THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1997 TAG: 9702040004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 52 lines
Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim wants the Norfolk Airport Authority board of commissioners to explore ways to involve Virginia Beach and Chesapeake in long-range planning for development of the airport, including how best to improve the airport's service to travelers.
Seven major airlines and some regional carriers fly in and out of Norfolk International Airport. More than 1,500 people are employed by the airport's tenants, which include the airlines and concession operators; annual payroll is estimated at $41.6 million. The airport's tenants spend about $108.5 million locally for goods and services.
That spending has a ripple effect on the regional economy. And the airport is a magnet for businesses that profit from being near airports. More businesses would cluster near the airport if Virginia Beach could exploit the commercial potential in Burton Station; the city is impeded because the electorate denies it necessary condemnation power.
Meanwhile, the more flights in and out of the airport, the more passengers through the terminal, the better for the airport and the region. Norfolk collects business taxes from concession sales but is barred from collecting property taxes on the airport's land - 1,300 acres - and the substantial improvements on it.
The realistic move is to promote the airport. But airport-authority revenue may not be spent on marketing.
Here's where Norfolk International Airport could use help from its neighbors. Specifically, for starters, by underwriting promotion of fly-drive tour packages that would appeal to Canadians and other foreign travelers. Such an ongoing program, which bring more tourists through the airport, would be a natural for cooperation by Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg.
Speaking of Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg, that's how the airlines identify flights to and from Norfolk. In a statement prepared for presentation to the House of Delegates' Rules Committee of his bill to rename Norfolk International Airport ``Hampton Roads International Airport,'' Virginia Beach Del. Leo C. Waldrup spoke of businessmen who ``visualize the significance of having the name `Hampton Roads' flashing on monitors in a thousand different airports, a thousand times a day, seven days a week.''
The flashing of ``Hampton Roads'' apparently would be unlikely to follow the renaming of the airport, because the names by which points of origin and destinations are identified is the airlines' call. Airlines do not identify the Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta as ``Hartsfield'' as a destination or point of origin; they designate Atlanta. They do not identify Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City as anything other than the Oklahoma City airport.
But the airport's name change belongs on the regional agenda, as we wrote a short time ago. So, too, does regional cooperation to make Norfolk International busier and better.