A blueprint for the future of Gary/Chicago International Airport unveiled Thursday calls for making leisure charter airlines its core business and to further regionalize its governing board.
It also points out the promise of business-jet travel for the airport, stating an expanded runway and its proximity to Chicago's Loop eventually could make it the Chicago area's primary corporate aviation facility.
"The flight plan has been filed. We are about to take off at the Gary/Chicago International Airport," Regional Development Authority Chairman Leigh Morris said in front of about 150 business leaders at the Build Indiana Summit at Avalon Manor, in Hobart.
The strategic business plan unveiled at the summit was prepared by aviation consultant Landrum & Brown at a cost of $449,732.
The plan is expected to guide both the Gary/Chicago Airport Authority and the RDA as they seek to kickstart the airport's stalled development. Both paid for the report.
Priority No. 1 in the plan is moving the Canadian National Railway tracks that block expanding the main runway, because new business won't come without a longer runway, according to Dan Muscatello, a Landrum & Brown managing director who headed up the strategic business plan project.
"If the runway extension isn't in place, this plan is just a paperweight," Muscatello said of the 202-page document.
That means the original Federal Aviation Administration plan for moving the tracks often referred to as plan A, Muscatello said. Earlier estimates have pegged the cost of that project at more than $50 million.
In 2006, the airport received a pledge of $56.2 million in funding over 10 years for its expansion project from the Federal Aviation Administration. It also rounded up pledges of more than $30 million in additional funding.
Although RDA and city leaders signaled a willingness to consider the plan's findings, many of its recommendations are sure to be debated.
The report calls for further regionalizing the board of the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority, where the mayor of Gary now gets to make four of the seven appointments. The Porter County Council, Lake County Council and Indiana's governor each get one appointment.
But the report points out that counties as far away as Newton and LaPorte also have an interest in seeing the airport succeed.
"I don't know exactly what that means, but if it means adding people to the board, that's a state legislative issue," Airport Authority President Nate Williams said.
"We can have 20 members on the board, but we want to make sure everyone has something to bring to the table," he said.
The plan's recommendation on what should be the airport's core business encompasses the recruiting of charter carriers, low-cost carriers and leisure carriers with regular schedules such as Allegiant Air.
Seats on leisure charter flights are generally sold as tours directly to vacation spots or to cruise ship ports of call. Some charters operate so many flights that passengers can actually book seats online just as they would on an airline.
Omni Air International and Sun Country Tours are two of the bigger players.The plan also states professional sports teams as well as charters to Mexico and even Europe are potential niches the airport could fill.
The Chicago Department of Aviation that runs Midway and O'Hare airports has signalled it would like to be a key partner in getting charter flights to use Gary, since those services take up precious landing slots and gate space at those airports, Muscatello said.
The Gary airport could attract from 500,000 to 1 million such passengers when fully developed, he said.
So-called "high-frequency" passenger services operated by major airlines should not be developed as a core airport business, but can be pursued on an ad-hoc basis at this time, the plan states.
In the past, the airport has held preliminary talks with airlines such as Delta for flying regional jets from Gary to major air hubs such as Atlanta.
The report also concludes the airport has "at best, only a very limited potential over the near-term" for handling significant amounts of air cargo.
However, it states a truck cargo consolidation and distribution center could be located adjacent to the airport. Expanding a foreign trade zone there could entice customers such as the Ports of Indiana and Canadian National Railway to use the facility.
The new truck facility would be part of a broader plan to prime parcels around the airport for commercial development.
The plan recommends professional consultants be hired for several jobs at the airport, including overseeing negotiation with railroads to move tracks and managing the subsequent construction project. It also recommends hiring consultants to examine whether airport staffing and governance should be changed.
In all, the report contains 27 recommendations, including rebranding the airport and changing its name to reflect its regional importance.
Williams said renaming the airport would be on the authority's "bottom line of priorities right now."
The airport is overseen by the Chicago/Gary International Airport Authority, which also oversees O'Hare and Midway under a 1995 compact signed by the city of Gary and the city of Chicago.
The report notes the dual governing structure is unusual but seems to benefit the Gary airport, mainly because the joint authority heavily subsidizes the Gary airport's operation.
Clay has been trying to more closely align the airport's interests with those of the city of Gary, recently attaining a supportive majority on the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority by naming a City Hall ally to the seven-member board.
The airport should continue to be owned by the city of Gary and then leased to the reconstituted airport authority, the report recommends. The new board would be more likely to draw the kind of broad-based tax support the airport needs due to revenue lost to Indiana's property tax restructuring.
"Everything is on the table," Williams said. "We will make sure we stay within the guidelines of the report. It's a map of what we want to get done."
