The Pulse Report 
Informing Airport Finance Professionals
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"It's very important ... to capture any aircraft that are landing that are not scheduled. The only way to do that is with a system like PASSUR."
Dina Reed
Detroit Metro Airport |
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| September 2009 |
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Welcome to the September 2009 edition of The PASSUR® Pulse™ Report, an eNewsletter created exclusively for the Airport Finance community.
This month we're wrapping up summer with talk about severe weather and how PASSUR Pulse can help. It's never too early to start thinking about next year's summer season. We're also looking at aircraft sizing trends, and our tip this month focuses on how you can combine Excel with PASSUR Pulse to make your job easier. Thanks for reading. As always, if you have ideas or questions, please send them over to me, Ron Dunsky, at rondunsky@passur.com. |
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| PASSUR Pulse Can Help You Accurately Bill for Diversions During Severe Weather |
Unless you're basking in the warm Hawaiian sun, it's likely that severe weather has impacted your operation to some extent this summer. Even if you haven't had thunderstorms over  your airport, there's a good chance that you've received diversions from alternate airports that have been impacted. Sometimes, diversions can result in chaos, but PASSUR Pulse can make sure that you're tracking and billing accurately.
As was the case with the highly publicized Continental/ExpressJet flight 2816 that diverted to Rochester, Minnesota, airlines do sometimes have to divert to airfields that they don't usually service. In those cases, diversions will often slip through the cracks....along with the revenue associated with them. It also means that your base tenants are "picking up the tab" for those unplanned operations that go uncaptured.
With PASSUR Pulse, you can track every diversion that arrived at your airport, find the exact weight of the airplane, and bill accordingly.
As always, this has the added benefit of ensuring fairness in the application of airport fees - in this case ensuring that the cost of the operation is spread evenly across all activity and all operators.
To learn more about using Pulse for diversions, email Evan Danto at evan.j.danto@passur.com. |
| Landing Fee Trends: Smaller Planes Mean Lower Fees |
Over the last several years, we've seen airlines trend toward using ever smaller aircraft. Originally, this meant airports saw higher frequencies, so the news was positive, but now the trend has simply been to reduce the number of seats overall. That means lower fee  activity, and that's why accurate billing becomes even more important.
For example, look at what United has done. In August, more than 30% of United's passenger traffic was flown by regional aircraft with 70 seats or fewer. In the near future, United will finish retiring the last of its 737 aircraft. Just a year ago, there were 94 of them operating, and most of those planes had a max landing weight more than 35% higher than that of the largest of United's contract regional jets. Overall, this trend means less revenue for your airport.
Accurate billing can make a significant positive financial impact in this environment, diminishing the impact of the trend toward smaller aircraft. For example, the CRJ-700 and ERJ-170 each have 3 different versions, with two different max landing weights. Without PASSUR Pulse, you have to make assumptions about weight, and those may end up being lighter than the actual aircraft weight operated. With PASSUR Pulse, you'll capture the tail number of every flight tied to the exact weight of each aircraft that lands at your airport. That means you can bill accurately and confidently.
If you aren't using the PASSUR Pulse Landing Fee Management solution and would like to learn more, please contact Evan Danto at evan.j.danto@passur.com. |
| Tip of the Month: Excel Can Make Your Job Easier |
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Airport finance work can be made much easier when you use Microsoft Excel in combination with PASSUR Pulse. To get the most out of this, we've created a tip sheet with 11 Excel Tips for Airport Finance Pros. Simply click below and enter your information to receive the document.
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