Conversations
Dan Mann, Executive Director of the Columbia Metropolitan Airport
MidlandsBiz:
What is your education and background?
Dan Mann:
I am originally from Ohio. I paid my way through college at Bowling Green State University by entering into the Ohio Air National Guard. After stints in the Air Force, I decided that it would be a good fit for me to go into the airport business. My first job in Dubuque, Iowa allowed me to gain a broad range of airport experience, from emergency rescue, to day to day operations, to customer service.
My goal from early on was to run my own airport. I earned my first management position as assistant manager at an airport in upstate New York. After that, I was the manager at a small airport in Caspar, Wyoming for nine years before taking the job as manager at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, an airport similar in size to Columbia, South Carolina.
MidlandsBiz:
A couple of days after your arrival, Southwest Airlines announced that they were moving into the Greenville and Charleston markets. Why was Columbia not included on this list?
Dan Mann:
Southwest Airlines' strategy has been to concentrate on markets serving more than one million people, but for several years now, they have been looking at smaller markets. We had done outreach with them for years to let them know that we would love for them to locate in Columbia. Obviously, it was a big disappointment when they decided on other South Carolina markets.
Knowing that moving into smaller markets would prove challenging, Southwest was looking to locate in progressive, forward-looking communities. They found that cohesion and culture in Charleston and Greenville, but unfortunately, not Columbia. In the follow up interviews with Southwest, it became apparent that a lack of regional cooperation in the Midlands is a major reason why they did not locate here.
MidlandsBiz:
So where does the Columbia Airport go from here?
Dan Mann:
We would still love to have Southwest come to Columbia, and three to five years from now, when they revisit this market, they need to find a region with a robust economy and the business and public sector working together to solve problems. Since the announcement last summer, we have seen the emergence of the coalition of regional Chambers. All of the local mayors have started to come together. Richland and Lexington counties as well as and the City of Columbia are starting to work together to better solve problems. We are moving in the right direction. Air service development is a much bigger issue than any one particular airport director, airport commissioner, or a state Senator. It takes community demand, and the community business partnerships to make it all work.
MidlandsBiz:
Do you have any other new carriers coming into Columbia?
Dan Mann:
Vision Airlines entered this market in April. Vision Airlines is the largest startup in the airline industry since JetBlue. They are a low cost carrier who will be targeting the leisure traveler, initially with limited destinations and less than daily service. If successful with their routes, they are looking to add capacity as well as destinations, Las Vegas, for example.
MidlandsBiz:
Who uses the Columbia airport? What is your strength?
Dan Mann:
Delta Airlines represents 39% of our air traffic, and as such, is our biggest airline partner. Our strength is providing convenience to the business traveler and access to international connections.
MidlandsBiz:
Columbia leisure travelers can find lower fares out of Charlotte. With the arrival of Southwest Airlines in Greenville and Charleston, many will make the trip and travel out of those airports? How does Columbia Airport compete?
Dan Mann:
No doubt, we need to be competitive in pricing with those markets, and it will be tough. Charlotte is the 10th largest airport in the United States and therefore is able to attract more low cost carriers. As a major hub for US Airways, Charlotte is also able to offer direct flights to a lot more destinations. We will be closely tracking the impact that the arrival of Southwest in Greenville and Charleston will have on our airport.
Our customers have their frequent flyer points with many of our existing carriers, so this represents a big opportunity for us.
This community wants affordable airfares; that is our goal. We are working with our existing carriers to add more equipment in Columbia, that is, to increase the number and size of aircraft. Bigger planes and more seats mean the possibility of more discount fares.
MidlandsBiz:
How do you convince the carriers to add equipment?
Dan Mann:
Many of the planes that are currently flying out of our airport are full. If someone has to travel to another market to fly because there is no room on the plane, then that is a lost customer for the carrier.
We are competing against every other small airport in the country when it comes to increased air carrier service. We have to make the business case that they can make money if they add capacity at our airport. When I arrived, we undertook a study to benchmark our costs in relationship to 20 other similarly sized airports. We were the second highest cost airport in that group! That is not the right way to attract new equipment to your market, let alone low cost carriers.
We have been very aggressive in working to lower our costs. We have reduced our staff from 116 to 81 employees, cutting $1.7M out of our annual costs. We reduced our debt from $81M to $74M. Since then, our cost per passenger has decreased from $12.02 to $10.64. We can now take this number to our carriers and prove to them that we are working hard to help make them more competitive.
MidlandsBiz:
What are some of the challenges that the airline industry faces in general?
Dan Mann:
Higher fuel cost is a major challenge, but I am cautiously optimistic that we will see an increase in air travel despite the rise in the price of oil.
Federal regulation is always a challenge. The ticket tax that people pay goes into the Aviation Trust Fund, a pool of money that pays for capital improvements at airports across the country. Now in its 18th continuing resolution, the legislation governing the Fund has not been officially passed since 2007.
Airline profitability is a challenge. Everyone wants low cost carriers, but you also want the airlines to make money. The legacy carriers are getting smarter. I think the recent merger between Continental and United will go a long way to improving profitability and allow them to be more competitive with low cost carriers.
MidlandsBiz:
What is your ownership structure and business model?
Dan Mann:
We are a government entity that is entirely self-sufficient and funded by the users of the airport. Our main revenue streams are landing fees, terminal rents, and fuel flowage fees.
MidlandsBiz:
What capital improvements will we see at the Columbia airport?
Dan Mann:
On April 1, we finished the improvements to our primary runway where we added new concrete that will last 40 years and efficient LED lighting.
The economic downturn has meant a decline in the amount of cargo that has been shipped over the past several years and that has affected one of our biggest customers, UPS. As the economy turns around, we need to work hard to make sure that UPS can be successful in this market. Providing better and more direct access to the interstate system would save UPS a huge amount of money annually on time and fuel costs.
This airport is a gorgeous facility, one of the best in the Southeast, if not the country, but it is now around 15 years old. It is time for us to come inside, to make improvements and upgrades to the terminal over the next three years.
MidlandsBiz:
Are there any other opportunities for the airport?
Dan Mann:
The airline business is unstable at best, so anything that we can do to diversify our revenues into non-aviation revenues streams is good strategy for us. Immediately adjacent to the airport property, but outside the airport fence, we own over 100 acres that is shovel ready for development as a business park and an expansion to our existing Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ). We are working with Lexington County to develop this land. It would add to the county's tax base and improve our revenues, a win-win for both of us.
MidlandsBiz:
What are the most popular routes out of the Columbia airport?
Dan Mann:
Our most popular destinations are New York (La Guardia), Chicago, Detroit, Washington, DC and Dallas. We have more demand than we can handle on three a day flights to Dallas. The Continental/United merger has some opportunities for us to upgrade our service to Chicago and Houston.
MidlandsBiz:
What is the airport doing in terms of marketing?
Dan Mann:
We need to do a better job of community outreach, to let people of the Midlands know that we value them as customers. We need to tell all of our friends and neighbors that the airport is an important asset, an economic engine for the Midlands. We have a new web site and have become very active in a social media campaign to reach out to local community. We will be setting up an airfare watchdog system where we will send fare alerts to our customers.
MidlandsBiz:
What are some of your hobbies outside of work?
Dan Mann:
In my spare time, I love water skiing on the lake, riding my Harley motorcycle, and running marathons. My wife, who is a school teacher, and I had become tired of shoveling snow all winter, so we absolutely love it here in Columbia, South Carolina. We love Lake Murray. Talk about assets to the region!
MidlandsBiz:
Will Southwest come to Columbia?
Dan Mann:
It's a challenging time at the airport, but I am confident that we are on the right track. We are trying hard to "get in the game" so to speak, to cut our costs, diversify our revenue, and make it a priority to improve our community relations. Hopefully, this will attract new carriers, including Southwest Airlines at some point in the future.
