HOUSTON TO QUITO ... AND BEYOND.

HOUSTON TO QUITO ... AND BEYOND

By John F. Infanger, Editorial Director

Airport system looks to generate revenue, new opportunities by exporting its expertise

HOUSTON -- Officials from the Houston Airport System and its sister organization, the HAS Development Corporation

(HASDC), are actively involved in the management of the Quito, Ecuador airport as well as the construction of a new airport to serve that nation's capital city. That experience has led officials here to pursue becoming a central player at airports worldwide, seeking new development and management opportunities. At the same time, the move is creating new experiences for staff at HAS, which in turn builds on the breadth of knowledge available for future projects offshore.

Comments Richard M. Vacar, A.A.E., director of both the Houston Airport System and HASDC, "Right now what it boils down to is, we're ready to fly. The revenue potential is the equivalent of what's going on at DFW with their gas deals; it's that big."

Adds Robert C. White, vice president of airport services for HASDC, "We've got the nucleus of expertise of the Houston Airport System to put behind this privatization program. The future of airport privatization is going to be having qualified airport operators as part of the consortium."

Both Vacar and White credit their past experience working for Lockheed Air Terminal, one of the original airport privatization groups in the U.S.

Comments White, "What we're finding is, the privatization of airports is going into a second generation of how it works. What they found was they were able get facilities built using privatization in the past, but they didn't emphasize the operator portion. So, once the airport was up and ready to operate, they either didn't know how to operate it or they did it poorly in terms of generating revenue and really maximizing what that new investment was all about. It was sort of like an afterthought."

In November, the group hired Gary Lantner to serve as president of HASDC, replacing Jeff Scheferman, who now heads up a new division, ADC&HAS, which is tasked with flushing out new opportunities such as Quito. Lantner's background includes time at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, Massport, and five different airlines.

"Bob and I are at HASDC; ADC HAS, which is run by Jeff, is the privatization airport group," explains Lantner. "That's the group that was started in May, as we began to unbundle ourselves.