Andrew Perry

TH: Would it be fair to say that a lot of people in the community don't exactly know what an airport manager does?
AP: Yeah. An airport is fairly complex. I get all different types of questions. "Hey, how's the air traffic controller's tower going?" Well, we have one. It's going great. They relate a lot with the airline. We don't run the airline; they're a tenant of ours; they're a private company. What we do is we own runways and taxiways and land and we try to develop it and bring in services, which primarily are private companies to serve the public good or serve our customers.

TH: But you don't work for American Airlines or American Eagle.
AP: No. I work for, more or less, the community. The airport commission, of course.

Andrew D. Perry Age: 34. Occupation: Manager, Dubuque Regional Airport. Family: Husband of Danita; father of sons Colten, 6, and Bristol, 21/2. Hometown: Kahoka, Mo. Education: Master of science in aviation safety and bachelor of science in aviation technology (with a business management minor), both from Central Missouri State University. Accredited Airport Executive, A.A.E. Professional associations: President of Iowa Public Airports Association. Member and state liaison of Great Lakes Chapter of American Association of Airport Executives. Community leadership: Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee , Dubuque Jaycees. Hobbies: Flying and woodworking.

TH: But it's important for the community to know that you don't set the fares.
AP: Yeah, we do get hit with that a lot: "Your airfares were ..." Well, American's airfare might have been higher or they got a good fare - we get both sides. But we relay that message to American or any other carrier.

TH: The city, through the commission, does promote Dubuque Regional Airport. "Fly Dubuque" and "It's Plane Smart" and so on. What are the challenges that you observe in promoting Dubuque for commercial air travel?
AP: The challenges are that the airline industry has become very transparent. The technology. The Internet is out there. You can see everybody's fares within seconds off the Internet. But we also know how important it is to keep our service going for our business community and for the leisure traveler that wants to fly out of their hometown. The challenges are the airlines don't have the revenue right now. They're doing very little marketing, so it's up to the airports - all the airports virtually market themselves now to stay competitive amongst all the airports in the region. There's a funding issue to that. So that's one part. We were awarded a small community grant a year-and-a-half ago now that's helped us over the last couple of years. Sooner or later, that funding will run out. You just have to keep the message out to the public of the services that you offer for the airlines because you need to keep those airplanes filled. So you've got to keep them profitable to keep them here. The more passengers we do, the better chance we have of increasing more flights or getting that additional hub back - getting Northwest back or going to St. Louis or wherever the case may be. One thing I like about Dubuque, we do have a lot of great support. The community, we need to fly our hometown airport, but it's a fare issue at times. They'll go to another airport and we understand that. So we can't control the fares. We just try to market the services we have available. So the challenge is the airline industry is going through a very big restructuring process. The airports are in the middle of it right now. Hopefully, it will shake out over the next few years. You've got to hold on. The commission's goal right now is, No. 1, to retain the service we have. Hold on to what you have, get that going and then we can continue to grow again. Funding is the underlying issue for most issues we deal with, including air service. Air service for Dubuque and small communities around the country is going to be a challenge for many years to come. There's a lot of mini- challenges. But I feel very positive about this year. We are up. American's up almost 20 percent, which is great. They captured all of Northwest's passengers. I think we just have to keep the message out there to at least fly Dubuque first if you can.

TH: As you indicated, people get on the Internet and check fares and they look at the alternatives. Have you done calculations to help a Dubuque air traveler compute the total cost of their trip?
AP: Yes, we ran the calculations. I believe 40 cents is what the government is supposed to pay per mile. Parking is close to the same, but when you add an hour-and-a-half in the car, with gas prices ... and if you're paying the 40 cents a mile, you keep adding those costs up on a 160-mile round trip, you ate that $100 up. And the time. Since 9-11, they're wanting you to be at the airport two hours early - 90 minutes in our case - so they save a little bit here. So you need to leave 31/2 hours early to drive to one of the other closer airports, sometimes more than that. So that's another hour you could be in the office. How much is that worth to you? I don't have that number. But I can tell you the driving, the cost of the vehicle and sometime parking is higher. You start adding all that in to the $40 savings - or $50 or even $100 - it's long gone. Now the issue we do run into if it's $50 higher per ticker for one person, but if you're taking a family of four, all of a sudden, it's $200. In those cases, we understand. We know you're going to drive to another airport to save $200, $300. I'll be the first to admit that I can't ask you, "Why didn't you fly Dubuque? I mean, you've got to keep us growing." Not for $200. But what I tell people is, as long as they tried to fly Dubuque first, that gives us a chance; don't just automatically assume we have higher fares because we don't necessarily. Sometimes our fares are lower.

TH: I got on the Internet and I decided, "Let's pretend I'm taking a trip, and say it was a springtime trip to New York, to JFK. The fares for Dubuque were within $40 of everybody - the same as Madison and just $6 more than Moline. On that particular trip, and I realized it varies a lot by seats available, but that was in April. For a July trip out to New York, very comparable to Madison, and Moline and Cedar Rapids were within $25. In some cases, we're not even talking about $50 or $100. I did find a lot cheaper fares out of Madison to Fort Myers in April; a lot more expensive from Dubuque than from Madison, but pretty close to Cedar Rapids and Moline. It isn't a given that Dubuque always has the higher fare; if you check, sometimes it's just the same as a trip from Cedar Rapids. Anyway, do the commission or you, as manager, spot-check fares to make sure?
AP: Right, exactly. We do spot-check them. Actually, we receive a fare comparison from the Iowa Department of Transportation once a week, once every couple of weeks, but then we receive something once a week and then we'll do some checking. If somebody calls us, we'll do some checking on our own, too. We definitely try to stay on top. What we really look for if the fare is really off - not that $40 or $50, but if it's $400, $500. "Hey, there's something wrong," because these are operated by computers and computers mess up or they can throw out the wrong algorithm, so we'll place a call to American just to check on it. So we check on the fares on a regular basis to look for two things: One, are we seeing a trend? Or, two, something that could be way out of line. We typically will look at our top 25, 50 markets because there are over millions of fares and that's just too much data for us, so we at least look at the top 25 or 50 on a regular basis to make sure what's going on there. We just don't have the time or the resources to look at going to Paducah, Ky., that somebody may go to twice a year. But the trends, and then if there's something way out of line, we'll question it and talk to American and find out what's going on.

TH: With all the studies that you do on the fares and such, are there any recommendations that you might offer to people in the community in terms of what to shop for?
AP: This doesn't necessarily help some of the businesses, but if you're a leisure passenger, if you think you're going to go, start looking a couple of months ahead of time. We do tell you to try to book at least 30 days in advance because we only have four airplanes flying out, which is good, but if the seats begin to fill up, then the fare starts creeping up there sometimes. But it's not always the Dubuque leg. So the further out you can look. And also keep checking the fares, because they change on a regular basis.

TH: But generally, the farther out you are, time-wise, the cheaper seats are usually available.
AP: Yes. Our planes are running 60-, 70-, 80-percent load factors, so they're filling up. When the seats are filled up, it's harder to get those cheaper seats.

TH: Let's talk about those seats filling up. The latest report indicates that enplanements at Dubuque Regional are up. And if I heard you correctly, you said that American Eagle has absorbed what Northwest was carrying in terms of passenger numbers and has gone beyond that as well.
AP: Yes.

TH: So, net-net, there are more people flying out of Dubuque with one carrier right now than there were when we had two carriers?
AP: Two carriers, but the other carrier - Northwest - was only here for five months until May. So, we're counting from January to May of 2003, because they left in May. So, we're just saying that they absorbed it. And I believe that Northwest flew 5,000-some passengers. Now if you compare American Eagle's numbers, '03 versus '04, they at least captured that 5,000 passenger mark that Northwest had carried, if you're just looking at data to data. So that's a good positive trend for us. Keep in mind. We only started the fourth flight in September and fourth quarter is typically our lowest quarter. It's a slower travel season, outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

TH: Jet service made a big difference, didn't it?
AP: Yes.

TH: What's that flight - takeoff to touchdown? That's 30 minutes or so, isn't it? Assuming you're not tied up in a holding pattern.
AP: Yeah, if it's takeoff to touchdown, it's definitely about 30 minutes. I think they view 40 minutes, but you have air traffic control. I've left Chicago off the runway and been in Dubuque, my quickest time was 20 minutes timing it. The jet has helped our market tremendously.

TH: Dubuque Regional Airport has had a perfect safety rating from the Federal Aviation Administration 14 straight years.
AP: Fourteen years.

TH: Why is that important?
AP: That's important because it shows the dedication and the drive that this airport has with its employees. Because that safety record is virtually your bible, if you will, our FAA bible that we work off of. You have to meet specific regulations. They're very detailed regulations. Our employees, our operations and maintenance and somewhat our FBO (fixed base operator) people maintain this airport to the highest quality. That carries into safety issues because they know the concrete's safe; the grass is cut the way it's supposed to be; the lights are taken care of; and the paperwork - mounds and mounds of paperwork that we have to go through - is taken care of by our operations department. To our knowledge, there's no other airport that's done it 14 years in a row. I've been doing this for 12 years and it's not easy to do. You can get discrepancy for minor, minor issues and that hasn't happened here in 14 years.

TH: What would be an example of a minor issue? What could jeopardize this streak of perfect ratings?
AP: Say the glass on a taxiway light, the taxiway has got a stem that it sits on and that goes down into a breakable coupler. Those couplers are supposed to be covered, so if a tire hit it, it doesn't blow a tire. Around the light, they erode every year, so you've got to make sure they're maintained around the light. An inspector could say, "Hey, you haven't maintained those lights," and just ding us. That would be a very, very, very minor issue. Just misplacing all the daily logs that we have to take care of could give you discrepancy. Missing one day; and they check for the whole year. All of our fire regulations that our guys deal with. For example, our grass is supposed to grow no more than 3 inches tall. Now we mow probably 300, 400 acres every week during mowing time. Now, they don't get too caught up on that, but paperwork is a big issue. And it's also the easiest one to overlook because there's just so much of it, you can miss something. May not necessarily be a safety issue. Out on the runway, y our holes in your concrete if you happen to have a blow up can only be 2 inches deep by 5 inches in diameter. If it's bigger than that, they say, "Hey, you're not maintaining. You need to get those filled." We handle, more or less in street miles, city street miles, we have about 22 miles of concrete and pavement. That's a lot to take care of. Your fuel trucks. We have to maintain the fuel for them in the fuel trucks. Any number of those items can make you a discrepancy if you miss it or overlook it or didn't fill out the paperwork.

TH: Would you consider continuing the perfect safety rating one of your major accomplishments the three years you've been here?
AP: Mine, no. It belongs to our operations and maintenance, it belongs to our employees. That record, they started it. I can't be any more proud of them than I am, but that's their record; it's not mine.

TH: Do you get a little nervous every morning when you come in to work to think, "Are we going to keep that streak intact?" Do you get a little nervous - you don't want to have the streak end on your watch?
AP: Yeah, sure, we do. Every year that it goes on I think there's added pressure to them. Because we have turnover. Our operations guys. We have very good employees and some of them move on. When you bring in new crews, it puts added pressure on them as well. Sure we do. But there will be a point in time that, like this year, a lot of the regulations have changed and they're going through it with a fine-tooth comb because there's so much of it and it is very detailed that we're always a little bit worried about it because we've almost put it upon ourselves by doing it. The public, everybody, appreciates it. I get it all the time: "You guys do such a great job out there." I mean a perfect safety record. I think that's something they don't want to lose. I certainly don't either. So, sure, we get nervous.

TH: You don't include that on your list of accomplishments, or at least your biggest accomplishment. What are items that are on your list?
AP: I think items on my list, operationally we've grown. Adding the fourth flight with American has been a big help. I guess, sure, we've done some CIP work, taxiway work...

TH: CIP? Capital improvement program?
AP: Yeah. We're doing some hangar expansion. When I was hired in November of 2001 - 21/2 months after 9-11 - I knew from that point forward it was going to be an uphill battle. So I think my accomplishment, what I'm proud of, is we seem to have gotten through the bad times and I'm hoping the worst times. Our revenue has increased somewhat. Operationally, we've grown. We're the third-busiest airport in Iowa, now. University of Dubuque continues to grow. We have some hangar expansion. We're adding a jet bridge. We're looking to build a new terminal area. That seems to be going down a good path for the next 50 years. So I guess I look at my accomplishments more of a strategic area. We got through, hopefully, the bad times and now we're looking for the good times.

TH: How significant is the University of Dubuque aviation program that to the operation of the airport?
AP: They're one of our largest operators. They're certainly a big partner of ours. A big reason why we're the third-busiest airport in Iowa is because of the University of Dubuque, to some extent. They have 200 students. They have 23 airplanes. Hopefully, the continue to grow beyond that. We're expanding the hangar because of them. They're running out of room. And all these are good problems to have and to focus on. I hope we can foster that relationship even further down the road over the next five and 10 years. Nothing happens overnight, but if we can develop a good solution for the next 10 to 20 years, hopefully U of D continues to grow and the airport helps them with that and we grow together.

TH: When you say that Dubuque is the third busiest airport, that includes private plane traffic, University of Dubuque traffic and that's calculated by takeoffs and landings?
AP: By takeoffs and landings, exactly. The air traffic control tower count. We're right behind Cedar Rapids. They did, 2003 numbers, 72,000 operations; and I believe we did around 53,000. They're open 41/2 more hours than we are, so they get to count a lot more airplanes. So you can kind of see that we're kind of clicking on the heels of Cedar Rapids. And that's good. A lot of it is contributed to the University of Dubuque. Some of it's contributed to, we've been marketing Dubuque Jet Center nationally and we're starting to see more transient jet traffic. Corporate traffic has increased as well.

TH: What does transient jet traffic mean?
AP: Transient jet traffic. You're Corporation X flying from New York to LA. But they need to stop somewhere in the country for fuel. Transient is not local, so they're from out of town flying in. So they'll stop in Dubuque, buy fuel, and fly on to LA. That would be a transient traffic. So we're trying to market nationally because the more fuel the FBO pumps, the more revenue we bring into the airport. More exposure we bring to Dubuque for those corporations. Seeing Dubuque and what we have to offer. We continue to market that nationally. We started that three years ago when I came here. Our jet fuel is up, I believe, around 30 percent or so.

TH: You're 34 years old. You've got a lot of years ahead of you yet. What's next, career-wise, for Andy Perry?
AP: We love Dubuque. The kids are growing. Best schools. Great relationship with the commission. We're growing. And I want to see some of that growth. So the next step has yet to be determined. Goals change once you start having kids and we absolutely love it here. This is our home. It truly is. Friends and relationships. Both of us have careers. Somewhere down the line, it'll be time to do something and I hope that's a ways out there. As long as I feel and the commission feels that I'm being effective at what I do, we're happy here. Dubuque isn't hampering. Sure, I could start climbing up to a larger airport right now, but my goals, I've met them that I've set for myself so far. My kids are more important. My family is more important to me now than maybe career aspirations.