Meeting called to order at 1:05 PM.

None

None

Moved by Kolby White, seconded by Robert Hanovich

Vote: 6 - 0 - Unanimously

Council Member Matthews joined late and item 3.D. City Council Update was presented after item 4.c. Project and Grant Updates.

Council Member Matthews has been on the council for 2 1/2 years and is excited to join the Airport Commission as our council liaison. A brief introduction was done by the commissioners for Council Member Matthews:
 

• Commissioner Tom Waddell has been on the commission for a few years and has been the chairperson for about a year and a half. He is a retired Air Force Colonel who started his Flagstaff residency as the commander of the Air Force ROTC unit at NAU in 1993.
• Commissioner David Steiner has been on the commission for about three years. He is a retired computer guy and a private pilot.
• Commissioner Andrew Shouse is a local business owner, private pilot and has a corporate job here in town as well.
• Commissioner Kolby White was in the National Guard for eight years and got out as a Warrant Officer in aviation on Blackhawk helicopters. He also has his private pilot's license and a full-time job is over at the Purina factory, managing the logistics.
• Commissioner Robbie Hanovich is also a retired Air Force Colonel and flew heavy aircrafts; graduated from NAU and studied Aerospace studies and currently works for Boeing providing safety data analytics for airlines and private pilots.
• Commissioner Robert Carpenter is an MBA student here in town and joined the commission about six months ago following my retirement after 10 years in the Navy Medical Corps.

 
Council Member Matthews will be bringing updates to the commission as well as providing council with updates about the airport. She was anxious to get on the commission this year as the airport is an important hub and a large factor for our beautiful town for tourism and transportation.
 

February's enplanements were down 6% from 2024. We did see an uptick in our flight availability in the second half of February from where we were in the first half, but we have seen a few fewer flights available this February than in the past. January and February are typically our lowest months and, judging by the March and April flight schedule, we do expect to see those numbers increase.
 
Total operations for February are up 29% from 2024. This is a significant increase and our busiest February in a very long time. This can probably be attributed to our weather. Typically, January and February are lower due to inclement winter weather, but this year conditions were considerably better than usual, with several days exceeding 200 operations in a day.
 
Parking revenue tracks pretty closely with enplanements. We did see a 10% decrease in payments compared to last year.
 

• Wiseman is hosting Coconino High Prom on April 26^th.
• The McCain Sedona Forum will be held May 2^nd through the 4^th.
• Wiseman took Best Looking Sled in the Canyon Cooler Sled Contest and expects to participate again next year.
• Wiseman hosted a safety seminar at the FBO with over 40+ attendees; this seminar included Fred Gibbs, Wiseman's flight instructor, Airport Director, Brian Gall, Flagstaff ATC, Phoenix TRACON and members of the Scottsdale FAA Flight Standards District office.
• Wiseman hired a third flight instructor and is looking for a third trainer for the flight school.
• They are actively recruiting right now for CSR, Line Service and Maintenance Technicians. Postings can be found on Indeed, JS Firm and at various job fairs in person.
• A rebranding is still in the works. There are a lot of ideas being worked through at this time, but they expect this to be completed fairly soon.
• Additionally, Wiseman is working with a firm on developing a website. This is being done in conjunction with the new rebranding and work is expected to be completed in the next 6 weeks.
• Flagstaff has received a good amount of moisture recently, but we are still preparing for an active wildland fire season.
• Fuel Flow for February was looking pretty bleak, but we ended up finishing only about 3% down from the previous year. YTD we are on track with 2024.
• There has been an uptick in turbine traffic, military traffic has been pretty consistent and General Aviation has increased, particularly on weekends.
• Fuel prices have remained relatively flat.
• There has been a lot of maintenance work being done, including hanger door repairs, replacing instant heat, hot water heaters, and other things like that.

Director Brian Gall gave this month's presentation in lieu of our Programs Manager, Adam Miele, as he is out at a conference this month attending the AAAE Planning, Design, and Construction Symposium.
 
Airport Express Visitor Center
This is a portion of the old café space where we will have a small store managed by the same staff as the Visitor Center downtown.

• A construction contract has been signed, and the Purchase Order is in routing.
• Construction is scheduled to start on 3/24/2025 with a goal of completion as early as 4/30/2025
• Materials availability is an ongoing challenge that Adam and the contractor are working on. Specifically, some of the aluminum and steel that goes into the storefront has a longer lead time.
• Staff will be scheduled to work 8 hours a day, seven days a week and will be there to provide guidance and information to people looking to visit the area as well as sell various items from local producers that visitors are interested in.

 
Snow Removal Equipment Building (SREB)
            The FAA has two programs, one is the AIP or airport improvement program, which is a grant program that provides airports with funding for the construction of buildings like these, or for things on the runway; the second are Advisory Circulars that provide guidance on various areas which includes everything from the color of the paint on our fire trucks to what the contents of a snow removal equipment building should be. In this particular case, part of the challenge is that the guidance the FAA says we should have in a snow removal building doesn't necessarily always match what the AIP program says. There has been a lot of back and forth to try to figure out which items are eligible for federal funding, and what items in the current design were not eligible for federal funding and, if so, are those items really necessary?
            Airport staff and design team met in Feb. with the FAA to finalize eligible items. Currently, the projected project cost in its current design is $33M (including ineligible items) with a footprint of about 25,000 square feet. The only location on the airfield that meets the needs of the facility is between the ARFF Station and the Air Traffic Control Tower, but that site is low and there is a lot of earthwork needed to fill and raise the area. The site work alone is estimated at roughly $10M alone.
FAA Grants available for this project are around $10M to $13M so staff and the design team met last week to discuss project cost reduction. We are looking at a smaller footprint to cover only existing equipment with an option for future expansion. Also, we looked at removing the administrative space in the building and associated mechanical systems and looking at possibly revising building materials and finishes to try to reduce the cost as much as possible.
            Both the architect and the contracting team are sharpening their pencils and revising those designs. Once we have a concept, we're going to take that back to the FAA, with a revised cost that should be a more manageable request for additional federal funding.
 
Airfield Maintenance Phase VI

• The project is to correct deficits identified during the part 139 inspection:
  • Rubber on the existing pavement markings on the runway
  • Repaint hold position markings (A1)
  • Blast Pad – large thermal cracks with vegetation growing in the cracks
  • Ramp lighting – Three fixtures are not working
  • Signage along the perimeter roadway (RSA notifications)
• Work done during nightly runway closures and expected to begin in May or June (pending temperatures)
• The airport did get budget approval to go forward with that project.
• Work is expected to cost over $400,000

ADOT Airport Pavement Management Systems Warranty Items
              In 2023, the Arizona Department of Transportation completed a project up here as part of their airport pavement management systems program. That project provided a seal coat and restrip of both the runway and primary parallel taxiway, taxiway Alpha, as well as all our connectors. Staff did a warranty walk-through one year after that project was completed, which would have been in the fall of 2024, and identified several issues with the pavement markings.
             These items are under warranty, but since it was going into fall and that work had to wait to be completed during warmer weather and is scheduled to happen along with the Airfield Maintenance Project in May or June. Work is planned to occur overnight for the parts that are on the runway, but there may be some local closures to taxiway alpha to complete the project.
 

• We have a new marketing campaign. “Fly easy, fly FLG. Closer. Faster. Friendlier.” These digital ads will start tomorrow and target anyone in the Flagstaff general area, all of Northern Arizona. We are still working on finishing up more ads for print.
• We are working on a widget that will allow our customers to book directly from our website. This is being added today and tomorrow, so it is not available just yet, but we will be able to show it next month.

Airport Food and Beverage Concessionaire History
           The airport had a restaurant/café in the terminal (pre-security) which had several different owners over the years and went through several different iterations. This tenant was also responsible for the vending machines in the passenger waiting area (post-security) until 2023 when the contract was terminated.  Unfortunately, the biggest drawbacks for businesses were staff availability during hours of operations and the large gaps between flights where the terminal has minimal traffic.
          Currently, we have food and beverage vending machines in both pre- and post-security. In 2023, two RFPs were issued for the restaurant space. No viable vendors submitted. Again, the challenges we saw were keeping the space open 365 day/year, our desired operating hours (4:00am – 6:00pm); and the high staffing costs with limited customers in between flight times. Due to this, we revised the RFP in 2024 for unattended food and beverage sales options. Two proposals were received, and Hi-Line Snack & Vending was selected as the highest-scoring proposer.
 
License Agreement
A license agreement was entered and approved by council last week, this scope includes the following:

• 2 x micro-markets (pre- and post-security)
• 1 x coffee kiosk (pre-security)
• Airport receives 20% of gross quarterly receipts, plus an additional commission if annual volume exceeds $120k.

This micro-market will be adjacent to the visitor center and is currently scheduled to open before the end of April 2025.
 
Pre-security Micro-market and Coffee Kiosk
            In the pre-security area, we will have the Express Visitor Center that will be staffed by members from Discover Flagstaff. It will have a large accordion door that opens up onto the concourse and a smaller double door that opens up to the seating areas between the micro-market and the visitor center itself.  There will be a number of café tables in that center space between the visitor center and the micro-market. The micro-market itself will sit in the space that was once the bar in the café space with the coffee kiosk just around the corner from that. A nice thing about this being adjacent to the Express Visitor Center is that it also provides some staff members that can help during hours of operation for any passenger questions and who can help keep the area clean.
 
Post-security Micro-market
        Similarly, in the holdroom, beyond the TSA checkpoint, Hi-Line will be installing a micro-market which will replace currently have two of the three vending machines that are in holdroom. We are working with our vendor to look for a coffee machine that doesn’t need plumbing support, since there is no dedicated water service, plumbing or drain service in this area; but we are hopeful to adding a coffee kiosk in the future.
 
Customer Experience and Interface
          These micro-markets are staff-less and the way it works is that customers will come up and either swipe their credit card, phone, or whatever item they use on the screen, and that'll unlock the doors that are adjacent to that pay station. Once the doors are unlocked, the system uses a form of tracking and AI to record what items were actually picked up and kept versus ones that were picked up and put back, which will allow you to open the door, handle an item, look at it, and decide if you want it or not, if you put it back on the rack it won't charge you for it, but anything that's in your hand when you close the door will be charged to the payment on file. There will be a combination of both prepackaged food similar to vending machines, but also fresh foods including sandwiches, wraps, salads and fruit.
The vendor is currently negotiating with local brands for the coffee kiosks. We're hoping it will be a local brand that will be available and will be represented in that coffee kiosk and the panels. The nice thing about the machines is they do offer the ability to make some pretty gourmet coffee in them. They have whole beans in the machine that are ground to order in the machine, and it also has the ability to make other hot beverages such as tea and hot chocolate.
 
Current and Upcoming Steps

1. Council approved the License Agreement last week.
2. Loven Contracting will be installing the infrastructure in the former café space which includes plumbing and electrical to accommodate the coffee kiosk and the large coolers for the micro market.
3. Hi-Line has received their license from the Coconino County Health Department to operate the space.
4. Most of the equipment has been delivered to their Arizona location, but we are still waiting for the delivery of the last items and staff training.
5. Installation, assembly and stocking of equipment will be the last step before opening sometime in April.

         Currently, we are seeing more and more of these micro-markets across the country in airports of all different sizes, although these markets are not necessarily exclusive from restaurant operations. Right now, the micro-market will be installed in the space of a restaurant operation, but we do have other areas in the terminal, so if we do get to a point where our traffic volume goes up, and we have additional air service, I think we can consider having both a restaurant operating and continuous 24/7 service like this.
 

Commissioner Waddell pointed out an article in the Daily Sun regarding Airport parking revenue and asked if we were bringing that back to the commission for discussion. Director Brian Gall responded by letting the commission know that staff are working on the data that was requested in last month's meeting and planning on bringing some additional information and discussion back to the group next month.
 

Moved by Kolby White, seconded by Andrew Shouse

Vote: 6 - 0 - Unanimously