Hi, I'm Jeff Rea, your host for Economic Outlook.

Welcome to our program.

We hope you enjoy the show.

Please make plans to join us each week as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts, International Air Transport Association Research predicts.

This could be a banner year for airline travel, as 44% of those polled plan to fly more this year than they did last year.

That could mean a real boom for the shopping in International Airport.

We'll take a closer look at air travel and the airline industry and hear directly how that will impact SBN.

Coming up on economic outlook.

Most travelers this year say they plan to fly more in 2024.

But do those plans include flying to and from the South Bend International Airport?

We hope so.

We'll take a closer look today at all that's going on at the airport and explore why SBN should be part of your upcoming travel plans.

Joining for an update on all things up in International Airport is Mike Daigle, the CEO and executive director at the airport.

Mike, thanks for coming back.

My pleasure, Jeff.

Thank you.

Always glad to have you, especially as we're looking and reading a lot about what's happening.

The travel industry, it seems like all signs point to a really good year in 2024.

So give us just maybe start with a just a general state of airline travel.

What's happening in the airline industry.

So you are correct.

Everything seems to be pointing in the right direction for 2020.

For 2023 was pretty good across most of the country.

And we're seeing positives even in the very early start of 2024.

That growth is still ongoing.

So we're excited to see that.

And we're going to keep pushing to bring more opportunities.

So Mike, when I think about that, almost like across the board, are bigger airports doing better or smaller airports?

Do people have a preference?

You know, give us some trends, I think, from the consumer side.

Well, everybody most people prefer to do direct.

You know, it's one up and one down, and we get that, too.

But that's difficult to do from the majority of the airports in the United States.

You have some airports that you can do that with much more ease.

You know, Chicago O'Hare is one that comes to mind that's down the road a ways.

But at the end of the day, that connection and all the amenities that you can do, say through South Bend Airport, the ease of getting through TSA and then, you know, the cost for a cup of coffee or bottled water or food for lunch or breakfast is much less than what you're going to pay in another facility.

And then usually your one stop to almost anywhere in the country.

Right.

So so let's back up for a second and give people a little bit of a reminder.

People listen from all and watch from all over the world on this.

Give us just some nuts and bolts about South Bend International Airport How big, how many flights?

Just a couple facts that we should know about what's going on.

So we go nonstop to 13 different markets out of South Bend.

The latest one just announced is Knoxville, Tennessee.

And so that's that's pretty good.

And so if you want to knock something off your bucket list, go to Knoxville.

I like it.

Sorry, bad joke We can that.

Yeah.

Now I'm just going.

The airport is the Airport authority, which owns and operates.

The airport is a team of about 62 people.

And then the airlines are tenants and fixed base operators and UPS and FedEx cargo and all of those things.

And so it's pretty small team that runs the entire thing.

And we work to continue to grow that.

We've got four airlines with Allegiant, American, Delta and United, and we're talking to others all the time.

We're talking to airlines today about what routes they're flying, how well they're doing and where they're going.

One of the challenges is that there's not enough airplanes and enough flight crews in the country for the need across the country.

And so the South Bend Airport is competing with all of the other airports in the country to get that airplane to come in and out of here.

And so if we can get people to continue to use it more and fill the seats we have, then it's easier to go have those conversations and say we need more seats and here's why.

And we show them and they look at the demographics and the data to make.

Let's talk about it.

So we have a broad audience here watching you come from.

You serve a broad area.

Let's talk about where where people come from to fly in and out of of the airport.

Yeah.

So our our catchment area, which is where people come from, is about from Michigan City toward us out toward Warsaw and Kosciusko County, southwest Michigan and south of Marshall County is probably where the majority of our our passengers come from.

And they come to South Bend to get on and off their airplanes.

And so that's a pretty huge area to look at.

One of the things that I hear from people all the time is, well, it's more expensive to fly out of South Bend.

Well, that's true.

But if you look at it, it's not true all the time.

But it's true some of the time.

If you look at it, there's a cost in driving to another facility and then you've got parking fees that are we know are much higher than what we have here at South Bend.

Plus other costs and difficulties that go with that.

So we've made a tool on our website at FlySBN.com.

It's a trip cost calculator.

You can go in and put in your airfare from, say, Chicago and then from South Bend and you can see the difference and it'll calculate the mileage and all this other stuff.

And you can see, you know, if my airplane ticket was $250 more, am I really saving money by flying out of another locale?

And sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.

Yeah, it's a I think it's a great point.

I've heard you talk many a time about this economic impact.

You know, and and obviously you're one of the largest economic impact organizations in the area.

But but as we're talking to consumers, do they want to impact the Chicago economy or impact the South Bend economy?

Just briefly about spending dollars here versus spending dollars there.

So just prior to COVID arriving here, we actually were looking to do another economic impact statement.

The one we did prior to that was about coming up on ten years, and it showed the impact of the South Bend International Airport on our community in excess of $1.7 billion a year.

That's pretty amazing for a small area like what we have and what it does to our community.

So we've we're growing since that was done.

And so we were going to go do that.

We're reengaging and we're going to go get one of those new economic development or economic impact statements completed.

So we have new information available.

But at the end of the day, you know, the airport's here to serve the community and the traveling public.

But if you don't fly it, then we can't use the data to go get more routes and more more seats.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

Maybe the other thing I'd ask you to do is so some people remember some bad experience.

They had a really long time ago.

It's hard to forget.

Give us a little bit of a maybe some insight into, you know, kind of reliability cancellations, some of that kind of stuff, because my, my my experience has been really good.

Rarely have I ever had a delay or cancellation.

I'm sure it still happens.

But how do you do on sort of that delivery piece?

So the flight schedule operates well in excess of 90% on time and on schedule.

We sometimes have delays, but when there's delays, it's usually because of either the aircraft did arrive in Atlanta or Chicago or Dallas to name a few of our airlines.

And so that airplane couldn't leave there to come here and then turn around and go back.

So the flight's been delayed for a while.

Occasionally there's a mechanical issue, occasionally there's a flight crew issue, and the flight does get canceled.

That happens every airport in the country.

But we do very, very well.

We do have an aircraft maintenance base here in South Bend, which helps to make sure that maintenance is not a routine example or a routine problem for aircraft not flying.

I think you guys have done a great job in that space.

Encourage people, if they haven't tried it for a while, to come play with that.

So let's go back to the route.

You mentioned Knoxville and give us some insight.

You know, Mike loves the Smoky Mountains.

He says we should fly there.

I don't think that's exactly how it works.

Give us give us a feel for how how we get new destinations, kind of the pitch you're making and how those come about.

So there's really two ways that it goes about.

One is where we have data from our community, their travel patterns, their business demographics, and we identify which airline on which route would best serve that community.

And then we go to those airlines and we engage in conversations and talk about route development.

The other one is where the airline, who also do their own data, analyzes and they will identify where we go.

So if you recall, you and I talked about this not too long ago when we did the Knoxville announcement.

When you go someplace and you check into the hotel, they know your zip code.

And so that data is collected and they know that Jeff Rea from zip code in the South Bend area was in Knoxville or Nashville or pick anywhere you want.

And then when that data becomes available, they'll look at and go, We have all these people that are flying or going to this community.

Whether you drove there or you flew there, that data is all available.

And so the airlines look at it and they go, Well, what if we added a route and then they do an impact analysis of what's the cost to add that route, what's the benefits, what do we think it would the rate of return would be?

We also know that for every new route, there's a what we call a multiplication factor.

And so if we talk about going to a new destination and we say that there are 65 passengers per day each way that want to go there, there's also when that route begins, there's a stimulation factor.

So, for example, you talked about going to Dallas before.

If you're flying on American to Dallas, there's a lot of people who continue past that.

And then when that route begins, now, all of a sudden they're going to continue to go into Long Beach or San Francisco or somewhere through Dallas.

And so there's a stimulation factor that occurs with all that.

The airlines know that, and they understand that much better than what we do, and they have good data for it.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting and you had a great point.

I think every industry is dealing with is this workforce issue.

And there's only so many planes and crews.

And and so I think we really appreciate the work you're doing to to find these new routes and get the airlines to continue doing work out of here in such a well as the benefit of the team.

I mean, the team is always looking and pushing and we have these discussions often each week.

That's great.

We're going to continue our conversation.

But at first I'm going to go out into the field.

George Lepeniotis my co-host, is out at the airport.

George, let me pass it to you.

Thanks, Jeff.

I'm at one of my favorite places to be South Bend International Airport.

And I'm joined today by Patrick Mac Carthaigh, vice president of operations for the airport.

Patrick, thanks for being with me.

Thanks for having me.

So tell us a little bit about your role here at the airport.

What is a vice president of operations?

Do I try to figure that out daily?

But generally, it's the operations, the maintenance, public safety function.

So your fire police and EMS, construction operations and some planning.

So you basically run this small city.

I would not tell my boss that.

But when we think about an airport, there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that make an airport run efficiently.

As as you can see behind us, thousands of people make it their way through here every day.

What is the what is the there's a project on the horizon that we're here to talk about today.

What is that project?

And tell me first before you get to the new, let's talk about South Bend International Airport.

How many runways, how many planes, that sort of thing.

So as an airport, we have about 20 acres, three runways, multiple taxiways to get the planes efficiently to the runways and some general aviation aprons for UPS, FedEx and our traveling public, the business traveler.

And then on top of that, you also have some general aviation, civil aviation traffic out of this airport.

As we do so, our total traffic counts per year, about 50,000 operations and 400,000 plus passengers.

That's awesome.

And so as you look at the scale of the airport, what is the next step?

What is this new project and what's it going to do for South Bend International?

So this project that we're working on right now, Taxiway Bravo, So it's our main parallel taxiway to the commercial side and it's a safety configuration and efficiencies.

So we're creating a larger apron for bigger, better aircraft in the future so that we can create more seamless transition in the space around the terminal.

So it's a big parking lot.

That's what it is.

And planes have to be able to come and go without causing any delay.

So when we talk about parking and planes coming and going, I guess we really don't think that much like the rest of our world.

Planes are constantly evolving and they're changing and their configurations are changing, maybe a slightly slower pace than than than some other things, but they are changing.

So is that what this is about mainly, or are there other driving factors?

So there are a lot of driving factors, but this is going to enhance that.

So as we're doing this apron portion of this taxiway project, we're lowering our apron, which is going to facilitate larger aircraft through the passenger boarding bridges.

I see.

So you're actually lowering it as the aircraft get taller?

Correct.

Got it.

Got it.

Well, that's an issue I would have never thought of.

So good thing that you're here to tell me as you do this project is the idea that you see heavier traffic coming through the airport or just these larger planes are more easily accommodated.

So the larger planes are more easily accommodated and we're always building to the future.

So if we wait until we need it, we're already behind what we call in aviation the power curve.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And when you're making the changes, does that also require changes to other parts of your systems?

Does it, you know, does it require larger snowplow machines or that sort of thing?

I mean, do you really have to think it through to that end degree?

You do.

And so it takes figuring out all the different facets.

Specifically, you talked about snow plow machines.

So when all is said and done in this project, we'll put down 21 acres of concrete and that's a lot more surface for snow.

And in doing that and expanding this, we're also taking out some of the areas that we would typically use for snow storage.

Right.

And so what is the plan there?

Is it just you realize that you need to move it somewhere else?

Do you have I think you mentioned earlier, 2000 acres, now 2000 acres of airport property.

So is that enough acreage to find another place to go with it or are you starting to think about.

Well, we're button up on our borders.

We have had to evolve our snow operations as we've gone through this project, but we still have enough space.

We're just having to get a little bit more creative with how we are.

Yeah.

Yeah, I got you.

Now, in your role, you're not only responsible for what I'll call that side of the terminal, but you're also responsible for this side of the terminal.

As you look to those this operation and and really increased passenger count here at SBN.

Are there plans in the future for that?

And what do you think that what's that next level that you're thinking about as you start planning for airport, like you said, for the future?

So we're always thinking and rethinking, planning of short term, medium term and long term.

So we develop a five year capital improvement project and it thinks about where we need to be in the short term.

And part of that expansion.

So we're also breaking ground very soon on a gate expansion on the concourse side, which is going to take our current eight gates and make it nine available gates so we can get more in and out.

Yeah, Yeah.

And that's part of the overall look that you're taking that that, that bird's eye view or planes eye view.

Correct.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Anything else that really catches your eye that's worthy of of kind of talking about here as we think about the next phase of SBN and where you guys are going.

I, I don't think there's one particular thing because we have to look at everything holistically.

So every action that we take has a knock on effect as we grow and we are growing, especially coming out of the pandemic since 2019.

You know, as we continue to grow, we have to think about all facets.

So our parking operations, our curbside operations, our ground transportation, how we're moving persons throughout the system so they can connect seamlessly to all these wonderful destinations we're trying to get people.

Awesome.

Patrick, thank you for being with us today.

Thanks for the show and thanks for taking us around the airport.

Jeff, back to you in the studio.

I'm sure going to talk more about how SBN always and will forever play such a great part in our community.

George, thank you.

Always good to see you out in the field there.

Appreciate you.

Adding to our story here, Mike, you know, coming back in the in the studio here.

So, you know, one of the things I think I've appreciate as a traveler is the is just the front door that you are to the community.

Right.

People's first impression sometimes is they come visit our community for the first time where they're coming in for a football game or to visit relatives or whatever they're doing.

Like some days when I'm in there, it looks like the terminal is brand new.

You've got sort of these challenges of like keeping, keeping everything working.

So there's always something happening out there.

Talk a little bit about just some of the improvements or things that people are seeing out there.

If they've flown in and out, for example, they've noticed you're doing a lot of work on the tarmac and such.

If they're on the south side now, they noticed a new building coming up.

They don't know what that is.

Talk a little bit about just the different improvements at the airport.

Yeah, So, yeah, we're always working to maintain what we have and then improve it.

And then also what do we need for next year, two years, five years, ten years and stuff.

So the tarmac project you were just talking about, this will be year four.

We're going to start, I think, March 17th on that phase.

That's 25 plus million dollars worth of construction this summer alone.

To do that with a local contractor that's doing all the work, obviously.

So that's one of the things we're going to do.

Then we're going to do some changes into the concourse where all the gates are.

We're going to add a new gate and reconfigure some of the space that's there.

Again, to make it more user friendly, make it easier.

The team strives to make sure that everything's clean, everything's neat, everything's where it's supposed to be, and that all the amenities work and the behind the scenes.

It's when you think about all the technology for the screens to work for the public address system, to work for the security systems that are all in place, and for all of that.

So again, the team does a dynamic job in watching all of that and paying attention to all those details.

Then on top of that, again, pre-COVID, we had started some modernization in the terminal with getting rid of some of the old floor tile and cleaning up counters and things like that.

That's underway.

Again, the floor we're going to push off until next year to do some more of that terrazzo.

And then we're going to hopefully do some improvements on the front of the building in the next couple of three years.

We're starting to design doing all that work.

Everything takes time.

Everything takes money, but everything also takes time to make sure we do it right and that we don't do something that in five, seven, ten years we got to rip it out to do something else again.

So we don't want to spend good money and then have to pull it back out.

There's a new structure going on just south of the airport terminal, not far from the hotel, and it's called a quick turnaround facility.

And they started construction already and we hope to finish it before the end of the year.

And that's really, again, to continue to help our customers be served better.

This one is going to focus on the rental car agencies to make sure that they can turn their cars more quickly, make sure that they're clean and wash properly and disinfected it where needed, and that some of the light maintenance that all vehicles need can get done and do it in close proximity so that it's efficient for the staff and the team and all those things that go with that.

All right.

Let's maybe go back to some of the stuff is stuff you guys see and know needs to be done sometimes the FAA or somebody also to I mean, do you have are you do you have mandates sometimes that say, I need to make certain improvements to runways or other things like that, too?

Absolutely.

So every year.

So there's something International Airport has what's called an operating certificate, which is given to us by the federal government that allows commercial aircraft to come and go.

And there's a huge list of requirements that we have to meet to do all that.

While the FAA does show up every year and looks at that list, everything from did you document all the things that you said you were going to do?

Did you do it?

Did you do that?

But then they also take a look at the infrastructure we have our runways, taxiways, the lighting systems, the navigational aids, all of that gets evaluated and they say, well, this is getting pretty old.

You know, what's your plans on doing this pavement?

And so we put together a five year master plan that covers most of the airfield on pavement life.

And we do an inspection every year on remaining life of pavement.

Is it as we would call it, too?

So one of the worst things is we all know the pavement is the freeze thaw cycles.

Every time that happens with the contraction expansion, it's not good.

So, you know, we're in year four of that taxiway and ramp project tarmac project.

So we get about another year or two from there and then we're going to take a year and do a couple of small things.

And then we have to go back into the main runway resurfacing at that point.

And that'll be a couple of years project too.

So lots going on, right?

So Mike, let's go back to the traveling a little bit.

So because I do think people initially think of those 13 routes and sort of the in and out, but that's only part of the story.

So so there's a fair amount of private air traffic that comes in and out of there.

And then you're also moving freight in and out of there.

So maybe talk about those other two pieces for a second.

The FBO piece and the freight piece.

Yeah.

So corporate general aviation is is huge.

It's a big part of what we do.

Also a lot of activities coming in and out.

And then recently we, a number of years ago, a few years ago, brought the international facilities in U.S. Customs and Border Protection staff here.

And so we're averaging probably about eight or nine international arrivals a month where they're coming from different places.

The longest nonstop route we've had here is from Narita, Japan, where a corporate jet left there and came nonstop to South Bend.

We've had them from Austria, from Germany, France, England, Central America, South America.

And so quite, quite an astounding array of different folks coming.

That's part of it.

Cargo.

We have two large mainline cargo carriers, FedEx and UPS, but we also have what we call the intermediate intermediate intermittent charters for cargo where somebody needs something right away and they can't wait for it to come by rail for six, seven or eight days.

And so we have a lot of that.

And then we also have some folks here who are manufacturing and they have to send their product out because whoever the end user is needs it tomorrow.

And so we have that freight work that's going on like there also.

And then we're continuing to grow the cargo analyzes and the cargo development for the future to include international freight arrivals.

You know, we've known each other for a long time.

You've been at the airport for how many years now?

12 years.

And what I like I think you seem as excited about it today as you were the first day I met you.

But in our last couple minutes, you talk a little about, you know, kind of the, you know, looking ahead, the things that have you most excited about, the opportunity to continue to grow South Bend International?

So again, our mission statement is to serve the traveling public and community.

And the two are tied together.

And so for us to serve the community, we have to continue to enhance all the travel abilities that the airlines can provide and bring to us and then put the amenities in place to do that.

So that's never ends.

It's constantly going to do that.

We continue to look at new economic opportunities for the region.

What can we do that will bring more jobs?

What can we do that will bring economic impact to our region?

What can we do that will help local businesses be able to work more efficiently, thrive, whether that's freight or connectivity with sales force or bringing in professionals that businesses sometimes need to help them move where they want to go.

So again, we look at this in many, many facets in many ways, and we just keep pushing on it all the time.

Any breaking news you want to share with us today?

I'm just getting I have to tell you, joking, hopefully soon.

Yes.

No, I'm kidding.

So no, no.

So in our last minute or so here again, just the reminder that or make the case a little bit to somebody who hasn't used it to to give it a try this summer when they're planning their summer plans.

Right.

So, again, if you're having somebody come in to visit you, if you have somebody coming in for business or you're going the other way, if you haven't use South Bend International Airport, please do so again, because those that data, those statistics help us continue to add more seats and more miles and more destinations.

And as we do that, then the ticket price averages will come down, too.

So it's, you know, what's the analogy?

What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

That's what I like, though.

And having like Detroit back on the agenda, having the Allegiant travel destinations, I mean, there's a lot of great options whether you're traveling for business or pleasure.

And so thank you for the good work you and the team do.

It's funny you bring up Detroit, so we're the first airport that had their Detroit service cut to have it back.

great.

Good.

And nobody else has gotten it back yet either.

So we're excited about that.

And we're continuing to push for even more service that, you know, that's the one I think most people complain about when it was gone.

It's a pretty great gateway to the east and it's nice to have that link back to our website.

People want to see more flySBN.com.

All right, Thanks so much, Mike My pleasure.

Thank you.

That's it for our show today.

On behalf of the entire team here at PBS Michiana WNIT, thank you for watching or listening to our podcast to watch this episode.

Again or any of our past episodes.

You can find economic outlook at wnit.org or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms.

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I'm Jeff Rea.

I'll see you next time.

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Thank you.