Fresno Yosemite International Airport: Taking Off
Transportation
Written by Meghan Flynn   
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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The story of how Fresno Yosemite International Airport became a modern mid-sized airport with service to Mexico began five years ago when Mexicana Airlines approached the new director of aviation, Russ Widmar, but it includes many players working together to take advantage of an opportunity.

“The improvements here at Fresno Yosemite are the culmination of hard work on the part of my team and all the staff here as well as the support and investment of our partners here in California and across the country,” said Widmar. “Together, we’ve brought this little airport into the 21st century.”

By May of next year, Fresno Yosemite will have completed a $59 million, three-year improvement and expansion project that included a new international terminal, expanded rental car and baggage claim service, one of the largest solar panel projects in the world, and more. Widmar said the catalyst for all the change was the offer from Mexicana Airlines to start five days of non-stop service between Fresno Yosemite and Guadalajara, Mexico.

“Back in the early 1990s, the city council voted to forbid any international flights because of pest infestation concerns, but when Mexicana approached us in 2004, we decided to revisit the issue and see if improvements in pest management practices and technologies had improved enough to allow the service,” explained Widmar.

He said the airport and the city conducted studies and various discussions over the following two years before signing the deal. At that point, the challenge became where to add the new flight service. “All anyone had ever done to the older portion of the airport terminal building since it was first built was minor improvements or additions; the building looked and felt old and tired,” he said. “We saw an opportunity to make a big change for the region as a whole and embarked on a major expansion and improvement project.”

Widmar and his team expanded and improved the main airport building to upgrade its security facilities, expand the baggage claim, add modern amenities, and include an international terminal for Mexicana air service. Since that service started in 2006, nearly 200,000 people have flown between Fresno and Guadalajara, a staggering figure, according to Widmar, considering the airport’s size.

“We spend about $1.2 million annually on the program. That’s slightly more than what it brings in, but in the way this was a catalyst for change here and has increased the visibility of Fresno Yosemite, it is more than worth it,” Widmar said.

Another crucial improvement was to consolidate and expand the airport’s rental car service, which had consisted of five acres worth of facilities and space scattered in small pieces around the property. At the time, the rental car business was growing rapidly, so Widmar and his team consolidated the facilities in to one location, and expanded the dedicated space to 15 acres.

Perhaps Widmar’s favorite improvement to the airport is the Sense of Place project in the main terminal. What had been a dark and crowded area is now full of natural light. The building support columns that were once covered in dated paneling are now decorated to mimic the giant Sequoia trees the region is famous for; one is even designed as a walk-through tree. Widmar said visitors even take pictures and the trees, built by the San Diego-based company NatureMaker, which have created a much more relaxed atmosphere.

“These incredibly accurate sculptures are unique for our airport,” he said. “After 36 years in this industry, I’ve learned that it’s worth it to do something interesting and exciting, and this fits with our goal of creating a modern, comfortable, and welcoming airport.”

Natural approach
The trees also fit nicely with Fresno Yosemite’s new reputation as one of the greenest airports in the country, thanks to the completion of a 4.2-megawatt, $16 million solar panel project.

During the consolidation of the airport’s rental car service, Widmar and his team began discussing the possibility of a small solar project as a supplemental power source, aiming for a few hundred kilowatts at most. But he said they realized the airport had dozens of acres in the approach area around its main runway that were useless for construction but perfect for low-laying solar panels.

Fresno Yosemite contracted with World Water and Solar Technologies based out of New Jersey to install and maintain the panels; the airport will buy all the power the panels produce over the next 20 years, at which time ownership will revert to the airport. Widmar said he expected to break even on the investment in 2011 and save roughly $13 million over the 25-year lifespan of the panels but reported that after just one year of operation, the airport is breaking even.

“We produce all the power we need during peak hours, and then supplement it with power we buy from Pacific Gas and Electric at off-peak rates,” Widmar explained. “We get 58% of our power from the solar panels and now expect to save closer to $19 million in energy costs over the next 25 years.”

Honesty is the best policy
Those savings are especially helpful considering the current state of the economy and the uncertain future for so many regional airports like Fresno Yosemite. Widmar said in addition to the physical changes at the airport, he and his team have changed the way this mid-sized airport does business.

“Before, nearly 55% of our revenue came from the airlines. Today, we’ve brought that down to 23% through a combination of adding diverse revenue streams and reducing costs,” he said. That required asking for fair-market rent whenever possible and trimming about $1 million from the airport’s expenses for FY2010.

Since the recession began, airlines have cut their air service by nearly 20%, which means Fresno is still down by a few hundred thousand dollars in 2009. Luckily, the airport has maintained healthy reserves and, according to Widmar, the airports new business model will put Fresno Yosemite on strong footing once the market turns around.

It also helps that Widmar and his team have fostered an all-hands-on-deck culture at the airport. Whenever possible, managers promote from within, and Widmar started airport-wide meetings three times a year when he first arrived. Over the years, attendance to the themed events has risen from 30 to 70 out of the 83 employees at Fresno Yosemite.

“We laid out all our plans for this multi-million dollar improvement project at the beginning and had a conversation about why we made the choices we made and how things were going to change,” Widmar said. “Having that dialogue does wonders in getting buy-in, and the fact that as a management team, we’ve followed through on all those plans shows that we’re all in this together.”
 
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