Ohio Rickenbacker International Airport (KLCK), Columbus, Ohio

Editorial:   Rickenbacker pays back

For small county investment, hub yields many economic benefits


Rickenbacker Airport is an economic engine for the region and a key part of the assets overseen by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority.

While it continues to receive a subsidy from Franklin County, the amount is modest compared to the return on the investment and is an important economic-development expenditure that helps attract and retain jobs to central Ohio.

Last year, the airport that formerly was part of a U.S. Air Force base had a shortfall of $1.8 million — about the same amount as the county put into Animal Care and Control to make up for a shortfall in that agency. For 2014, the air hub’s shortfall is just over $700,000.

Meanwhile, the airport and its surrounding warehouse and freight-handling operations have a $2.8 billion impact on the local economy, according to a 2012 economic study conducted for the airport authority. Rickenbacker and its associated operations account for about 20,000 jobs and $500 million in payroll. Warehouse space in the industrial park next to Rickenbacker is nearly fully leased, thanks in large part to the Columbus-based apparel retailers that are the biggest customers of air-cargo flights.

Franklin County agreed to subsidize Rickenbacker for 10 years in 2003, when the Columbus Airport Authority and Rickenbacker Port Authority merged to form the Columbus Regional Airport Authority. That first year, the county contributed $4.3 million to make up the shortfall between Rickenbacker’s revenue and expenses. Since then, Rickenbacker’s revenue from such items as landing fees and cargo-handling services has climbed steadily, except for a pause during the worst of the recession.

The aviation landscape has changed dramatically in the past decade, and the airport authority has navigated the shifting sands. The past 10 years have seen the rise and fall of a number of low-cost passenger carriers, historic spikes in fuel prices and the merger of several of the country’s largest airlines. Cargo giant FedEx has shifted some shipments from planes to trucks in recent years, reducing the volume of air cargo through its non-hub airports such as Rickenbacker.

Cargo flights serving the wealth of local clothing retailers, though, are on the upswing. Just last week, Cathay Pacific announced a new regular cargo flight from Hong Kong to Rickenbacker, joining a similar Cargolux flight added last year.

And after periods with no passenger flights, low-cost carrier Allegiant Air began regularly scheduled service out of Rickenbacker in 2012, the airline’s typical pattern of using secondary airports around the country. It has now expanded to several markets from the original, single destination of Orlando.

The Allegiant flights also help Rickenbacker reach the 10,000 passenger-per-year threshold that triggers additional funding from the Federal Aviation Administration. That money goes toward capital improvements, such as the new air-traffic-control tower now in the works there. The airport authority has $90 million in total capital improvements planned, but will go forward with each piece only after funding is in place from a variety of federal, state and local sources.

Rickenbacker is an important and growing component of the central Ohio economy, and the airport authority continues to manage it wisely. County support of such an asset that brings jobs and money into the local economy is a sound investment.

Source:   http://www.dispatch.com