Staff recommends the City Council approve Amendment Three with Mead & Hunt, Inc., for air service consulting services for Fiscal Year 2025.
 

On January 23, 2023, the City Council approved a five-year agreement with Mead & Hunt, Inc. to provide all the Airport's air service consulting services.  City Council awarded the agreement after a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process, which was advertised on November 18, 25, and December 2, 2022.  The five-year term agreement is amended each time a new project is undertaken.  Amendment One, for $33,255, was approved on February 21, 2023 for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2023 for air service development services.  Amendment Two, for $118,180, was approved on July 1, 2023, for all the air service consulting services for Fiscal Year 2024.  This Amendment Three, for $114,900, is for all the air service consulting services for Fiscal Year 2025 for the Project outlined in the April 9, 2024 proposal and scope of work. 

The Project continues with a more extensive air service development effort, with detailed analysis of visitation, market, and destination metrics, the items specifically requested by airlines at recent JumpStart Conferences.  An entire fiscal year of performance and airfare monitoring and a Community Meeting are also part of this Project.  This meeting serves several purposes.  First, these meetings help educate and inform key members of the community involved in the Airport's ongoing air service development efforts and current air service trends either currently affecting, or that may affect the Airport. Second, progress meetings can be useful for sharing results after the completion of key air service development tasks. Mead & Hunt staff will convey the results of airline meetings, air service conferences, or updates to the air service development plan to members of the community including City representatives, various boards and Chambers of Commerce. These meetings are also a forum to discuss how the market is performing, how the air service development plan is progressing, and next steps in the process to either retain service or further develop air service at the Airport.  The Fiscal Year 2023 project included assistance with completion of another Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) Grant application whereby the City of Billings applied for federal assistance to implement an air service incentive initiative to bring additional air service to Billings.  The Airport was awarded a second SCASDP Grant and is currently working to get new daily service to California using the SCASDP Grant as an incentive.
 

City Council may:

• Approve Amendment Three with Mead & Hunt for FY25 air service consulting services; or,
• Not Approve Amendment Three with Mead & Hunt for FY25 air service consulting services.

The cost of air service consulting services proposed in Amendment Three is $126,100.  The Airport is electing to be billed monthly for the project tasks, resulting in a cost reduction of $11,200, for a total cost of $114,900.  Sufficient funds have been budgeted in the Airport's FY25 budget for this project.