MAC pares back forecasts, proposes MSP expansion anyway

BY DICK SAUNDERS

The Metropolitan Airports Commission’s crystal ball was a little cloudier two years ago, but this month MAC is predicting less passenger traffic in the coming two decades, guessing that economic demand won’t grow as fast as projected. Cost-cutting reduced passenger capacity, and high fares are producing nice margins for the major airlines today. Business and leisure travelers are traveling less in the face of changes in airline operating strategies and persistently high aircraft fuel prices. Airlines and air travelers were hit hard by the recession, but opinions differ now: Is the slow economic recovery the cause or the result of the shrinking seat supply?

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport won’t need any new gates until possibly 2020 as compared with a widely assumed need for at least three new gates at Terminal 2 (Humphrey) opening as early as 2015. And it doesn’t expect to top its 2005 peak of 18 million enplanements until 2016 nor surpass its historic high of 541,000 flights set in 2004 until after 2025. No economic situation imaginable needs 1.4 million annual operations at MSP, the annual capacity resulting from the planned capital investment in landside facilities.

Nevertheless, MAC is recommending extensive remodeling at Terminal l (Lindberg) this year and completing new gates and Terminal 2 (Humphrey) amenities. It is the start of a plan to dedicate Terminal 1 (110 gates) for the Delta/Sky Team hub and move the other incumbent or new airlines to Terminal 2 (8 gates), the recommended Alternative.

The draft MSP 2020 Capital Improvements Environmental Assessment (EA) and worksheet (EAW), released by MAC two weeks ago, also claims no serious impacts from noise or pollution or to wildlife habitat near the airport from construction or operations. Notably absent from the documents are responses to the thousands of overflight noise complaints resulting from flight pattern changes made in late 2010 and references to past permit violations, fuel spills, and construction accidents.

The MAC plans will be shown at two open houses in South Minneapolis. The first is at Lake Nokomis Community Center, 2401 E. Minnehaha Pkwy., from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 18. The second is in conjunction with a public hearing at the MAC General Offices, 6040 28th Ave. S., from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct.1, with the hearing following at 7 p.m.

“The EA/EAW is less an environmental assessment and more a plan to expand MSP as a hub airport,” according to the South Metro Airport Action Council (SMAAC), adding, “As we have seen, high rates are risky.”

The watchdog group’s website says the long-term plan is to increase use of MSP principally as a hub, which drives the MSP Capital Improvements Plans year by year. MSP’s small size and urban setting imposes considerable limitations. Chief among these are air and ground safety and proximity to neighborhoods and other land uses that are incompatible with the planned airport operations.

The MSP airspace management plan maximizes runway use rates, allowing up to 160 operations per hour at peak hours. Alternatives 1 and 2 extend peak hours by adding gates. To maintain a level of service for the airlines and for passengers, the airport and the federal government must provide redundant facilities. A safer, less expensive, less noisy and less polluting MSP is possible by limiting hourly rates and schedules.