City must make crucial decision regarding airport

As Macon's City Council starts to ponder the 2007 budget, it has to answer some fundamental questions about a number of departments. One is the management of the Middle Georgia Regional Airport. Interim Airports Director Mike Anthony is doing double duty (He's also the parks and recreation director). He met with council's Appropriations Committee Thursday to go over the airports' budget.

Since the firing of George Brown, the city has laid out almost $100,000 to bring the airport into compliance with Federal Aviation Administration standards and the Transportation Security Administration. The budget Anthony brought is $1.94 million, $200,000 more than last year.

The fundamental question council needs to answer can't be found going over the budget line-by-line. While the talents of council are many, running airports in the post 9/11 world is not one of them. There are rules and regulations that translate to extra costs. The airports' budget reflects two additional positions for operations coordinators that will handle safety. In this case safety translates to security.

While Anthony is better suited than most other department heads to handle the airport because of his military background, council has to decide if it can find a manager with all of the skills needed to run the airports, or would it be better served to privatize the operations. TBI Airport Management was hired to bring the airports into compliance after the real threat that the FAA and TSA would shut the Middle Georgia Regional Airport to commercial traffic.

The challenges at the airport will not go away. If anything, the security requirements will tighten. It will take money and professional management to make sure the systems keep pace. It won't matter to the FAA or TSA that the city is low on cash and can't purchase a required piece of equipment.

There are possibilities that the airport could receive additional services from more flights by ASA to a charter service that would fly passengers to the Washington-Baltimore area. Council has to take those possibilities with a grain of salt. More than one-year ago it was promised that a second airline would begin service. Instead, the lack of adequate security caused officials to downgrade the airport to a Class IV status. That meant airplanes with more than 60 seats were not permitted. Though security concerns were fixed, ASA cut its daily flights to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport from six to four.

The airport is an asset the city needs to keep up, not just for the general public, but for business interests that use it. It would be a shame after spending $6 million on its renovation that it would sit idle, but that's exactly what could happen if it falls slack in security areas again.

Macon Telegraph