Fewer flights don't result in fewer authority workers in Allegheny

Nov 06, 2009 (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- LCC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Allegheny County Airport Authority has about the same number of employees as it did when Pittsburgh International Airport had four times as many flights early this decade as a bustling US Airways hub.

Brad Penrod, the authority's executive director, said the agency now handles many duties that, until five years ago, were the responsibility of US Airways, other carriers and private contractors.

The duties include operating miles of conveyor belts that carry bags between terminals; fixing jetways; maintaining flight-information boards and ticket kiosks; and even direct airline promotion.

"I think we do (the jobs) a little better than they had ever been done before," Penrod said.

The duties, however, will eat up $7.1 million in next year's authority budget -- which imposes higher rates and fees on airlines. Additionally, the authority has spent more than $8 million in recent years to upgrade its baggage system and buy kiosks, which allow passengers on several airlines to check in for flights without going to a ticket counter.

Without the additional annual expenses, the average cost per passenger that airlines pay to operate at Pittsburgh International would remain the same next year at $13.41 -- more than double the national median for U.S. airports, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The airport's average per-passenger cost, instead, is slated to go up 14 percent -- to $15.24 -- under the 2010 budget adopted last month.

Among the biggest expenses for duties once handled by airlines: $5.8 million for the authority's 5-year-old Airline Services Department, which runs the baggage system and repairs jetways; $900,000 for advertising and promotion; $100,000 to maintain flight information boards.

"Those are things in our budget that weren't there six years ago. But we were forced to take over a lot of those functions as a result of US Airways' first bankruptcy," Penrod said. "Now I think we're leading the pack (among airports), in terms of some of the things we're getting into."

Starting next year, Chicago-based JBT Aerotech will hire the authority to renovate jetways -- the enclosed walkways that connect planes with a terminal -- that other airports will ship to Pittsburgh for repairs. The authority expects to generate up to $500,000 annually fixing jetways for the company's customers east of the Mississippi River. The authority now renovates only its own jetways.

The Airline Services Department has 75 employees, part of the authority's 430-person workforce. At the start of 2003, the authority had about 440 workers. But as US Airways' Pittsburgh traffic plummeted, so, too, did the authority's workforce.

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