aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Macon airport: everything’s relative

On the local news just now:

More passengers, more airlines, and more money. That’s what Macon city council members say they need, to turn the Middle Georgia Regional Airport around.

On Tuesday, a company called TBI Airport Management, Incorporated told council members it can do all those things, but its services won’t come cheap.

The offer on the table is a ten-year contract between the city of Macon and TBI. The company would manage the Middle Georgia Regional Airport and the Herbert Smart Airport for $135,000 a year, for the next ten years.

Doug and I look at each other. And laugh.

Won’t come cheap? Too much money? $135,000 isn’t even one executive salary!

And that’s for two airports! Someone please tell these people that you get what you pay for.

10 DAYS LATER - it looks like they have a long history of skimping:

Macon Mayor Jack Ellis said today that the city has asked the Federal Aviation Administration to waive a $99,000 fine for violations at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport, or to at least reduce the figure to a more reasonable amount.

In a December letter to city officials, the FAA outlined 23 violations of federal regulations at the airport that occurred between mid-2004 and late 2006. Most of those violations were uncovered in late 2005 and led to the replacement of airport management.

The problems have since been fixed, Ellis said at a City Hall news conference. But the FAA did not get around to formally notifying the city of fines until the letter arrived in December. After a few months of telephone and e-mail negotiations, he said city officials made a recent trip to Atlanta to meet with FAA officials in person and plead Macon’s case.