News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Upper Cumberland Regional Airport considering a plan to increase hangar rates.
T-DOT recommended the airport increase its price to meet the fair market rate. Airport Director Dean Selby said the airport’s charge rates are severely under the recommended rate. Selby said if they do not change the rates the airport could lose federal funding.
“That’s kind of where they are pushing us to as we go to every one of those meetings they are hammering us on that if we are not maximizing the capital that the airport can generate,” Selby said. “Then there is a risk of them not participating cause the funds are there to generate revenue is what they say.”
Selby said he is concerned about potentially losing federal funding as several hangars need work and it could take 10-15 years of rent to cover the costs for those improvements. Selby said as it stands compared to TDOT’s suggested rates the airport is barely breaking even.
Selby said he would like the board to put a plan together on what the best steps forward are as far as what the airport should do about increasing the rates.
“It’s just something we need to be aware of,” Selby said. “We have already done it this year but I think we need to start talking about this and start formulating a plan and maybe we need a committee of two or three of us to sit and talk about this and look over it I don’t know, but we know that it is their hot and button topic right now.”
Selby said T-DOT has put a focus on airport maximizing revenue as their budget for airports has drastically been cut from $40 million to $11 million for airport infrastructure. Board Member Chad Marcum said in the letter T-DOT sent it stated that they are not expecting airports to meet the recommended rates overnight but are expecting airports to gradually meet those rates.
“I would like to see their recommended rates and what our rates are,” Marcum said. “If we can get that in a spreadsheet so we can see what our difference is I think that would be helpful for me to kind of digest alright, this is how far off we are on these and then maybe you know we knock it out over five to ten years.”
Selby said UCRA is not low-hanging fruit for T-DOT as they have made efforts to adjust rates, unlike a good portion of airports. Selby said this was early and that they had just raised rates and he would not be a fan of raising the rates again this year. He said he could see an increase again for the next couple of years to gradually meet T-DOT’s recommendation.
