $193,000, and under the budget revisions, he would take a 4 percent cut.
The amended budget also would cost executive staff and other eligible authority employees their approved annual raises. Raises also would be deferred for some contract workers, such as janitorial and parking employees.
Shuttles from the landside terminal to the airsides, cut from two trains to one when passenger counts fell after the terrorist attacks, will remain at half capacity to cut costs. Operating time for elevators and escalators also would be reduced.
The thermostats in the terminal and airsides have been dialed up from 72 degrees to 74 or 75.
"We've been testing that out to determine what's tolerable," Miller said, adding that the decline in the number of people occupying the buildings and the cooler weather would help the transition to reduced air conditioning.
The FAA ban on remote check-ins for baggage spelled the budgetary end of the initiative that would have allowed cruise ship passengers docking in Tampa to check their bags dockside through to their airline destinations.
The budget cuts also would reduce trash pickups, as well as pressure washing of parking decks, apron cleaning and janitorial services. New landscaping would be history and landscape maintenance would be decreased. Newsletters, brochures, timetable guides and even the authority's annual report would be eliminated.
"Basically, anything that involves contracts we haven't awarded yet and activities that aren't absolutely essential to the well-being of the airport are gone," Miller said.
Since the amended budget is still subject to board approval, passengers are not seeing the changes yet.
"The place is clean and it's cool enough for me," said Sam DeLand of Dallas. "But given some of the other changes we're seeing at airports, having a used napkin lie around the floor for a while doesn't seem like such a big deal."
TAMPA -- The number of airlines resuming curbside check-in at Tampa International Airport rose to five on Monday: US Airways, TWA, Continental, United and American. Others, including two of TIA's largest tenants, Southwest and Delta, are expected to resume curbside check-in by the end of the week.
Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, also said he expects to reopen the short-term parking garage, which sits atop the landside terminal, later this week.
"We're getting the security program for that finalized now," he said. "It will be open again, I think, by the weekend, maybe earlier."
All cars entering short-term parking would be searched, Miller said. This will include opening the trunk and inspecting the undercarriage with mirrors.
"I've written to the governor telling him that's one area where the National Guard could prove helpful to us when they get here," he said.
Guard personnel, which began their Federal Aviation Administration training at armories around the state Monday, are expected at TIA by Thursday or Friday.
Meanwhile, the northern-most 82 feet of the six decks of long-term parking at TIA were closed off Monday after airport officials discovered those areas were within 300 feet of the landside terminal. The FAA created a 300-foot buffer for unattended vehicles after the terrorist attacks.
TIA parking director Joe Hills estimated about 300 spaces are now closed off.
Cars parked in that 82-foot zone before it was cordoned off were checked thoroughly but not towed, and most of them were gone by mid-morning.
Delay Airside C renovation.
Delay new rental car garages and new parking garage atop the southside remote parking lot.
Raise daily maximum parking rates in long-term from $8 to $10 and in remote from $6 to $7. Raise short-term rates.
Not fill 54 positions and leave open new vacancies, except police and public safety slots.
Not give executive staff and some contract employees annual raises, and cut executive director Louis Miller's pay 4 percent.
Run only one shuttle from the landside terminal to each airside and cut hours elevators and escalators operate.
Raise terminal thermostats from 72 degrees to 75.
Reduce trash pickups.
Reduce landscape maintenance and eliminate new landscaping.