The Pulse Report 
Informing Airport Finance Professionals
| |
|
"We've had really good reception from the airlines. A couple will actually email me on the first of the month to find their landing data."
Brad Middlebrook
Orlando International Airport |
|
|
| January/February 2010 |
Welcome to the January/February 2010 edition of The PASSUR® Pulse™ Report, an eNewsletter created exclusively for the Airport Finance community.
The PASSUR Landing Fee Management Program is designed to ensure airports maximize their revenue for the benefit of all their users, and to enhance the transparency, efficiency and competitive cost structure airlines expect from their airport partners. The program combines software, best practices and process management, to create a more automated, standardized and collaborative revenue management system.
This month, we're talking to Orlando International Airport about how they use our solution for earlier revenue recognition and carrier collaboration. We offer a tip for measuring the financial impact of winter storms. Lastly, we preview our speaking role next week at the AAAE Southeast Chapter Finance and Administration conference. Stop by if you're around, we'd be delighted to catch up with you.
Thanks for reading. As always, if you have ideas or questions, please send them over to me, Ron Dunsky, at rondunsky@passur.com.
|
|
|
|
| Orlando and its Carriers Work Hand in Hand with the Landing Fee Management Program |
|
We're starting a new feature this month showcasing how different airports use PASSUR Pulse for landing fee management. This month, we spoke with Brad Middlebrook, Chief Accountant for Revenue Control at the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority on how Orlando International Airport uses the system.
PASSUR: Thanks for chatting with us, Brad. How do you primarily use PASSUR Pulse in Orlando?
Brad: We primarily use PASSUR for billing landing fees. In the past, the airlines have submitted paper landing reports; now rather than using the data off those reports,  we use the radar-based data from PASSUR.
PASSUR: Can you walk us through the process?
Brad: On the first, second, or third day of the month we begin analyzing PASSUR data and alerting the airlines, who have access to their own monthly activity online through the system. This allows them to review their data and verify that it all looks correct. We take that data, we do a finalization, and then we invoice -- all online. PASSUR also provides us a file which we upload into our billing system. This does three things for us.
- Improves our billing efficiency
- Allows us to recognize revenue three weeks earlier on average
- Improves our airline customer service, since they can see their landings and billing much earlier
PASSUR: How does the PASSUR data compare to the previous method of airline self-reporting?
Brad: The PASSUR data and the self-reported data are always pretty darn close, but this gives the airlines a higher level of a comfort. Generally we don't have much disagreement; radar data is accurate. It's much less prone to human error. We've had really good reception from the airlines. A couple will actually email me on the first of the month to find their landing data.
PASSUR: Have you had any disagreements? How have they been resolved?
Brad: If there are some, it's usually a flight that we show as having landed but it should have been a non-revenue flight. When that happens, we communicate with the airlines and remove that from their billing. For instance in January, we had a Haitian relief flight that came in for fuel. That was deemed non-revenue and we removed it.
If an airline comes to us and says they had 1,000 flights but we show 1,010, we tell them to look over the data and let us know which ones are anomalies. Generally, we don't have much disagreement.
|
| Tip: Using PASSUR Pulse to Measure Financial Impact of Winter Storms |
| We've seen quite a few large winter storms roar through the middle and eastern part of the US this year, but do you know what the true financial impact is of each one that hits your airport? Typically for airports, the revenue effects of disrupted traffic flows due to winter storms don't become evident until months later, with various painful adjustments ensuing.
Using PASSUR Pulse online activity reporting, airports gain immediate visibility into the revenue impact of major cancellation events like winter storms. They can easily compare week over week, month over month or year over year revenues to understand the financial impact of the cancellations and reduced landed weight, and begin planning in advance to deal with the shortfalls, if they are significant. Some airports even begin building storm scenarios into their annual financial planning models, using average revenue loss indicators from several seasons of PASSUR reports. |
| Visit Us at the AAAE Southeast Chapter Finance and Administration Conference |
It's time once again for the AAAE Southeast Chapter Finance and Administration Conference, and we'll be there. The conference is being held February 21-24 at the  Hutchinson Island Marriott near West Palm Beach, Florida.
We'll be speaking on the very first panel of the general session, "Financial Management Tools," alongside one of our major airport users, DFW. Our role will be to look at the use of PASSUR solutions as a case study, as well as explore the many different ways to use our programs to manage revenue and costs (not just in the area of landing fee management) for the benefit of the airlines' financial health.
We'll be there ready to answer any questions you might have. As always, we look forward to meeting you. If you'd like to set up a time to meet, email Evan Danto at evan.j.danto@passur.com. Otherwise, we'll just see you there! | |
|
|
|
|
|
