MidAmerica reduces airport operating budget for 2024
By RANDY PIERCE
[email protected]
Decreasing by over $1.5 million, the 2024 operating budget for MidAmerica St. Louis Airport was recently approved by the St. Clair County Public Building Commission. Supporting this action are grant support from the Federal Aviation Administration and revenues from a variety of sources including rental fees collected from tenants on the property which also provide a positive impact on the local economy.
As presented by MAA Director Darren James for consideration then approved at a recent meeting of the PBC, the appointed body which oversees the airport’s operations, the new year’s operating budget of $14,703,963 has been reduced by $1,702,485 over 2023.
James explained to the PBC that the airport budget continues, as it has traditionally for many years, to use a cash-based accounting system where expenses and revenue are factored into the bottom line.
In his report concerning the budget, James noted that 2024 will see a minimal decrease in the number of Allegiant Air passenger flights at BLV, the industry designation for this site because of its proximity to Belleville, but that, as he has stated numerous times over the past year, does not mean services are being cut back or being negatively impacted.
Instead, Allegiant has been making adjustments to its BLV flight schedule that have resulted in more people filling a greater percentage of existing passenger seats but with slightly fewer departures and arrivals. Planes landing and taking off from there now have fewer empty seats due to these adjustments.
That strong load factor, as James characterized it, is a positive outcome because it means more airport revenue from auxiliary sources like concessions and parking.
BLV continues to benefit from the presence of rental tenants like North Bay Produce, North American Helicopter and others which provide income in return for their use of space there.
Of the expenditures anticipated for 2024 at the airport, the development of a federal inspection station, which will include a $5 service fee per passenger, in preparation for possible international flights to Mexico, is one of the most significant while other costs will be incurred for continued modifications to the expanded terminal building and necessary equipment or alterations to enable the continued growth of services provided.
These include projects such as the ongoing removal of tree obstructions at the airport site and the purchase of an airfield snow broom carried forward from this year plus expansion of the apron used by aircraft for parking, loading, unloading, maintenance, refueling and boarding.
Also, at the PBC’s recent meeting, James reminded the group’s members that BLV is the sixth busiest airport in Illinois where enplanements, people boarding and disembarking from flights, are concerned.
Throughout the state, regarding passenger usage, BLV ranks only behind the four international airports, O’Hare and Midway in Chicago plus General Downing in Peoria and Quad Cities in Moline, along with Central Regional in the Bloomington/Normal area and ahead of those located in Rockford, Champaign/Urbana, Springfield, Decatur, Marion/Herrin and Quincy.
The number of BLV enplanements as recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration, after two record years (161,562 in 2021 and 162,819 in 2022) fell slightly to 147,293 this year, that, as previously stated, a result of adjustments made by Allegiant at this location while the projections for the anticipated total in 2024 stand at 150,491. By comparison, in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak, the number of enplanements stood at 108,765.
This story also appears in the January 2024 print edition of the Illinois Business Journal.
