Chattanooga: Airport tightens its belt

Chattanooga airport officials are not filling two posts and are cutting $113,000 from a new spending plan as they deal with the fallout of Continental Airlines’ planned departure.

Airport officials also said Monday they’ll monitor passenger boardings, which fell 3.3 percent in May over a year ago, to see if other cost reductions are needed.

The airport is not raising fees on travelers or businesses, said Mike Landguth, president.

“Our focus is on what we can do internally first,” he said at a meeting of the Airport Authority.

Continental officials said last week the carrier is leaving Chattanooga in September as it cuts seat capacity in the wake of record high fuel costs. Other airlines also announced future cuts in capacity because of fuel expenses.

Dan Jacobson, the Airport Authority’s chairman, said there is “keen disappointment” with the loss of Continental’s Houston nonstop flights.

“We’ll work our way through it,” he said. “If we need to pass some costs on to the customer, this will be a last resort.”

The airport’s budget year begins July 1.

Through May, airport boardings are still up over the same period in 2007 by 6.4 percent, the airport reported.

Most of the increase is in Allegiant Air’s Florida nonstops, which recorded a boardings rise of 45.2 percent in May and 50.4 percent for the first five months.

Allegiant’s boardings of 27,200 passengers for the year so far are rivaling Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines’ 30,206 for highest by a carrier at the airport.

Christina Siebold, an airport spokeswoman, said a new plan calls for boosting marketing of Lovell Field beyond the six-county metropolitan statistical area of Marion, Sequatchie and Hamilton in Tennessee and Dade, Walker and Catoosa in Georgia.

“We know a lot of travelers are coming here from the region for flights,” she said.