The Pulse Report 
Informing Airport Finance Professionals
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"[The airlines] were impressed that it was picking everything up and that you could sort whether it was by aircraft, by date, by flight number, whatever. They liked it. They saw it was 99.9% accurate so they didn't have a problem with us billing off of it."
Bob Uhrich
Director of Air Service Development
Savannah/Hilton Head International |
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| March/April 2010 | |
Welcome to the March/April 2010 edition of The PASSUR® Pulse™ Report, an eNewsletter created exclusively for the Airport Finance community.
PASSUR Pulse™ software allows a simple, efficient means of tracking, auditing and capturing all landing fee revenue. It will maximize your revenue stream and spread it equitably, by means of accurate and detailed activity reports accessible on the Web.
This month, small is beautiful: we have a two part interview with one of our smaller airport revenue management clients, Savannah/Hilton Head, on how they apply the PASSUR program to their airport needs.
We're also talking about new search enhancements to make using PASSUR Pulse even easier for you.
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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| Savannah/Hilton Head Talks About the Benefits of PASSUR Pulse at a Small Airport | |
Looking at our list of clients, you might assume that PASSUR Pulse is a tool that is primarily for large airports. That's not the case. We spoke with Savannah/Hilton Head's Director of Air Service Development Bob Uhrich about using PASSUR Pulse at a smaller airport. Here's what he had to say.
PASSUR: When you first started looking at PASSUR, did you think it was primarily for large airports?
Bob: No. I'm a data guy, so any extra data I can get I like. Whether it was for a big or a small airport, I just wanted to get data I couldn't otherwise get access to.
PASSUR: What kind of data?
Bob: For example, US Airways will say Republic flew 52 E170 flights  in February but with PASSUR I can tell that there was 32 to LaGuardia and 20 to Philadelphia. I can get that kind of breakdown instead of just total numbers. Or American, they never split Dallas and Miami flying, and this way I can split it. I know that there's x amount of flights to Miami a day but the split would be nice to go in, if they changed equipment, a little more information.
PASSUR: What other benefits have you found now that you've been using the system?
Bob: One other thing we've found that is we never really picked up any air taxi stuff or not as much as was going on. We might have had one that reported and none of the others did so we never really billed them. There was an assumption that these were deals where they would go to the FBO and buy fuel, but then I started pulling the data.
Some of these are based in Columbia [125 miles north] flying bank checks or something similar. If they're based in Columbia and going back and forth, they don't buy any fuel here. So now we bill them all. They had to get operating certificates. It created more paperwork, but it's worth it. They're flying in here for money, it's not just general aviation.
PASSUR: Any last thoughts for smaller airports that are looking at PASSUR Pulse?
Bob: It's all about making the airlines partners and taking part in it. That's what we've done.
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| Savannah/Hilton Head Engages with Airlines Before Choosing PASSUR Pulse | |
In part two of our interview, we focus on working with your airlines before deciding to go with PASSUR Pulse.
PASSUR: I understand that you went to your airlines before you decided to use PASSUR Pulse. Can you talk about that?
Bob: Sure. Before we bought, we went before the airline affairs  committee and we said, "Ok this is what we want to do. We will use PASSUR to bill you and that way we won't have any issues."
PASSUR: I'm sure accuracy was a critical issue for them.
Bob: Yes. PASSUR ran it for 3 months before we went live, so we could compare their numbers to what the airlines reported. We found they matched up pretty well. It wasn't any huge money to make up but it was going to be easier on the billing side.
PASSUR: Was that the driving factor -- simplifying the billing process?
Bob: That was part of it; plus, we have the operational statistics side as well. We sold it to the airline affairs committee; because it's a tool that the airlines get a benefit out of as well, it was put in the rates and charges. The line item is shared by the airport and airlines.
PASSUR: So how did they react once they saw it in action?
Bob: They were impressed that it was picking everything up and that you could sort whether it was by aircraft, by date, by flight number, whatever. They liked it. They saw it was 99.9% accurate so they didn't have a problem with us billing off of it.
PASSUR: So are the airlines still happy now that they've been using it?
Bob: Oh yeah, I mean US Airways still calls me before he submits his report to make sure he and PASSUR are right. If not, he wants to know what's wrong. If he said he had 30 A319 flights and I showed 29, he wants to find out what date.
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| PASSUR Rolls Out Specific Flight Search Enhancement |
On March 23, PASSUR rolled out a new search function for a specific flight, aircraft type or date of operation in the landing fee invoice editor. This will make it much easier than ever to find specific subsets of information you need quickly.
What it does for you
One of the main benefits of using Pulse for landing fee management is reducing the time, effort and labor required to manage the monthly fees. This new enhancement makes it more efficient to "drill down" to a specific flight or operation which requires attention, without having to pay attention to all the other information -- another example of "management by exception."
What you'll see on the software
When you go to "Edit Invoices" on the "User Preferences" interface, you will now see this new search option.
How you'll see the new feature
It will appear when you log in -- there is no action needed.
We're pleased to offer these enhancements in response to customer requests. Should you have any questions about them, please don't hesitate to contact our 24-hour technical support team at 866-437-7427 or customerservice@passur.com, or contact your PASSUR sales representative directly. |
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