The meetings -- two of which were scheduled to draw 14,000 attendees from around the world, and a third for about 2,000 people -- were Microsoft's first gatherings in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina and its only future dates in the city.

Microsoft spokeswoman Robyn Kratzer said the company worked closely with New Orleans to try to keep the meetings in town to support the city's recovery, but the Redmond, Wash., company ultimately concluded it would be too difficult for its employees and business associates to travel to New Orleans.

"Obviously we've made a very difficult decision to hold three of our annual conventions, which had been scheduled to take place in New Orleans, in other locations," Kratzer said. "It really came down to the airline service of the city. It was going to present some very challenging logistical problems."

Kratzer did not know where the meetings would be rescheduled.

The cancellation is a blow to the city's beleaguered convention business, once the bedrock for its tourism industry. Though some groups, such as November's 25,000-person meeting of the National Association of Realtors, have opted to proceed with their conventions, others have gotten skittish because of crime reports, the cost of event cancellation insurance or the lack of air service. Competitors have been ruthless in trying to lure meetings away, convention industry leaders say, forcing the city's convention sales force to work on defending existing bookings rather than soliciting new business down the road.

The New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau declined to comment on the Microsoft loss, citing competitive pressures and a desire to focus on the future. "We just want to keep looking forward to the great long-standing relationship we've had with them for many years," spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig said.

Microsoft has been an important customer for the city in recent years and has held four meetings in New Orleans since 2002, several of them worldwide events attracting 14,000 people. The bookings represented an early success for the city in a new effort to try to broaden its convention appeal from association meetings and to corporate meetings to fill in gaps in its calendar of gatherings.

Corporate meetings are lucrative, have more stable attendance than industry association gatherings where attendees pay their own way, and are flexible because they are booked closer to the date they are held. As recently as last week, convention bureau President Stephen Perry said that for these reasons, corporate meetings were especially important for New Orleans in trying to rebuild its convention calendar.

But air service has proven to be a hurdle and was cited as a problem when New Orleans held its first major convention in June: the 18,000-person meeting of the American Library Association. New Orleans now has 61 percent of its pre-Katrina airline service operating from the Louis Armstrong International Airport.

The airport said it had heard that Microsoft had canceled because of flight service, but no one from the bureau or the company had asked the airport for help in retaining the convention.

"They never came to us and said, 'Microsoft has these concerns. What can you do?' " airport spokeswoman Michelle Duffourc said.

When other convention groups have had similar concerns about air service, the airport has been able to get involved and work with meeting planners to show what's being done, Duffourc said. In many cases it's helped.

In particular, Continental Airlines, the flight company that has had the strongest return since Katrina, has been willing to put larger aircraft on its routes or to schedule extra flights into New Orleans as special events warrant.

To work on the air service issue, airport and convention bureau officials conducted two days of meetings in September with top scheduling executives from Continental, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines to try to lobby for extra flights.

"It was all very positive about bringing more flights here," Duffourc said.

Microsoft said it will be watching for results. "We're looking forward to returning to New Orleans when airline service has returned to its original level," Kratzer said. From the Times Picayune, October 6, 2006

Betsy barely tested airport but Katrina did her worst

By Jaime Guillet Staff Writer
New Orleans City Business

2006-08-21 10:23 AM CST

NEW ORLEANS — If the walls of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport could talk, they would tell different tales about the airport’s role during hurricanes Katrina and Betsy.

The airport resumed air carrier service less than 24 hours after Betsy’s landfall and sustained only $500,000 in damage — all but $300 covered by insurance.

“We didn’t have too much trouble. I don’t think we ever even shut down,” said Paul Stoulig, secretary of the New Orleans Aviation Board during Betsy.

That is a stark contrast to Armstrong’s role during Katrina.

Despite more than $30 million in damage to the facility, the Armstrong staff helped 31 visiting doctors and nurses stranded at the airport to establish an emergency medical triage for people evacuated out of the Superdome, the Morial Convention Center and off rooftops. More than 30,000 people were evacuated to and processed through Armstrong by Sept. 11, 2005. More than 20 people died after being evacuated to Armstrong and there were multiple births.

During Katrina and its aftermath, Armstrong served as military encampment, hospital, morgue, Red Cross distribution center and residence for airport employees and emergency relief workers.

Armstrong Interim Aviation Director Sean Hunter was deputy director of operations and maintenance during Katrina. He said the biggest airport challenge was it was not designed as a shelter.

“Certainly it put a strain on our resources from a law enforcement standpoint, from an operational standpoint and from a facilities standpoint,” said Hunter. “Needless to say we came out of it OK but, certainly as it relates to the future, we’re designing plans now to meet that need if ever we need to again.” From CityBusiness, August 21, 2006

Passengers pour out the perfume

Friday, August 11, 2006
By Mary Swerczek
Kenner bureau

The thwarted plot to blow up passenger planes bound from Britain to the United States manifested itself Thursday at Louis Armstrong International Airport in trash bins teeming with water bottles, toothpaste tubes and yogurt cups.

But the lines to get through security checkpoints and onto planes, where almost all liquids and gels are newly banned, were only slightly longer than usual. No flights were canceled and no passengers missed flights because of the new security measures, said interim Aviation Director Sean Hunter.

"It's been pretty normal," he said. "There haven't really been any long delays."

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration banned liquids and gels from carry-on bags at 4 a.m., after British authorities began arresting 24 people on charges of plotting to use liquid explosives to blow up as many as 10 planes bound for the United States. Exceptions are baby formula and medicines. Liquids and gels must be placed in checked baggage.

Hastily made signs announcing the new measures were posted at all ticket counters at the New Orleans airport, and airline employees advised fliers to repack taboo items in checked luggage. Travelers who hadn't heard about the new rule or didn't realize, for example, that lip gloss is contraband filled garbage bins near the security checkpoints.

Mascara in the mail

Standing outside a security checkpoint, a harried and annoyed Molly Dubois handed her mother a tube of mascara and her "face," a bottle of liquid foundation. She had put her contact lens solution in her checked luggage, but she didn't realize that the makeup, too, was forbidden.

"I'm going to have her mail it to me," said the 21-year-old Boutte resident, who planned to be in New York for eight days, adding that she grasps the logic behind the ban. "I understand. It's just a pain."

Dubois wasn't worried about safety on the flight. But her mother, watching her walk through security, confessed concern.

"Just not knowing, and especially with her flying into New York," Lori Dubois said. "It's just a sad world we live in today."

Molly Dubois was not the only passenger handing off banned goods to others. David Schexnayder of New Iberia, who was sending his 12-year-old son to Washington, said a woman gave his 9-year-old daughter a bottle of Burberry perfume.

" 'I want you to take this because it's $50 perfume,' " he said, remembering her words. " 'I don't want to have to throw it away.' "

Schexnayder and his wife, Lori, were not worried about their son's flight.

"He's in God's hands," Lori Schexnayder said, ruminating on the alleged terrorist plot. "It's hard to understand. They have different ideas about things."

Random screenings

Security screeners are not necessarily opening every carry-on bag to check for contraband, although passengers should prepare themselves for that, said Andrea McCauley, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration.

Once beyond checkpoints, passengers may still buy beverages on the concourse but may not take them on planes, she said.

"We do have a random screening process in place," she said, refusing to go into much detail for security reasons. Other security measures also have been increased, she said, citing air marshals, local law enforcement and dogs on patrol for anything suspicious.

McCauley said the length of the ban on liquids is unknown.

"At this point, we can't give a date," she said.

Free shipping

Airport stores, which depend on outgoing traffic for much of their sales, are finding ways to alleviate the inevitable loss of revenue. At the Tabasco Country Store outside Concourse D, where the shelves are lined with spicy goods, many containing liquid, co-owner Hughes Drumm said he is offering free shipping.

"As with any business, you have to adapt, improvise and overcome," he said, using a U.S. Marines slogan.

The assistant manager of The Body Shop, outside Concourse C, said she has been pushing nonbanned items.

"Instead of coconut shower cream, we'll sell the coconut soap," said Michelle DeGrange. "It's affected us greatly. This is The Body Shop: We specialize in creamy-consistency things."

The store's location gave Jennifer Buchheit, who flew into New Orleans for the American Psychological Association convention, a convenient place to pick up what she left behind.

"I'm replacing what I had to throw away in Atlanta," Buchheit said, carrying powdered foundation in place of the liquid makeup she was forbidden to take on board her flight.

She said she felt some apprehension during her flight and listened to CNN throughout it. She called the ban "inconvenient" but necessary.

"I think they're being proactive, and I appreciate that," she said. From the Times Picayune, August 11, 2006

Air Share
Airlines vie for bigger piece of the N.O. market pie

by Jaime Guillet
08/07/2006
New Orleans City Business

Since Hurricane Katrina, market shares have been reshuffled for airlines serving Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Industry experts attribute changes in the number of passengers and flights to the drop in service by Armstrong’s pre-Katrina market share leader — Southwest Airlines.

On Aug. 29, Southwest Airlines held the top spot at the airport with 57 flights, or 29 percent of LANOIA’s flights. While Southwest remains the forerunner with 22 percent, it now offers 24 of the airport’s 107 flights — less than half the airline’s pre-Katrina capacity. The decrease has allowed airlines such as Continental, American and JetBlue to grab passengers.

“Some of our competitors were much larger and now they’re not, which has allowed us to capture a larger percentage of the market share,” said American Airline spokesman Tim Smith.

American’s market share at the airport has increased from 12 percent in June 2005 to 17 percent a year later with 17 daily flights. Continental Airlines’ market share has increased 64 percent from 11 percent of the market to 18 percent for an average 17 daily flights.

Airport Interim Aviation Director Sean Hunter agrees.

“Obviously, Southwest has yet to come back as strong as they were before Katrina,” said Hunter. “Also, American and Continental fly to two cities that were heavily impacted by Katrina as well — Dallas and Houston.”

Airline alternatives

Southwest spokeswoman Paula Berg says Southwest’s uncertainty in the New Orleans market immediately following Katrina caused the airline to rein in many of its flights.

“We had to make some tough decisions about what to do about our aircraft,” said Berg. “Uncertain times that we had — not knowing what was going to happen in New Orleans, when air service was going to pick up — we had to make some decisions about what to do with those planes so we moved them into other cities.”

Now, the airline is in the “tricky” position of not having enough aircraft to restore its pre-Katrina flights, said Berg.

“Demand is so high,” Berg said. “We’re flying at record load factors. I think most airlines are, so there’s just not a lot of excess capacity to move around the system.”

US Airways, which also experienced a decrease in market share, did not plan on such a quick recovery of passenger demand in New Orleans, said Mike Britman, managing director of the airline’s route planning.

“We weren’t sure how fast demand was going to come back,” said Britman. “We’ve been watching very closely and we’re very encouraged by what we’ve seen.”

Britman said the airline will be at 80 percent of its pre-Katrina flights by September.

Taking wing

As of June 10, Southwest had 24 daily, nonstop departures to 10 cities. The airline will acquire 33 new Boeing 737s throughout the remainder of 2006, Berg said, and will place those aircraft where they are “most efficiently and effectively (used) in our system for our customers and also for the help of our airline.”

“We know our flights are doing well there and to be honest we’d like to grow. We’d like to be bigger than we were before Katrina ... but we don’t have the planes to do so,” said Berg. “We feel like the service that we have there now is a good, fair start.”

Not all market share increases should be attributed to Southwest’s decrease, said JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin. Niche services, such as the airline’s nonstop flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, are having more impact, said Dervin.

“Market share is one of those results that we like to measure but we don’t build our strategy around improving market share,” said Dervin. “Market share in and of itself is not the primary unit of success for us. It’s very convenient for passengers in New Orleans to take non-stop flights to JFK and that has contributed to our market share.”

Overall, the airlines are encouraged competition is returning to New Orleans and that as service continues to grow, the number of flights will as well.

“We made the commitment that we would get back (to New Orleans) as soon as (the city’s) infrastructure could support it and we did so,” said Smith. “It’s a reflection of our commitment to New Orleans.” From CityBusiness, August 7, 2006

DirectAir seeks landing in New Orleans

by Jaime Guillet
NEW ORLEANS CITY BUSINESS

08/07/2006

Local entrepreneur John Miller believes New Orleans’ recovery — beyond even the pre-Katrina era — lies in molding Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport into a hub. His plan includes creating a new airline, DirectAir — with the partnership of the state of Louisiana.

“The relationship is similar to a (public) utility,” said Miller. “We want the state in essence to become what the federal government has been for the airline industry after 9/11. The industry was devastated (and) the federal government stepped up and they loaned billions of dollars to the airline industry. We (would be) meeting an essential need of the entire state by making guarantees to the state, in return for guarantees from the state.”

The state would help DirectAir provide competitive flights because it would eliminate the 4 percent fuel tax the airline pays. The model also requires that Louisiana make a $300 million commitment over seven years by way of loans.

But the state isn’t sold on the idea.

“We’re asking the federal government for billions of dollars to help us in the recovery process,” said Economic Development Secretary Mike Olivier. “At this point, because we are reaching our debt limitation according to our state treasurer, I do not know that we would have the financial capacity to be able to offer a $300 million loan guarantee.”

In creating DirectAir, Miller believes he can dramatically increase the number of travelers in and out of New Orleans from the pre-Katrina figure of 10 million. Miller believes establishing the airline would create 3,000 airline-related jobs and 50,000 tourism-related jobs. This would generate $500 million in taxes (annually), which would significantly benefit the state, said Miller.

Miller’s business model is to buy one of the eight existing airlines — mooring Armstrong Airport as its hub — and make it competitive with other airlines by low fares, especially for Louisiana residents.

“We’ve done extensive analysis on fares,” said Miller. “When we fly a plane from Atlanta to New Orleans, we know how much it costs to fly that plane. We will have the lowest, spontaneous leisure fares.”

Miller says no loan would ever be funded “until DirectAir has 150 daily flights and 50 aircraft.” The state’s annual loan amount would never exceed $100 million, said Miller. “We are proposing a loan and not an outright investment by the state,” said Miller.

Miller says he has submitted the plan to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and pitched the proposal to Olivier but to no avail.

“There are no discussions,” said Miller. “The state is not even considering this.”

Airport Interim Aviation Director Sean Hunter says he believes the plan is feasible and the creation of DirectAir would “have a significant impact.” But Olivier said the bottom line is the state is not in a position to enter into a deal of that fiscal magnitude.

“Where would we get this money?” asked Olivier. “I don’t care how you skin this cat — he’s asking the state of Louisiana to give him a $300 million loan or either a loan guarantee. However you skin it, it’s still a loan that becomes due and payable and somebody’s got to pay and guarantee it — that would be the state.

“I do not know that we would have the financial capacity to be able to offer a $300 million loan guarantee,” said Olivier. From CityBusiness, August 7, 2006

Cargo airport idea gets 6-month reprieve
Proceed or let it die? Ruling is in February

Saturday, July 29, 2006
By Matt Scallan

The Louisiana Airport Authority, which wants to build a massive cargo airport and manufacturing complex between Donaldsonville and White Castle, says it will decide whether the project is feasible by February.

The LAA last week signed a one-year extension of its agreement with a Canadian group, which says it is willing to invest $90 million in the project and to recruit other investors if the state buys the land upriver from Donaldsonville at an estimated cost of about $100 million.

The authority is a state agency formed in 1992 to create a new airport between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

The two-year agreement with the Canadian Commercial Corp. and SNC-Lavalin was to expire in August, but the group extended the agreement with the LAA to take an updated look at the project and confirm that there is a market for it.

An economic impact study paid for by the LAA estimated that the site would create 66,000 direct jobs over the next 40 years.

LAA Executive Director Glenda Jeansonne said the Canadians will spend the next six months rechecking the basis of their business plan for the site before deciding whether to proceed.

"We're going to have a go-no go decision in February. And if it's a go, we'll begin working on the detailed business plan," she said.

A major focus of the study is to determine if earlier assumptions are still good, particularly in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Jeansonne said.

"We don't know if the storms have had any effect on the feasibility of the project or not," she said.

The LAA plans to focus at first on building a 12,000-foot runway and warehouses designed to snare cargo planes serving Latin America, eventually building more runways and hosting manufacturing plants that make products from material generated by the region's petrochemical plants.

The project has plenty of critics, including a consultant for the state who said last year that the project was too risky for the state to make a significant investment.

LAA officials say the critical study, performed by Wilbur Smith Associates, was superficial and focused on only the airport portion of the project, while omitting the rail, trucking and port facilities.

Others who don't like the idea are sugar cane farmers whose land is in the project's 25,000-acre footprint, managers of airports in Baton Rouge and New Orleans who are afraid that the project could capture public money that would otherwise be earmarked for improving their facilities, and backers of alternative airport plans.

The LAA is conducting an environmental study of the proposed site, while SNC-Lavalin conducts the feasibility study.

Money for both studies is expected to come from the state capital outlay budget, which includes $1.4 million in the Priority 2 category and $2.3 million in the Priority 5 category.

Mark Lambert, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation and Development, said Friday that the department is trying to assist the agency with its study.

"We're kind of in an information mode," he said. "They're gathering. We're providing. When they're finished, we'll take a look at it from our end."

Don Pierson, assistant secretary for the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, said moving ahead with the project would mean a significant investment for the state, not only to purchase the property, but improvements to roads and other infrastructure.

"You have to look at the entire picture, including the indirect creation of jobs," Pierson said Friday.

Once the study is complete, the governor and ultimately the Legislature will decide whether it's worth it, he said.

"The thing about this is that the SNC-Lavalin is going to be investing its own money in the project and they're not going to do that if all the people doing the feasibility study can say is, 'Good luck.' " From the Times Picayune, July 29, 2006

Hospitality industry passing big test
Library convention going well, but flight shortages to N.O. noted

Monday, June 26, 2006
Times Picayune
By Jaquetta White

Participants and observers in town for the first major convention in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina offered mostly praise for the hospitality industry's handling of the event, but the limited number of flights into the city has emerged as an issue.

More than 18,000 members of the American Library Association are in town for a conference at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. It began Thursday and ends Wednesday. It is the first major event to test the city's convention industry, and the reaction to it will go a long way toward preserving or diminishing New Orleans' reputation as a premier convention destination.

"It was just imperative that this show go well," said Nancy Schucart, a representative for housing and travel agency ITS. "And I would say this was definitely a positive experience."

Schucart said she had expected the city to have fewer restaurants and service workers but "didn't notice any visible changes in the downtown area." That's information Schucart will take to other convention clients considering meeting in New Orleans.

Other conventioneers said they noticed that some operations were short-staffed, but they were not inconvenienced.

"It's been great," said Dan Donovan, who traveled with his librarian wife from Raleigh, N.C. The hotel "is shorthanded, but everybody's doing the best they can. It seems like people don't mind waiting."

Kevin Cleary of Cleveland said the hotel staff "apologized for (the service) upfront."

"But it wasn't that bad," said Cleary, an exhibitor for Collegiate Directories Inc. "It's New Orleans. You expect a leisurely pace."

Phoenix, Ariz., architect Jim Richard, who toured some of the more devastated neighborhoods in the area, applauded the hospitality industry's effort to create an area for visitors that was separate from the destruction.

"It's amazing how insular you really are" downtown, Richard said. "But when you step outside, it's amazing to see what a good job they do of separating the two."

However, not everything has gone smoothly. The lower number of flights into Louis Armstrong International Airport has emerged as an issue. The airport has about two-thirds of the 166 flights per day it had before Katrina.

Fewer flights meant that Joan Chapa, an exhibitor with Marcive Inc., had to drive to New Orleans on Friday after her flight from San Antonio, Texas, was delayed, causing her to miss a connecting flight from Houston to New Orleans. Chapa tried to get a later flight into New Orleans, but everything was booked through Sunday.

Atlanta librarian Rosaline Odom said two conference sessions she had planned to attend were canceled because the speakers could not get flights into the city.

"That is a problem," said Roz Kriener, a meeting planner with the National Association of Realtors' conventions and meetings department.

Kriener is in town to observe the library convention in preparation for the Realtors convention in November, when at least 25,000 attendees are anticipated. Kriener, who has been telling members to book flights early, said the city desperately needs more direct flights to accommodate large groups.

Otherwise, Kriener said, she was encouraged by what she saw and is confident New Orleans is capable once again of hosting a large conference.

"Everything seems to be coming back to life," she said. From the Times Picayune, June 26, 2006

Southwest adds 6 flights from N.O.
Dallas airline is largest at airport

Tuesday, June 13, 2006
By Rebecca Mowbray
Business writer

Southwest Airlines Co. added six daily nonstop flights from New Orleans this past weekend, for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, making the Dallas carrier once again the largest airline operating from the Louis Armstrong International Airport.

The new round-trips will run between New Orleans and the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport in Florida, the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, the Baltimore/Washington International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport. There will also be an additional flight between New Orleans and the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston.

The new flights bring Southwest's total to 24. While that's more than other carriers, it still amounts to only 43 percent of the of the airline's pre-Hurricane Katrina service.

Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said restoring air service to New Orleans is a priority because the city has historic significance for Southwest: It was the airline's first destination outside of Texas.

But Southwest has more demand than it does planes, and after adding four cities to its route map in the past 18 months -- Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver and Fort Myers, Fla. -- the planes that used to serve New Orleans were needed in other cities.

"It was a business decision to deploy the aircraft to other routes where they could make they could make money," McInnis said.

The airport has said that after the addition of these six Southwest flights, there probably won't be any significant gains in air service out of New Orleans until the fall, when the cruise ships and conventions return.

Southwest is trying to pace its return in New Orleans with the city's rebuilding. Deploying aircraft may get easier, as Southwest is taking delivery of 33 new planes this year, but decisions on where to place aircraft weigh demand in New Orleans against demand in other cities.

"We are in situations were we have more demand than we have airplanes, so we have to prioritize," McInnis said. "It's almost like building a new market again."

Right now there are 107 daily departures from New Orleans, about 64 percent of the 166 flights per day before Katrina. Those flights go to 34 cities, compared with 44 destinations before the storm. There are about 12,300 airline seats serving the market, about 60 percent of the pre-Katrina level.

While Southwest used to be the largest carrier at the airport by a significant margin, followed by Delta Air Lines Inc. , and then all the rest, the amount of service offered by Southwest and the legacy carriers is much closer now than it used to be. For example, Southwest has 24 daily flights, and Continental Airlines Inc. has 17 flights per day. From the Times Picayune, June 13, 2006

Kenner wary as dump cleanup starts
Council delays work on spending plans

Friday, June 02, 2006
By Mary Swerczek
Kenner bureau

Cleanup began Thursday on the temporary Jefferson Parish dump near Louis Armstrong International Airport -- which has been the target of complaints for months from neighbors and city leaders -- officials told the Kenner City Council.

The discussion was spirited at times about the dump, formerly green space that was taken over by Jefferson Parish in the aftermath of Katrina. But there was no debate at Thursday's council meeting on Mayor Phil Capitano's proposed 2006-07 capital and operating budgets, along with 12 other ordinances, which were unexpectedly deferred until the council's June 15 meeting.

Because the ordinances hadn't been advertised in time, those discussions had to be deferred, and the council voted unanimously to delay debate on the operating budget, which could have been discussed because it was properly advertised.

Members said they chose to delay discussion of the operating budget because they had some questions and hadn't received all requested budget-related documents from the Finance Department.

The announcement about the dump came at the outset of the meeting, before the discussion of the ordinances was deferred.

"The site will probably be better than it was before when we're done with it," said Paul Wise, operations manager for Ceres Environmental, which is cleaning up the site.

Kenner council members and residents have complained about the dump since Jefferson Parish picked the site in September as a stopping point for curbside debris on its way to a permanent dump site.

"There was so much debris at that time that we needed staging areas," said Marnie Winter, Jefferson Parish's director of environmental affairs.

The Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of the area where construction debris from unincorporated Jefferson Parish was dumped. Kenner had been using the east side of the dump site for debris and trees, but has stopped using the area.

Councilman Marc Johnson, who represents the area, said he's fielded many complaints.

"We've gotten reports from residents about paint cans and drums," Johnson said, referring to some of the trash he has heard had been dumped there.

Wise said the site has to be cleaned of illegally dumped debris and equipment left by squatters. Then two or three inches will be taken off the surface and more dirt will be put down and the land will be seeded. Soil borings will be done to test the area.

Councilman Kent Denapolis worried that trash has sunk lower into the soil than a few inches.

Winter said the soil borings will determine how far the soil has been affected by the dump.

Johnson said streets and sidewalks have been damaged by heavy dump trucks and should be fixed.

Winter responded that she would have the parish's public works department assess the streets and said she believes the corps took photos of the area before it was used as a dump site. From the Times Picayune, June 2, 2006

Recovering N.O. airport turns 60

By CityBusiness staff report

NEW ORLEANS — The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport celebrates 60 years of commercial flight service to the New Orleans Metro area and the Gulf South this month.

In 1946, the airport was the first post-war international airport opened for service, dedicated by Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, a famous World War II war hero.

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, originally named Moisant International Airport, was the largest commercial airport in the United States at the time at twice the size of New York’s LaGuardia or Chicago’s O’Hare airports. Dignitaries from Latin American countries who attended the dedication declared the airport to be vitally important to inter-American relations. Throughout the 1940s, Moisant served all major cities in Central and South America.

The airport was first named for daredevil aviator John B. Moisant, an impulsive flight pioneer who designed and built the first all-metal plane in 1909. Moisant was the first to fly the English Channel with a passenger Sept. 6, 1910. This American citizen was the founder and star in the first professional flying circus until a fatal crash in his Bieriot monoplane took his life near New Orleans City Park on New Year’s Eve in 1910. He was 37 years old.

The airport has had two name changes since the dedication in 1946. In December 1962, it became “New Orleans International Airport” to more closely identify the facility with the city. The second name change took place July 5, 2001, when it was renamed for jazz legend Louis Armstrong.

The first travelers at the airport waited in a quonset hut without air conditioning and walked across the tarmac to 21-passenger DC-3 flights. The airport opened with six airlines: Chicago & Southern Airlines, Delta, Eastern, Mid-Continent, National and Pan American World Airways.

Today, Delta is the only airline of the six still operating with its original moniker. Eight other airlines have joined Delta in serving LANOIA.

Today, Armstrong’s air service continues to recover with more than 100 daily departures — 60 percent of the pre-K level. More flights and destinations will be added in June. From CityBusiness, May 26, 2006

Storm plans satisfy airlines
Big carriers review Katrina response

Sunday, May 28, 2006
By Rebecca Mowbray
Business writer

Although Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has asked airlines to fly out of New Orleans for as long as possible when a hurricane is approaching, the largest air carriers serving the Crescent City foresee little change to their pre-storm operations.

"At $50 million an airplane, would you want to leave them on the ground?" said Michelle Duffourc, spokeswoman for Louis Armstrong International Airport. "They each have their own procedures as to when they're going to pull out. They also have their employees to consider."

Major airlines serving the airport echo that position.

Delta Air Lines, which was criticized last year because it stopped flying from New Orleans on Saturday night when the storm didn't hit until Monday morning, said there was nothing about Hurricane Katrina that would make it rethink its operations leading up to hurricanes.

"We feel confident about our system and the way we make decisions," said Chris Kelly, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based airline.

Delta is the largest carrier in Florida and has a major presence along the Gulf Coast, so it has plenty of experience with storms. Each one is different, depending in the timing of the storm, the timing of flights, whether employees need to get out of the area, whether there are disabled passengers, or passengers connecting to international flights. Sometimes the airline adds extra flights to get people out. Financial considerations, such as the flight loads in each direction, are not considered.

"Safety is the No. 1 concern," Kelly said. "We have a quite a lot of practice with this."

Southwest Airlines was the last carrier to fly out of New Orleans before Katrina, when it sent in two planes to evacuate employees and their families and pets and brought them to Dallas and to Houston, where they were housed in hotels.

Like Delta, Southwest said that it makes decisions based on the situation at hand as to when to stop flying, spokeswoman Paula Berg said.

"Our plans always going to be contingent upon the circumstances we face," Berg said. "There's no formula necessarily for addressing it."

But Southwest has changed its level of monitoring of storms. Airline executives used to meet regularly when storms might affect planes on the company's grid. Now, when a hurricane threatens, there is a team of people who are required to stop what they're doing and put all their efforts into following the storm and making any changes that are necessary. The idea, Berg said, is to be able to react more quickly and accommodate more customers.

"We're more nimble," Berg said. "It's to make sure that our operational changes are keeping up with the storm."

Continental Airlines notes that it was the second-to-last carrier to stop flying. When its last flight pulled out at 4:30 p.m, it canceled the two other extra flights it had scheduled on Sunday night only because of deteriorating weather conditions. From the Times Picayune, May 28, 2006

Armstrong International Celebrates 60 Years of Service

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE --- May 26, 2006 --- This month, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport celebrates 60 years of commercial flight service to the New Orleans Metro area and the Gulf South.

In 1946, the airport was the first post war international airport opened for service, dedicated by World War II’s most famous hero, Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle. On opening day, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, originally named Moisant International Airport, was the largest commercial airport in the United States, twice the size of New York’s LaGuardia or Chicago’s O’Hare airports. Dignitaries from Latin American countries who attended the dedication declared the airport to be vitally important to inter-American relations. In fact, throughout the ‘40s, Moisant served all major cities in Central and South America.

The airport was first named for daredevil aviator named John B. Moisant. He was an impulsive flight pioneer who designed and built the first all-metal plane in 1909. Moisant was the first to fly the English Channel with a passenger on September 6, 1910. Because of this achievement, he became the toast of Europe and a media darling in the U.S. This American citizen was the founder and star in the first professional flying circus – until a fatal crash in his Bieriot monoplane took his life near New Orleans’ City Park on New Year’s Eve in 1910. He was 37 years old. The airport has had two name changes since the dedication in 1946. In December, 1962, the airport’s name changed for the first time to “New Orleans International Airport” in order to more closely identify the facility with the city. The second name change took place on July 5, 2001 when it was renamed for jazz legend Louis Armstrong.

The first travelers at this airport waited in a quonset hut without air conditioning and walked across the tarmac to their 21-passenger DC-3 flights. The airport originally opened with six airlines: Chicago & Southern Airlines, Delta, Eastern, Mid-Continent, National, and Pan American World Airways. Today, Delta is the only airline of the six still operating with its original moniker. It is still with us, in addition to 8 others.

Since 1946, Armstrong International has strived to make the airport user-friendly and safe for both international and domestic passengers. It has come a long way since the quonset hut, reaching many milestones. From the addition of concourses and a covered parking garage to the rehabilitation of runways, we have had numerous construction projects totaling multiple millions of dollars that benefited the airport, our passengers and our community. These projects have provided jobs and enhanced the efficiency of the airport to meet passenger growth.

The airport is like a small city and it is the airport team that keeps the airport running smoothly, even through challenging times such as Mardi Gras, Super Bowl, Jazz Fest, major conventions, holidays, presidential visits and most recently - Hurricane Katrina.

Today, Armstrong’s air service continues to rapidly recovering with over 100 daily departures, 60% of the Pre-K level. More flights and destinations will be added in June.

As proud as we may be of our past, greater things await us in the future. With the support of our community, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport will continue to recover and be an air passenger facility that will serve as a catalyst for responsible development in the Gulf South. For more information about the history of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and our services, visit our website at www.flymsy.com.

For further information, contact Michelle C. Duffourc, Public Relations Manager, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, at 504-464-3547 or 504-628-0250 (cell).

Williams continues to push airport relocation

By Jaime Guillet Staff Writer
City Business – Up to the Minute News

NEW ORLEANS — Roy Williams, the outgoing director of aviation, today continued working for the potential relocation of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport during a World Trade Center luncheon celebrating his service to the community.

Williams, whose final day as aviation director is May 31, spoke about the benefits of relocating LANOIA to a location off the shore of Lake Pontchartrain to consolidate the facility at Lakefront Airport. Williams cites the relocated airport’s shortened distance from downtown New Orleans as a convenience as well as the fact no plane routes would fly over any neighborhoods — even pre-Katrina — and lower property values through noise pollution.

He said planes, passengers and cargo could come in and out of the city much more easily if Armstrong was moved to a location on Lake Pontchartrain.

“We now know that the airport can and should function in a tropical storm event,” said Williams. “Every other way in and out of this community is a road that either sooner or later is below sea level.”

The city already has a tract of land devoted to aviation with Lakefront Airport so why not recycle it as part of the support for a new international airport, said Williams.

“Opportunities are all open now,” Williams said. “There are very few communities in the entire world who can say ‘Let’s go to a site 10 to 12 miles from downtown” and is able to not have planes fly over a residential neighborhood.”

The biggest issue with relocating the airport remains money, said Williams, as nearly $4 billion would be needed from the Federal Aviation Administration. He said the relocation would be unlikely through the FAA, since it has 50 percent fewer passengers post-Katrina, but it could be funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency as an infrastructure improvement.

Williams said “barring any further plagues” Armstrong should return to 100 percent of pre-Katrina levels by mid-summer 2007.

WTC presidents past and present presented Williams, who is taking a similar position with the Salt Lake City airport, with a certificate of honor in recognition of his efforts towards “international peace, trade and understanding” for the New Orleans community.

Sean Hunter was selected by the New Orleans Aviation Board as the interim director of aviation until the board elects a replacement. From CityBusiness, May 22, 2006

Airport access road just got a little faster
The speed limit now increases to 45 mph

Friday, May 19, 2006
Kenner bureau

In a move sure to please people rushing to or from Louis Armstrong International Airport, the speed limit on Airport Access Road was raised this week from 35 mph to 45 mph.

The change on the road connecting Interstate 10 to the airport comes after two traffic studies recommended it. Studies by Urban Systems Inc. in June 2002 and July 2005 found 45 mph a more realistic speed for the four-lane divided road.

Armed with that data, the Kenner City Council unanimously approved the change April 20. New signs went up this week.

After several major accidents, including a head-on fatality collision in 1998, the access road was widened and given a median divider in 2001.

The increased speed limit applies to the north-south part of the 2½-mile-long road. The speed limit is 25 mph on the undivided east-west portion near the airport terminal. From the Times Picayune, May 19, 2006

Interim airport boss wants full title

New Orleans City Business
By Jaime Guillet
May 15, 2006
Page 12

NEW ORLEANS — Newly chosen interim director Sean Hunter says he plans to boost the city’s image by way of its front door at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

"Certainly I want to be on a parallel track with the city and the region, ensuring that the image we present as the front door to the city, and the last thing they see leaving New Orleans, is a good one," Hunter said.

Dan Packer, New Orleans Airport Board chairman, says the airport needs a business-minded, innovative director with strong management skills.

"He has the job until we select someone else — and it may be him," said Packer. "That means that he has all the full authority that comes with the job. Our expectations are that he’ll exercise that authority as if he were aviation director."

Packer said the board is searching for a director who has "no fear of the unknown." The unknown involves the uncertain New Orleans recovery and hurricane threats.

"All of us in this region, we’re all treading on brand new ground," said Packer. "The aviation director really has to be someone who has the kind of integrity and courage to move forward and is able to think long term and plan long term."

The airport bears a crucial function for a city whose economic viability is based in tourism, Hunter said. He is taking the place of Director Roy Williams, who resignation becomes effective May 31, one day before the start of the 2006 hurricane season. Williams accepted a similar position for an airport in Salt Lake City.

Hunter, a Detroit native, has been deputy director of operations and maintenance for six years. He recently added the duties of acting deputy director of safety and security and acting director of the airport’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise office.

The New Orleans Aviation Board appointed Hunter interim aviation director until a national search is complete anywhere from six to 14 months from now. With 20 years of aviation experience in the military and at Atlantic City International, Hunter said he is prepared to lead the airport through any possible crises.

"I’ve worked in air traffic control when you’re basically controlling the airplanes in the sky and now I’m working in airport management when you control them on the ground," said Hunter. "The only difference between those two jobs is the stress level."

Hunter, 40, said he prefers the "chronic" stress of airport management versus the "acute" stress of air traffic control. Williams said Hunter’s role as head of operations, security and the DBE program, especially during the last nine months, allowed him to showcase "good crisis management" skills and gain "good exposure to financial and administrative issues." Williams said a challenge will be to restore airport passenger traffic now at 51 percent of pre-Katrina levels. March ridership totaled 470,000 passengers versus 920,000 in March 2005.

"As passenger traffic continues to build, managing that growth is very important," said Williams. "Also, making certain the airport and its development fully supports the region’s recovery."

Expansion goals

Williams said the airport is adding an average of five flights per month and he expects Armstrong to attain pre-Katrina flight levels by June 2007 — a feat he didn’t expect nine months ago. His goal is to keep more passengers coming through the airport and to spread the message New Orleans is strong, said Hunter.

The airport has issues with its vendors, some failing financially, especially those stuck in concourses not heavily traveled. Twenty-five out of 36 vendors reopened and in the first quarter but sales are only at 28 percent of pre-Katrina levels.

"It is my goal to help out small businesses and to find some way to help bring about some relief to our tenants," said Hunter. "We’ve done all we can do, at least in the arena of keeping the airlines’ cost down, but you’re operating at 50 percent of your traffic. Everybody’s costs are not operating at that same 50 percent. Your cost is fixed no matter if you move one person through here or 10 million.

"I understand if the vendors are looking to the airport to help them out and we will," said Hunter.

With conventions returning, Hunter said he plans to work with the tourism industry on restoring the New Orleans image. He began by sprucing up the terminal with better lighting, new paint and carpet and restoring restrooms at a cost of $1.5 million. He will improve ground transportation by working to provide larger shuttles at convention time and partnering with the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau to sponsor a "taxicab appreciation day" so the New Orleans Taxicab Bureau can improve existing cabs.

Hunter in the running

Regarding long-term plans, Packer said the interest in the possible relocation of Armstrong to eastern New Orleans has cooled until the airport can better pre-Katrina passenger levels.

"First things first," said Packer. "To get to the point where we say we need to do something with a new airport, we have to have a reason for doing it and the largest reason for doing that is the number of (departing) passengers and the amount of cargo that goes through here. We have to get that back to more than pre-Katrina levels to make it viable."

Hunter said his most pressing issue is preparing Armstrong for hurricane season. He is significantly increasing provisions such as food and water and making sure staff member families are taken care of prior to a storm instead of sheltering them at the airport.

"From the state on down, the level of awareness, the level of cooperation, the logistics of pulling things together between Orleans and Jefferson (parishes) — all that synergy there is pretty familiar because we’ve had eight months to try to work on it together," said Hunter. "My goal is ensuring that the public is confident the airport has a plan and it’s prepared for natural disasters. We demonstrated that during Katrina and now that we’ve learned from Katrina we will be in a better position to handle the next." From CityBusiness, May 15, 2006

N.O. to add nonstop Honduras flights

By CityBusiness staff report

NEW ORLEANS — Louis Armstrong New Orleans International will resume international air service June 3 with Saturday charter flights to Honduras.

International Charter and Tours will have weekly non-stop flights from New Orleans to San Pedro Sula and continuing on to La Ceiba, Honduras, through Aug. 5.

New Orleans travelers will leave for San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba at 11 a.m., arrive at the connector flight at 1:30 p.m. and reach final destination at 3:10 p.m.

Returnees will depart San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba to New Orleans at 2:30 p.m. and arrive at 6:40 p.m.

The weekly charter flight will be operated by International Charter and Tours.

“The charter will help the Honduran Community maintain closer family ties by providing this nonstop link to San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba,” said Alina Fernandez, ICT president.

“We are pleased to gain this new charter service that will reconnect New Orleans to Honduras during the prime summer travel months," said Roy Williams, director of Aviation at Armstrong International Airport. Williams has resigned and will take over a similar position in Salt Lake City in June. From CityBusiness, May 2006

Hunt for new airport chief gears up as fill-in selected
N.O. board plans to hire search firm

Thursday, May 11, 2006
By Matt Scallan
Staff writer

The New Orleans Aviation Board voted Wednesday to begin the search for a new aviation director to replace Roy Williams, who is leaving after five years to become director of the Salt Lake City airport.

The board appointed Sean Hunter as interim director at a salary of about $151,000 a year. Hunter, the deputy director for operations at Louis Armstrong International Airport, will be allowed to compete for the permanent job.

The board also voted to hire an executive search firm to assist the board in the search. Board member Lea Polk will chair the search committee, which is made up of all of the board's nine members.

Board Chairman Dan Packer said he expects the search to take several months, and said he didn't want to wait until after the May 20 mayoral runoff between Mayor Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu to begin the process.

"If there is a new mayor, the board would certainly consider his wishes, and we have a lot of people whose terms are about to expire, so whoever wins could replace a lot of people," Packer said.

Williams was hired in 2001 at the recommendation of a blue-ribbon panel made up from the business and tourism community.

Packer said he doesn't believe that is necessary this time.

"I believe the community trusts this board," he said. From the Times Picayune, May 11, 2006

Hotels will be empty in storms
Guests, workers, locals will have to evacuate

Thursday, May 04, 2006
By Rebecca Mowbray
Business writer

Reversing the decades-long tradition of "vertical evacuation," local hotels will no longer let guests and employees ride out hurricanes in their towers, the Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging Association says.

The lodging industry's decision to close for storms this hurricane season comes after thousands of guests were stranded in miserable and dangerous conditions after Hurricane Katrina smashed windows and the Army Corps of Engineers' levee breaches flooded the streets. Hotels had trouble securing buses to evacuate guests from the chaos, and the notion of sparing local residents and their pets the stress of sitting in traffic on the highways no longer seemed like a smart move.

"I don't know of any hotel that intends to do vertical evacuation this year," said Bill Langkopp, executive vice president of the hotel association, which surveyed its members on their storm plans. "Our thrust will be to get the visitors out."

So ingrained was this Mother-Nature-be-damned tradition of vertical evacuation that the city's largest hotel, the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, proudly talked of sheltering locals as a public service. Last year, hotels were even exempted from mandatory evacuation orders.

But Katrina gave hoteliers a new appreciation for the responsibility -- and liability -- of caring for guests in an emergency. Hotels no longer want to be storm shelters, especially with lingering questions about the strength of the levees.

"Bringing people into a hotel for safe harbor was OK pre-Katrina. It is no longer acceptable post-Katrina," Langkopp said. "Pre-Katrina, the hotel community honestly believed that we could provide a place of safe haven. Now, the reality is that we need to look at getting people out."

Most believe that persuading people to evacuate won't be a problem.

"I have a sneaking suspicion that no one's going to need to tell them that they need to leave," said Al Groos, general manager of the Royal Sonesta New Orleans Hotel, one of only a handful of properties that never closed after the storm. "I don't think there's any appetite for vertical evacuation anymore."

Getting guests out

Hotels have been working closely with emergency operations and homeland security officials, and their counterparts at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, to develop an evacuation plan for their guests.

The convention bureau will serve as the clearinghouse to share information on where hotels are in their evacuation efforts, which ones may need help, whether airlines are still operating and how conditions are evolving. A skeleton crew from the bureau will work at the city's official emergency operations center to keep public officials apprised of hotel situations and will make facilities available for post-storm relief operations, said Stephen Perry, president and chief executive of the convention bureau.

While locals will get out on their own or end up in the city's bus evacuation depot at the Convention Center, hotels will help their guests evacuate. They hope that many guests will drive away on their own, and that flights will continue for a longer period of time than they did before Katrina. Thousands of guests with tickets home got stuck in the city because many airlines stopped flying as early as Saturday night.

But the hospitality industry isn't counting on the city's evacuation plan; hotels are contracting their own buses to get stranded guests out of town.

The hospitality industry needs a separate system, Perry said, because its evacuees have different needs. Locals who get on buses at the Convention Center may need to be housed for several weeks or will return eventually to New Orleans. Tourists just need to get to a hub airport where they can hop a plane for home.

"They'll be flying away. We're bringing travelers to an airport so they can depart," Perry said. "They're not moving somewhere to live and move back home."

The hospitality industry also hopes that having its own, well-developed evacuation system will be a selling point to visitors in what promises to be the most difficult summer ever for the tourism industry. "We're trying to make sure that we take the risk out for any visitor to come to New Orleans during hurricane season," Perry said.

Hotel workers, families

Last year, hotels for the first time tried to whittle the number of people in their care by encouraging tourists to leave early and shutting down their reservation systems to locals, with little success. Tourists couldn't get out and locals showed up anyway.

"It didn't work out very well," said Andrea Thornton, director of sales and marketing at the 600-room Hotel Monteleone. "Even though we discouraged people, they still begged us to take care of them. When the hurricane hit, we had 1,400 people in the hotel."

"At the last minute, they just all showed up. So what do you do?" said Patrick Quinn, principal of Decatur Hotels LLC, which operates the Astor Crowne Plaza and other downtown hotels. "We ended up taking them in."

In planning to close their properties for storms, for the first time hotels will have to figure out how to evacuate employees, many of whom don't have cars. Hotel workers and their families typically stayed at the hotels during storms so employees could work without having to worry about loved ones getting out of the city safely.

Large chain properties, such as the Hilton, will rely on their extensive network of hotels to help in relocating employees' families. Fred Sawyers, general manager of the Hilton, said his hotel will make reservations at sister properties in other cities for families of employees who volunteer to stay to evacuate the last guests. After tourists are safely on their way, employees will go meet their families; the only requirement is employees who stay must have a car or a ride.

Sawyers said he got the idea after he sent his wife and three cats out of town during Katrina so he could focus on his job.

"Thank goodness I didn't have to worry about my own situation. You need to give team members piece of mind that their affairs are in order to execute their best," he said.

Buddy system

Smaller or independent hotels that can't rely on a chain to take on employees or guests are coming up with other solutions.

The Monteleone is creating a buddy system to coordinate rides for employees without cars. The 171-room Chateau LeMoyne French Quarter Hotel, which successfully evacuated all of its guests by Sunday morning before Katrina and locked its doors, plans to start its evacuation as early as possible to make sure employees have time to leave.

Kathleen Young, general manager of the Chateau LeMoyne, said with so many people staying in hurricane-treacherous trailers, evacuations will need to start very early. That could also mean that hotels will begin cutting back on services for guests days before a potential storm, such as restricting towel service or cleaning schedules, limiting hours of food service and switching to plastic utensils and paper plates.

"If you start early enough, there's no getting stuck," Young said.

While there's no firm point when hotels will start evacuating, many say their actions will be triggered when the city begins talking about an evacuation, when New Orleans is in the strike zone cone, or when a storm of a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale is in the Gulf.

"I guess the biggest thing is going to be, when do you pull the trigger? When do you make the call?" Quinn said.

Of course, Young noted that closing a hotel won't be easy unless the corporate office is on board. It will be hard to give up the room revenue in a summer with no Essence Music Festival, few conventions and scant room bookings. If a hurricane threatens on, say, the one weekend in August when a hotel happens to have robust business, it may be hard for that property to close -- especially if there have been false alarms.

"That's a tough position to be in if that's the only money you're going to make all month," said Young, adding that she's fortunate to have her owners' support in closing. "To run off summer business when you're this slow isn't an easy thing to do."

But Langkopp said evacuation plans have support from the very top of the hotel chains that operate in New Orleans.

"A GM of a hotel won't be a general manager for long if he empties his hotel out on a couple of occasions without the support of the corporate office," Langkopp said. "We're not doing what we're doing in isolation." From the Times Picayune, May 4, 2006

Aviation director is taking off
Williams taking airport job in Utah

Tuesday, April 25, 2006
By Matt Scallan
Staff Writer

New Orleans Aviation Director Roy Williams, who steered Louis Armstrong International Airport through turbulent times for the past five years, is leaving to take a job as director of the Salt Lake City Airport, officials announced Monday.

"It's been challenging and it's been fun, but I'm from the west and my wife and I have had a long-term goal of getting back there at some point in our careers," said Williams, a native of Twin Falls, Idaho.

He begins work at his new post on May 30.

Williams, 51, a former airline executive and director of the Dayton, Ohio, airport, has been an ardent promoter of the airport in the community, appearing before countless governmental and civic groups to explain how the airport works and why it's important to the area's economy.

"He really reached out to the community, and we especially needed that after Katrina," said Aviation Board member Ralph Brennan, a restaurateur. "He let people know that we were back and ready for business."

New Orleans Aviation Board Chairman Dan Packer said he's sorry to see Williams go.

"As I began to learn about this industry, I realized that Roy is an expert at running an airport," Packer said.

Packer said he will ask the board to appoint Sean Hunter, the airport's deputy director for operations, as the interim airport director.

Williams was hired in March 2001 with a mandate to push for the airport's top priority: completion of a new parallel runway.

But the airport never was able to overcome staunch opposition in Kenner, where it is located, and in St. Charles Parish, where the new runway was to have been built. In the end, airport engineers came up with alternatives to build a new airport, either in the Bonnet Carré Spillway in St. Charles or in eastern New Orleans.

St. Charles Parish President Albert Laque said Williams impressed him as being open and honest, even if the airport's objectives sometimes clashed with the parish's.

"I think he was good with the airport, even though we didn't agree with everything that they were trying to do," Laque said.

Williams' legacy is supervising the reconstruction of the airport's two aging runways, including its main strip, which was finished only days before Katrina struck on Aug. 29.

He also led the effort to raise airport salaries to competitive levels, which reduced turnover of technical staff, and to fill top-level jobs that had gone empty for years, forcing the airport to rely on consultants for routine matters.

"We had a lot of positions that were unfilled. It stopped the bleeding," airport spokeswoman Michelle Duffourc said.

The airport is a self-supported enterprise, financed by airline and parking fees and concessions revenue.

Much of Williams' tenure has been spent trying to recover from blows to air traffic -- caused first by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and the heightened security challenges that followed it, and then by Katrina.

At his current salary of $175,000 a year, Williams is the city's highest-paid employee. His new job as head of Salt Lake City's Department of Airports starts at $185,000 a year.

Salt Lake City International Airport served 22 million passengers in 2005. It is the nation's 27th busiest airport. Armstrong, with a pre-Katrina total of about 10 million passengers, was the nation's 40th busiest.

During Williams' tenure, the airport was twice on track to break the 10 million-passenger mark in a calendar year. The first time was just before the Sept. 11 attacks; the second was just before Katrina struck. . In both cases, the airport had hit the mark in the preceding 12 months.

Passenger traffic currently is running at about half of pre-Katrina levels, according to airport statistics.

While a Blue Ribbon committee helped pick Williams in 2001, Packer said the Aviation Board will choose his successor after a national search, which will include candidates currently working at the airport.

In addition to rebuilding air traffic, Williams' successor will have to grapple with whether Armstrong should grow in its current location in Kenner and St. Charles Parish, a move vehemently opposed by many residents in those areas, or move elsewhere.

Those efforts have been relegated to the sidelines, as the region focuses its political efforts on levee construction.

But Williams said the region will have to deal with the issue.

"At some point, and I realize that now isn't the time, but the area is going to have to come to grips with the fact that the airport is just as important to the area's economy as the port is, and that a decision is going to have to be made about how to prepare for its future," he said. From the Times Picayune, April 25, 2006

Airport flights take off
Traffic passes 50% of prestorm level

Wednesday, March 29, 2006
By Mary Judice
Personal finance writer

Louis Armstrong International Airport is at more than 50 percent of its pre-Katrina passenger levels, and has been creeping up each month.

Passenger traffic in February was down 48 percent from a year ago, while traffic in December was off 54 percent from figures the year before, according to statistics released by the airport.

In February, nearly 427,000 passengers passed through the airport, compared to almost 835,000 in February 2005. There were 69 flights daily, compared to 154 in February a year ago.

The amount of cargo and freight shipped through the airport was down 38.9 percent to 8.9 million pounds in February. It was 14.6 million pounds the year before. In December, the freight volume was off 45 percent.

Meanwhile, more flights are being added, said Michelle Duffourc, airport spokeswoman.

On March 17, there were 87 daily flights serving 28 cities.

In April, the number will rise to 95 daily flights with the addition of Southwest flights to Houston, Orlando and Dallas and American service to St. Louis, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago and Miami.

In May, Northwest is expected to add two daily flights to Detroit and Minneapolis, Duffourc said.

In June, Southwest will add flights to Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Baltimore/Washington, Chicago Midway and Houston Hobby Airport.

By early June, Armstrong is expected to have 101 daily flights, which is 61 percent of its pre-Katrina total of 166 daily flights.

The latest report also shows that several commuter airlines are operating at pre-Katrina levels. Among them are Delta's Comair and Freedom and United's Shuttle America and Trans States Airlines. From the Times Picayune, March 29, 2006

Kenner mayor draws 4 rivals

Newcomer joins veteran politicians
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
By Mary Swerczek
Kenner bureau

Two years after he defeated Nick Congemi, upsetting the political establishment that had ruled Kenner for decades, Mayor Phil Capitano finds himself once again facing the police chief at the polls.

But this spring's election is no simple rematch, because Capitano has drawn three more challengers as well. Also in the race are Ed Muniz, a 23-year veteran of the Kenner City Council and the Jefferson Parish Council, and Nick Baroni, who served on the Kenner council for 19 years. Both have jumped back into electoral politics after a break -- two years in Muniz's case and a decade for Baroni -- because they say they haven't seen enough of the changes promised by the Capitano administration.

They are joined by Martha Jean Williams, a political newcomer and director of a nonprofit group, who hopes to be the "people's mayor."

Capitano, a former City Council member, won the 2004 special mayoral election after the police chief's brother, Louis Congemi, resigned the mayor's office. He and his four opponents are now seeking a regular, four-year term beginning July 1. The election is April 1; the runoff, if necessary, will be April 29.

Nick Baroni

Kenner was a different place in 1976, when Baroni was first elected to the City Council. For example, there was no Esplanade shopping mall, Kenner Regional Medical Center or Pontchartrain Center.

"I have been a part of a team that has built most of what we enjoy in our city," he said.

Baroni resigned from the council in 1995 to concentrate with his son on building Urban Planning & Innovations Inc., an engineering firm with 32 employees.

He said he decided to enter the mayoral race because he is unhappy that the Capitano administration hasn't worked better with Kenner's corporate citizens, such as Louis Armstrong International Airport.

"The mood out there is for change," he said.

Even though his is a familiar name in Kenner politics, Baroni thinks he will satisfy voters who want change because of his business experience and his ideas for Kenner's future. He hopes to lead a government not defined by fighting among its officials but closer to the council he remembers, when 7-0 votes were the norm.

"That was a big issue back then, 'You guys agree too much,' " he said, adding that the council members sometimes disagreed but worked out differences outside the public eye.

Baroni said he wants to foster a business-friendly environment, which he said has wilted in recent years because of Kenner's sometimes adversarial relationship with the airport. He said he would develop a business council with representatives of private companies and government working together to write policies favorable to both.

Also on his platform is saving City Hall money by staffing the Public Works Department with engineers instead of using outside consultants.

"We need a strong staff of people to manage most if not all projects," he said.

Phil Capitano

Called combative by his challengers, Capitano said he is proud to fight for Kenner. "It's only my detractors who would say I'm combative," he said. "I will not compromise when it's what's in the best interests of this city."

Capitano said he knows he paid a political price, soon after becoming mayor, for taking surplus money from the Police Department and other departments and putting it in Kenner's general fund. But it was that "rainy day fund" he created that awarded 15 percent raises to administration workers and helped Kenner get on its feet faster than other cities after Hurricane Katrina.

"It called for someone to be tough," he said, adding that he persuaded five of seven City Council members to move the surplus money from the Police Department to the general fund. "At the time I said (it was) for a hurricane or some other catastrophe that might hit the city."

Still, Capitano has had to defend his actions against criticism from some council members for what they say is excessive hurricane-related spending. The entire council convened an unprecedented but short-lived committee to investigate his administration's spending, and now a federal grand jury is investigating the subject.

Capitano said the grand jury won't find any wrongdoing.

"I cannot blame the U.S. attorney's office for wanting to make sure it's being spent correctly," Capitano said. "I know that each of the contractors have done a very good job and performed well for the citizens of Kenner."

He said he has accomplished much since 2004, despite constant opposition from Congemi and the police chief's allies on the council.

"The Congemi family and other politicians have controlled this city for over 20 years, and they have fought me for two years trying to stop me from accomplishing anything because they wanted to come back again," he said. "In spite of that, we have made major accomplishments."

He points to creating a youth soccer program and to cutting professional services fees in favor of hiring more staff members, such as a safety officer and landscape architect, to do work that the Louis Congemi administration had been paying outside firms to do.

Capitano has plans to start a boxing program and to open Kenner's playground gymnasiums during summer days, to implement a government information phone system and to form an independent group to rank professional services firms seeking contracts.

"I've accomplished a lot," Capitano said. "You give me four years, and I can do a lot more."

Nick Congemi

Congemi has been Kenner's police chief since 1990, making him the "ideal person to bring law and order and civility back to Kenner."

When he took the post, he said, he brought a 1950s department into the 1990s, and has lowered crime.

"I think I have a proven record of accomplishment here in the Police Department," he said.

Congemi bristled when the City Council, at Capitano's urging, took control of surplus Police Department money and gave him less operating money than he sought in 2004. He threatened to close the city jail, saying he wouldn't have the money to run it, and he ordered officers to write traffic tickets on parish or state laws instead of municipal ones, which cost City Court thousands of dollars. In the end, the jail remained open, and Kenner officers have resumed writing municipal tickets.

Congemi said Capitano's allies had painted an incorrect picture of extravagance and overspending in the Police Department.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," he said, adding that he had saved enough money to build a new police headquarters and jail without raising taxes or borrowing money.

If elected mayor, he said he would bring that same thrift to City Hall.

"I come from the old school," he said. "I don't believe in buying anything unless you have the money to do so."

Congemi said he has been drawn against his wishes into fights with Capitano, but that organizations, whether military or government, can be harmonious with the right leader.

"The primary ingredient at the center of the storm has always been Capitano," he said. "I'm quiet, calm leadership. The same thing you see here is what you'll get there."

If elected, Congemi said Kenner could capitalize on the location of Louis Armstrong International Airport by studying the construction of a high-speed rail system between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. And he said he would conduct a national search to hire a city manager and a business development director.

Ed Muniz

Two years into his political retirement, Muniz called his last-minute entry into the mayoral race a "noble experiment."

"I will take Kenner in a different direction," he said, promising to repeat some of the reform initiatives that he authored while on the Jefferson Parish Council.

If elected, Muniz said he would post all contracts on the Internet as soon as possible after he signs them. He said he would require contractors to list all subcontractors when they seek projects, and require contractors seeking Kenner work to list the political campaigns to which they have contributed.

Muniz has the longest political history of anyone in the race: seven years on the Kenner City Council and 16 years on the Jefferson Parish Council. He lost a Parish Council runoff to Tom Capella in 2003.

For the mayoral race, Muniz said he plans to finance most of his own campaign and won't accept contributions from anyone who does business with City Hall.

"They're really not making a contribution," he said. "They're making an investment."

Muniz is the captain of the Krewe of Endymion, a huge Carnival organization, and formerly owned a string of local radio stations. He said he built up both from nothing.

"All my successes have come because of my ability to put together a good staff and let them do their thing," he said.

He said he hopes, if chosen mayor, to foster peace among elected Kenner officials.

"All that fighting between the council and the mayor is unprecedented," Muniz said. "I think the only one who can offer real change in this election is me."

Martha Jean Williams

Williams said she entered the race for mayor, her first run for public office, after a personal revelation.

"I found myself thinking about moving out of Kenner," she said, adding that she loves the city where she has lived since the age of 7. "That's where it started."

She said she is dismayed that the city is losing its sense of community and that some people feel intimidated by government.

For the past 7½ years, Williams has been executive director of Kenner Cares, a nonprofit organization that seeks to end homelessness. She said that working with less fortunate people has been emotionally taxing but rewarding.

"I thought as a public officer I could help more people than I come into contact with here," she said. "I'm just sharing what I have."

If elected mayor, she said she would volunteer in schools and persuade business leaders to do the same.

"So goes the leader, goes the group," she said.

She said she would erase the concept of "good neighborhoods" and "bad neighborhoods" by beautifying all of Kenner.

Also, she would create a group of a dozen fifth-graders and a dozen senior citizens to keep her grounded and act as her sounding board before making decisions.

"They'll be my public family," she said. "They'll be my anchors."

Williams said she represents a change, more so than any of the experienced politicians in the race.

"If they like what has been in Kenner, than I'm not the person," she said. "If they want to try something different, if they would like more hands pushing the car, then I'm the person they need." From the Times Picayune, March 7, 2006

Airline service grows in New Orleans

By Barbara De Lollis and Barbara Hansen
USA TODAY
March 6, 2006

U.S. airlines are rapidly adding flights at New Orleans, and the storm-ravaged city will soon have more than half the volume of its pre-Katrina air service.

The number of airline seats scheduled to leave New Orleans' Louis Armstrong airport this month represents 46% of the year-ago total, according to a USA TODAY analysis of schedule data from Back Aviation Solutions. For June, airlines have scheduled 57% of the number of departing seats in June 2005.

"None of us really thought that we'd be at this level," airport director Roy Williams says. Once the USA's 42nd-busiest airport, Louis Armstrong lost all commercial air service after the Aug. 29 hurricane. Its facilities were used to treat survivors of the storm and subsequent flooding.

Continental Airlines recently announced new flights to Houston, Newark, N.J., and Cleveland, making it the first carrier to return to its pre-Katrina level of service.

Discount giant Southwest has resumed its pre-Katrina position as the city's No. 1 carrier despite a June schedule that calls for just 40% of the seats it had a year earlier.

By June, airlines will have restored non-stop flights to 33 airports, vs. 44 airports before Katrina. Displacement from the storm is partly dictating patterns for restoring service. Continental, for instance, is ramping up Houston service quickly because of the large number of storm survivors living there. Also, the storm has changed the mix of New Orleans air travelers: fewer conventioneers and tourists, more relief and reconstruction workers and government employees.

The average ticket for March travel to New Orleans costs 13% less than it did last year, compared with a 13% increase for the average domestic ticket, according to Sabre Airline Solutions. Contributing to the disparity: bargain fares designed to stimulate demand for New Orleans travel, and more relatively low fares set by contract with the government for its employees' travel.

Sabre airline consultant Vijay Bathija says further air service growth hinges on the city's recovery. "It could return to normal levels providing all the ingredients are in place," he says.

Challenges to full recovery of its previous air service:

•Fewer conventions. The city lost all its big conventions through June. Whether that business can be restored will partly determine air service levels.

•Population decline. The New Orleans metro area has 25% fewer people now vs. pre-Katrina, says market research firm Claritas.

•Better opportunities for airlines. In the uncertainty following Katrina, many carriers found other uses for planes, making a return to New Orleans less a priority. US Airways, for example, launched Hawaii service. And Southwest has grown in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Denver.

From the USA Today, March 6, 2006

Airport baggage search leads to bust
Meth, knives, bullets found, deputies say

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

East Jefferson bureau

A Madisonville man was arrested at Louis Armstrong International Airport after security screeners found five knives, 44 rounds of ammunition and 8 grams of crystal methamphetamine in his baggage.

Screeners on Concourse B said they found the knives, bullets for a 9 mm gun and drugs Friday night in the lining of a bag belonging to Louis Bayhi III, 30, along with several lighters, a can of lighter fluid and a "glass smoking device," according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office incident report. Bayhi was taken into custody just after 8 p.m. and questioned but did not make any statement, the report said.

Deputies booked him at the East Bank Lockup in Metairie with possession of methamphetamine. Whether federal authorities booked him elsewhere with weapons offenses was unknown.

Bayhi was released Saturday on $5,000 bond. From the Times Picayune, February 28, 2006

Security breach clears concourse
Woman bypasses airport screening

Tuesday, February 28, 2006
By Michelle Hunter
East Jefferson bureau

Authorities evacuated one of the four concourses at Louis Armstrong International Airport after a security breach Monday afternoon, forcing some passengers to spend more than an hour in line waiting to be re-screened.

Airport spokeswoman Michelle Duffourc estimated that about 600 travelers were ushered out of Concourse D after a woman got through the checkpoint without being properly screened.

The woman had been selected for secondary screening about 2:30 p.m., but she wandered onto the concourse before checkpoint security could clear her, according to Andrea McCauley, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, the federal arm in charge of airport security.

Delta and Continental, the airport's two biggest carriers after Hurricane Katrina, operate from Concourse D, along with Jet Blue Airlines.

"It was a pretty big hit on a big travel day," Duffourc said.

After Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies and TSA officials performed a sweep of the concourse, it was reopened about 3:30 p.m., Duffourc said. But passengers and their carry-on bags had to be re-screened, creating a long line.

Duffourc said the last of the passengers made it back through the checkpoint about 4:30 p.m. Because of the incident, all flights leaving Concourse D were delayed, meaning no one missed their plane, she said. She did not know if travelers missed connections in other cities.

Neither Duffourc nor McCauley knew what became of the woman who caused the commotion. From the Times Picayune, February 28, 2006

Southwest Adding Flights

Times Picayune
February 24, 2006, C-8
Money Local Briefs

Southwest Airlines announced Thursday it will add six new flights out of Louis Armstrong Airport, beginning June 10. There will be one flight daily between New Orleans and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Baltimore and Chicago Midway. Southwest is also adding an additional flight to Houston Hobby. With the addition of the six new flights, Southwest Airlines will offer 24 daily nonstop flights from New Orleans to 10 cities. The number of flights out of Louis Armstrong International Airport has dropped from 166 the week before Katrina, but is now back up to 80. From the Times Picayune, February 24, 2006

New Orleans gets more flights
Continental plans pre-Katrina level by May

By BILL HENSEL JR.
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 21, 2006, 10:54PM

Continental Airlines says that by May it will be back to its pre-Katrina level of 111 weekly flights from New Orleans, albeit with a different passenger base than before.

Currently, the Houston-based airline has 99 weekly flights from Louis Armstrong International Airport and is selling 86 percent of the seats to New Orleans that it did before the storm. It hopes to get that number up to 94 percent by May.

Not all airlines are as aggressive, however, judging by the numbers.

The airport currently is running at about 47 percent of the number of flights it had before the August hurricane, airport spokeswoman Michelle Duffourc said Tuesday.

That's pretty good, she said, considering it's been only about six months since the storm hit.

"Some airlines have come back very strong and others have not, depending on the carrier," Duffourc said. "Continental has been very progressive in restoring service, in watching passenger loads and adding service when necessary." The type of passenger has changed significantly, she noted.

"The mix is very different than what it was before, as it was at least 80 percent tourism and convention business," Duffourc said. "Now it is one-third tourism, one-third relief and recovery and one-third families coming back and forth."

A total of 351,058 passengers passed through the New Orleans airport in December, compared with 756,832 a year earlier, a decrease of 53.6 percent.

Continental, which has about 20 percent of the business at the New Orleans airport, says it now has 77 weekly flights to Houston, 14 to Newark and eight to Cleveland.

Continental also noted Tuesday it will carry more than 29,000 travelers to New Orleans during the ongoing Mardi Gras celebration alone.

Dallas-based Southwest, meanwhile, carried 44,448 passengers to the New Orleans airport in December, the most of any airline. A year earlier, it carried 112,447, indicating the percentage of its restored service is considerably less than many other airlines.

Continental brought 30,936 passengers to New Orleans in December. A year earlier, it carried 39,242 there.

Duffourc said she had hoped Southwest would be more aggressive about returning service to New Orleans. "They have 13 flights a day and had 60 before the storm," she said. "They haven't come back as much as we hoped or expected."

Last month, Southwest announced it would add five flights, and President Colleen Barrett acknowledged at the time the carrier was behind in its efforts.

"But we are committed to growing with the city as it rebounds," Barrett said. "Rebuilding our service in New Orleans remains one of our top priorities."

Those additional flights come on line in March.

Karen Zachary, managing director of strategic planning for Continental, said Tuesday that New Orleans is a key part of Continental's system.

"New Orleans is an integral part of our network and has played an important role in our traffic," she said.

Southwest, she added, has had a lot of growth in other cities, especially in Denver, its newest destination.

Airline analyst Ray Neidl of Calyon Securities said Tuesday that Southwest "may have re- allocated some of those aircraft" that were used in New Orleans to Denver.

Darrel North, general manager for Continental in New Orleans, said an important factor for Continental was that a majority of the carrier's employees there are locals.

"Their families are here and they all had a vested interest to return and get things going," North said. "Although a lot of carriers had staffing issues, we have had all our employees return to get back into a good routine and that has been a driving factor for us."

bill.hensel@chron.com From the Houston Chronicle, February 21, 2006

Air Service Climbing

Local Money Briefs
Times Picayune
February 11, 2006

Three airlines will increase the frequency of their service to New Orleans in the next two weeks. AirTran Airways will add one daily round-trip flight between New Orleans and Atlanta starting Wednesday, bringing the carrier’s total daily flights between the cities to three. On Thursday, Delta will begin operating nonstop daily flights to New York’s LaGuardia. And on February 23, United will begin operating two daily round-trip flights to San Antonio and one daily trip to Oklahoma City. From the Times Picayune, February 10, 2006

Eastern N.O. airport idea takes flight

by Jaime Guillet
02/06/2006
New Orleans City Business

Roy Williams, director of aviation at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, wants to move his facility east of New Orleans.

It’s not a new idea. Nine months prior to Katrina, Williams and other LANOIA officials discussed feasible locations for a new airport to serve the expansion needs of the land-locked airport. Williams said it is more cost-effective to relocate the airport than it is to retrofit the present facility’s runways to handle larger planes.

But after the storm wiped out much of eastern New Orleans, Williams said he believes even more in the redevelopment possibilities afforded by moving the airport there.

“Right now, this airport is at the western edge of a hospitality industry that stretches to Biloxi, (Miss.),” said Williams. “Moving the airport east while still keeping it close to the foot of Canal Street might better serve the hospitality industry.”

Discussion of a new airport site is in the preliminary stages, and Williams said a site would have to be chosen before design work starts. Proximity to the interstate and the hospitality industry are key concerns and runway approaches must be unrestricted, Williams said.

Nine months ago, one proposed location was in eastern New Orleans near Six Flags Theme Park. Other possibilities included St. Charles Parish and an island in Lake Pontchartrain. Sites emerging as frontrunners post-Katrina include the eastern New Orleans area, a possible consolidation with Lakefront Airport or a hybrid of the two locations.

“Even pre-Katrina, one of the big blocks to be dealt with was Lakefront Airport,” said Williams.

Consolidation question

Williams said Lakefront Airport, operated by the Orleans Levee District, has significant financial and infrastructure problems. He said Lakefront Airport flew about 280,000 passengers pre-Katrina and now fly a little more than 80,000.

“Now in the storm’s aftermath, they’re just not going to have much traffic,” said Williams. “The question then becomes ‘Do we consolidate?’”

Director Randy Taylor said Lakefront Airport is restoring hangars damaged during the storm. It reopened the Tuesday following Katrina.

“Our runways and taxiways are all in good condition and we had 1,200 operations for the month of January,” said Taylor. “It is a great location and would make a good international airport site as well — the only concern being noise.”

In eastern New Orleans, an airport could help the devastated area regain some ground in development. Williams said he believes hospitality is going to drive the metro economy for the foreseeable future.

“The good thing about building an airport that’s different from building a shopping development is runways can be surrounded by water — that’s not a problem,” said Williams. “Also, (the facility) doesn’t have to be all together. The passenger terminal can be separate from, say, the rental car lot.”

This hybrid structure — a passenger terminal extending from the Lakefront Airport facility with runways configured parallel to the shore, and parking lots and other amenities inside the levee system in eastern New Orleans connected by a train system — is the most ideal, says Williams.

“(With a) passenger terminal in the lake, no matter how the rest of the community develops there’s no concern of encroachment,” said Williams. “By how you position the facility, you could use it as a catalyst for redevelopment in the east.”

Numerous opportunities

Williams acknowledges relocating Armstrong is a prodigious project and agreement from numerous agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation and Development and the Regional Planning Commission would be required.

But the opportunities outnumber the challenges, he said. For example, the city of New Orleans, which owns the 1,500 acres Armstrong inhabits in Kenner, could sell the land and turn it into a mixed-use development of retail and residential properties.

Building a new airport would require a five- to seven-year design phase and cost $4 billion. Financing would come from four avenues: federal support, private capital, debt and reselling the current site. Williams said he considers the best-case scenario timeframe to be on the city’s 300th anniversary — in the year 2018, a schedule he considers ambitious yet possible.

“Pre-Katrina, there was a mixture of optimistic, positive support mixed with ‘That’s a big project,’ — and it is — but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” said Williams. “Post-Katrina, the comments are ‘Do you still need to do that?’

Mike McCrossen, president of the Board of Commissioners for the Orleans Levee District, said this is a time to put all ideas on the table.

“We hope that any efforts to better New Orleans would be taken seriously,” said McCrossen. “If (relocating Armstrong) is one methodology to do that, then the Levee District would be more than delighted to participate.”

Kenner Mayor Phil Capitano said he considers the project too speculative at this time to comment on the possible impact for his city.

“Kenner is taking a wait-and-see approach but I agree this is a time for discussing options,” said Capitano.

Williams said developing a financial plan is the largest hurdle but he believes moving the airport further east is the best plan for the city.

“The hospitality industry is still here and I think it will come back strong and a new airport fits into the vision of a new New Orleans.” From CityBusiness, February 6, 2006

Tornadoes slam Armstrong International

01:32 PM CST on Thursday, February 2, 2006

WWLTV.com

A tornado ripped through Armstrong International airport, tossing aside jetways, playing havoc with flight schedules and doing over $2 million in damage, according to an airport spokesperson.

A jetway at Armstrong International's Concourse C was tossed around by Thursday morning's tornadoes.

Michelle Duffourc said Concourse C received the most damage with several jetways being unavailable.

The damage and a temporary loss of power caused some flights to be delayed and others to be cancelled. Duffourc said passengers should call regarding their flights before going out to the airport.

A second tornado apparently touched down near the airport and Jefferson Highway. Several homes and a large warehouse business were sustained major damage.

“I heard hail first,” said Dorlet Joseph of Kenner. “I got to the closet and called my husband to come to the closet. We kept hearing the walls moving and we went to praying.”

There was more damage in Jefferson near the River Road.

The National Weather Service confirmed at least two tornadoes touched down in the Kenner/Jefferson area. From wwltv.com February 2, 2006

Southwest says N.O. is its 'top priority'
More flights, more workers on the way

Wednesday, February 01, 2006
By Mary Judice
Business writer

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly says his company is committed to regrowing its presence in New Orleans as demand warrants.

"New Orleans definitely will need more flights," Kelly said after a recent visit with the airline's New Orleans employees. "We intend to grow as rapidly as we can."

As the airline adds flights it will add employees. Southwest currently has 56 employees in the New Orleans area and, beginning today, that number will jump to 87.

Southwest will add five nonstop flights from New Orleans to Houston, Orlando and Dallas on March 17, boosting its daily nonstop service to 18 flights. He said once those new flights are added, Southwest will operate at about 30 percent of its pre -- Katrina capacity.

Before Hurricane Katrina struck, Southwest was the metro area's largest passenger carrier. Southwest now ranks third in number of flights and will regain the top position when it adds flights in March.

"We don't think 18 flights will be enough," he said. "Demand for air travel is stronger than anyone anticipated."

The airline needs additional aircraft to add service, he said, and will add 33 planes this year.

"New Orleans is my top priority," Kelly said.

New Orleans had 57 daily Southwest departures before the storm, but Kelly said he does not think that many flights will be needed in the near future.

Demand beyond March remains unknown. Kelly said only one-third of the hotel capacity is operating and the city does not have significant convention business. "We don't know what the demand will be and we don't have history to go by," he said.

In addition to the March flights, Southwest will add 18 round-trip flights from Houston, Orlando and Dallas for the eight days surrounding Mardi Gras. From the Times Picayune, February 1, 2006

Air traffic declines 20% in 2005, Armstrong says
But airport chief believes stage set for solid recovery

Tuesday, January 31, 2006
By Matt Scallan
Kenner bureau

Problems stemming from Hurricane Katrina resulted in a 20 percent drop in air service at Louis Armstrong International Airport in 2005, according to statistics released by the airport.

About 7.8 million passengers passed through Armstrong's terminal in 2005, down from 9.8 million in 2004.

Passenger traffic in December dropped 54 percent compared to December 2004. The amount of cargo and freight shipped through Armstrong dropped 45 percent in December to 8.4 million pounds, down from 15.2 million pounds in December 2004.

However, Aviation Director Roy Williams said he's optimistic that the airport is on the road to recovery.

"When you consider that during most of the third quarter, we were shut down or slowly coming back to life, a 20 percent drop isn't terrible," Williams said. "I think we are making a strong recovery."

The number of flights has dropped from 166 the week before Katrina struck on Aug. 29 to 71 this week. However, the number is expected to rise to 91 flights as of April 3.

Despite the growth, the airport continues to hemorrhage money, and is seeking federal aid to make up for the estimated $40 million in losses that it expects to incur by the end of 2006.

"If we get back to 6.2 million passengers, clearly we can tighten our belts enough to get out of the red," Williams said. The 6.2 million mark represents about 63 percent of the airport's pre-Katrina traffic level.

The city laid off 99 civil service and temporary employees in October, and is looking for ways to help its small concessionaires stay in business through the turmoil following the storm.

The airport was closed for two weeks following Katrina, which damaged buildings throughout the 1,600-acre complex. Air service out of New Orleans has been growing slowly since it was reinstituted Sept. 14. Most of the travel activity has been done by residents traveling to see relatives in distant cities and relief workers shuttling in and out of the city.

The tourism industry, the major driver of air traffic growth during the last 15 years, is just getting back on its feet in the wake of the storm. The airport expects traffic to hit about 12,000 passengers a day during the height of Mardi Gras weekend. Before Katrina, the airport regularly served as many as 18,000 passengers a day during Mardi Gras weekends. This year's Mardi Gras passenger traffic, however, still may exceed expectations. Airport officials originally had been hoping to reach 10,000 passengers a day during the holiday weekend.

Most of the 12 domestic airlines that serve the airport are back, although not at their previous levels of service. International carriers TACA and Air Canada have yet to return. From the Times Picayune, January 31, 2006

Airports hoping to land federal aid
Key congressman tours local facilities

Sunday, January 29, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile
Staff writer

Louis Armstrong International Airport officials are hoping a visit from a key congressman Saturday means the airport is more likely to get federal help in bouncing back from a projected $40 million operating budget shortfall in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Airport business has fallen by more than 50 percent since the storm, from an average of 166 flights to 71 flights a day, they said.

Officials from Lakefront Airport and the Hammond-Northshore Regional Airport joined the meeting with Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation Committee's Aviation Subcommittee. The group held a brief press conference Saturday morning at the international airport.

At the invitation of Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., Mica met with administrators from the three local airports to learn about their post-Katrina needs. Mica and Jindal spent time Saturday touring Armstrong International and Lakefront airports, both of which sustained heavy storm damage in Katrina. Both also served important functions in the rescue and evacuation operations after the storm.

While Armstrong officials said they hope insurance will cover most of the airport's $24 million in physical plant damage, they want help from the Federal Aviation Administration with massive operating losses that Aviation Director Roy Williams said he expects to reach $40 million from Aug. 29 through the end of 2006.

Williams said he needs federal help so the airport won't have to borrow to make ends meet. At its January meeting, the Louisiana Bond Commission authorized the New Orleans Aviation Board, which oversees Armstrong International Airport, to borrow as much as $100 million. Officials say they fear a loan may be the only way they can meet expenses without dramatically raising fees charged to airlines and passengers.

Mica, whose central Florida district was hit by three hurricanes in 2004, said he understands the support needed by the local airports. His Winter Park home is still not completely repaired from massive roof and structural damage sustained when it was hit in 2004 by a falling tree during Hurricane Charley.

"We are still recovering from Charley at our house. We are living in our guest room," Mica said. "We had three storms in my district, and it is very difficult to get anyone to do anything."

He said his structural repair contractor is only now finishing up work at the house, because the workers left to tend to harder-hit areas after Hurricane Wilma in 2005.

"While the normal federal assistance is for brick-and-mortar projects, this is not completely unprecedented," Mica said of the request for operational budget help. "This is a unique situation. The argument . . . we are trying to make is that this is such a catastrophic event."

Jindal agreed.

"The airport is in a catch-22," Jindal said. "They can't increase their normal revenue sources (airline and passenger fees) to offset their reduced capacity because that would actually hinder their growth. So I think there actually is a strong argument to be made to the federal government that they need help."

Mica also listened to concerns of administrators from the two smaller airports.

Joel Jenkinson, operations manager at Lakefront Airport, said every building at the site was badly damaged or destroyed by Katrina's surge, reaching as high as 13 feet at the facility that lies outside the levee system. Although the damage total hasn't yet been calculated, Jenkinson said he is asking the Federal Aviation Administration for $10 million to $11 million to cover uninsured damage to airfield guidance signs, runway lighting, bulkheads, the control tower and to a drainage system.

And Jason Ball, director of the airport in Hammond, said the airport sustained about $90,000 in damage. He said the airport is hoping to recover about $50,000 through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ball met with Mica in part to discuss a $2 million project for the airport approved by the Federal Aviation Administration before Katrina.

Jindal called the visit with Mica productive.

"I am very encouraged by his comments and his willingness to look for creative solutions," Jindal said.

Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni@timespicayune.com or (504) 352-2539. From the Times Picayune, January 29, 2006

State money panel approves borrowing for airport

January 23, 2006 -- Louisiana Weekly

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The New Orleans Aviation Board can borrow up to $100 million, which airport officials said is the only way they can meet expenses without dramatically raising the fees charged to airlines and passengers, under a plan approved by the State Bond Commission.

With air traffic at Louis Armstrong International Airport limping along at less than half of pre-Katrina levels, aviation director Roy Williams said Thursday that the airport would be forced to raise per-passenger fees to $15 unless it can borrow money.

That would have made Armstrong one of the most expensive hubs in the country and likely become a deterrent to the airport's recovery plans.

The current per-passenger fee is $9, which is already higher than at most similar-sized airports.

The money panel also gave final clearance to the Finance Authority of New Orleans to issue $100 million in tax-exempt bonds, which will be used to finance below-market loans for New Orleans residents.

"We call them our welcome-back-home loans," Mtumishi St. Julien, the Finance Authority's executive director, told the Bond Commission.

The loans will be backed by Freddie Mac, a quasi-public mortgage finance agency. St. Julien said the loans will be available to homeowners in all parts of the city and can be used for either repairs or new purchases up to $276,000.

Airport checkpoints to be relocated
Move to aid vendors hurt by Katrina

Thursday, January 19, 2006
By Matt Scallan
Staff writer

Some security checkpoints at Louis Armstrong International Airport will be moved farther into the terminal lobbies to allow travelers more chances to eat once they've gotten through security, and possibly giving airport vendors a better chance of staying afloat.

Glass walls will be placed around parts of the east and west terminal lobbies, enclosing Sonic, Popeyes and Louisiana Legends restaurants in the concourses and making them accessible only to those who have gone through the security checkpoints.

The move will connect concourses A and B, allowing ticketed passengers to move freely between the concourses.

Passengers are rushing through security because flights are full and they don't want to lose their seats, said Aviation Director Roy Williams. As a result, passengers have more down time in the concourses.

That, combined with air traffic that is down 58 percent since Hurricane Katrina, has hurt vendors who are struggling to meet their financial obligations. Some have yet to reopen. Williams has long sought to push the checkpoints farther into the terminal, especially since airport security was dramatically increased after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But the plan was shelved, partly because some airlines didn't want their passengers delayed by the hordes of Southwest Airline travelers going though screening, Williams said.

Now that the traffic is more evenly distributed among the major carriers, there is less opposition. Southwest used to be the largest carrier at the airport, but has only returned to about 30 percent of its pre-Katrina schedule.

Williams said the new configuration will make better use of a smaller screening force at Armstrong, which numbers about a quarter of the 400-strong screening contingent that took over airline security in 2002. He said he expects the new gates will be up in about six weeks. From the Times Picayune, January 19, 2006

Airport security chief quits
In new job, he'll hunt DVD pirates

Wednesday, January 18, 2006
By Matt Scallan
Staff Writer

Michael Robinson, the man in charge of keeping weapons off airplanes at Armstrong International Airport for the past two years, will be searching for bootleg movies instead of cigarette lighters in his new job as U.S. anti-piracy director of the Motion Picture Association of America.

"One of my major goals is to make selling illegal DVDs unacceptable," he said. "A lot of police officers might see someone selling them on the street and think, 'At least they're not selling drugs,' and let it go. My job is to change that perception," he said.

Robinson took over as the Transportation Security Administration's federal security director at Armstrong in 2004, after a high-profile career as director of the Michigan State Police and later that state's homeland security director. He also is a former president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Robinson was among the first executives of the Transportation Security Administration when it was created in 2002. He said he left Washington for the federal security director's job at Armstrong to be near his son, daughter and grandson, who live in New Orleans.

Robinson's job in New Orleans was less visible than his previous posts, but it was filled with challenges. Two months after he arrived, eight baggage screeners were charged with stealing valuables from checked luggage. Robinson oversaw the installation of new security cameras in the baggage handling areas, and worked to rebuild the agency's image.

He also dealt with allegations of gender discrimination in hiring in the TSA contingent at the airport. Robinson said the problem, which pre-dated his arrival, stemmed from the hasty way that the new federal agency was put together after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Then he and an understaffed group of screeners helped get tens of thousands of evacuees aboard aircraft in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed Robinson's Lakeview home.

"I had fully planned to spend the rest of my career in New Orleans, but this was too good an opportunity to pass on," he said.

He left Armstrong earlier this month and reports to work in Los Angeles next week. The job will be quite different than the one at Armstrong.

The MPAA is the voice of the motion picture industry and one of its major missions is to protect copyright material at a time when movies can be easily downloaded from the Internet.

"It's a $5.4 billion problem that threatens the ongoing viability of the entire industry," said John Malcolm, the MPAA's vice president and executive director of worldwide anti-piracy operations, as well as Robinson's new boss.

In his new job, Robinson will supervise the association's nationwide efforts to prosecute pirates on the street and on the Internet, Malcolm said.

Malcolm said Robinson was chosen for his police skills and his contacts.

"He's been a local police officer and he's advised the president," Malcolm said. "He's got the law enforcement skills to perform investigations against real criminals and he's got law enforcement contacts all over the world." From the Times Picayune, January 18, 2006

New Orleans looks to Mardi Gras for economic boost

By David Wethe
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Posted Wednesday, January 18, 2006

For a city so dependent on tourism, New Orleans is leaning even more heavily this year on Mardi Gras as one of its most important economic-development tools.

Airlines, hotels, restaurants and tourism groups are ramping up for better-than-expected crowds during the five-day celebration, which begins Feb. 24.

The latest boost came Tuesday from Dallas-based Southwest Airlines.

The carrier announced that it will temporarily add 18 round-trip flights from New Orleans over five days because of increased demand from Mardi Gras tourists. The largest increase in daily flights will occur Feb. 24, when Southwest adds five daily flights to Dallas Love Field, Houston Hobby and Orlando, Fla.

The airline, once New Orleans' largest carrier, pulled back aggressively after Hurricane Katrina deluged the city and assigned planes and crews to other markets. Officials at Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport have criticized Southwest for adding flights in other cities, saying the carrier should focus on rebuilding its Big Easy schedule.

"We knew it would take awhile to build those service levels back again, but we're certainly making New Orleans one of our top priorities," said Ed Stewart, a Southwest spokesman. "The world is watching, and we wanted to step up to the plate and show we're going to do our part and help people get down there for the celebration."

The airline today has 13 daily departures from New Orleans to five cities, down from its normal 57 daily flights before the storm.

"Everybody is very, very enthusiastic that they're responding to a time when it's going to be busy," said Michelle Duffourc, a spokeswoman at the New Orleans airport. "Southwest is not known for throwing extra planes in for specific events."

But the airport could use more planes from any of the airlines, she said.

"It is a nightmare just trying to get a flight."

The airport is offering 71 daily flights, or 43 percent of its 166 daily flights before Katrina shut down the airport Aug. 28.

That's when the hurricane dumped so much water on New Orleans that levees broke and the entire city was forced to evacuate to places such as Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Fort Worth-based American Airlines has a total of eight daily departures from New Orleans to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, Miami and Chicago. It plans to add seven daily flights in February and April, with New York La Guardia and St. Louis joining the list, said Tim Smith, an airline spokesman.

"It's indicative of the fact that demand is ramping up," he said.

But the New Orleans airport is not the only place looking for better service.

Restaurants around New Orleans are operating at 30 percent to 40 percent of original staffing levels.

"Right now, we do have enough people to man the restaurants the way they're operating now," said Tom Weatherly, a spokesman for the Louisiana Restaurant Association.

"But it is wearing people thin. We really need another influx of people to come back and help us."

Restaurant operators figure they can add 10,000 people to their payrolls, estimated at 15,000 to 20,000. Before Katrina, New Orleans restaurants employed about 54,000.

Weatherly estimates that in the greater New Orleans area, about 1,150 of the 3,400 existing restaurants, or 34 percent, are open. But in New Orleans, roughly a quarter of the 2,000 restaurants are up and running, he said.

"Mardi Gras is not just a goal for increased traffic; I think it's more of a symbol to rally around," Weatherly said. "The ones that can gear up want to be up and running before everybody gets here."

But Mardi Gras is big business too.

The 1 million visitors and locals at Mardi Gras in an average year represent an economic impact of $300 million, according to a University of New Orleans study.

It's unclear how many people will attend the 31 Mardi Gras parades this year, down from 34 parades last year, but Kim Priez, vice president of tourism at the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the city should bring in about one third of the usual revenue, or $100 million, this year.

One of the biggest drivers in all that is hotel revenue, which should be no different this year than in previous years, said Darrius Gray, president of the Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging Association.

"We look at the hotel industry as the catalyst for building the economy of New Orleans," he said. "We generate tax revenues that support our city and state."

Hotels are also starting to get back to normal, he said.

Of the 38,000 hotel rooms in the New Orleans market, about 25,000 are available. Many hotel rooms are being used by government workers and insurance adjusters in town for post-Katrina work. Even hotel employees are taking up some rooms.

There's talk of getting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to put up 450 trailers under a bridge in New Orleans for workers in the hospitality industry, including hotel and restaurant employees, Weatherly said.

A groundbreaking is expected soon, and the trailers could start to open around the start of February, he said.

About 10,000 hotel rooms are expected to be freed up for Mardi Gras, said Gray, general manager of the 374-room Holiday Inn French Quarter.

Most of the rooms that have been taken out of supply are on the east side of New Orleans, not where the Mardi Gras parades roll through.

However, three large downtown hotels -- the Ritz-Carlton, the Hyatt and the Fairmont -- are still closed. They represent a chunk of about 2,200 unavailable rooms, Gray said.

But the number of available hotel rooms continues to grow almost every day across the city as repairs are being made, Priez said.

"Everyone's kind of got the deadline of Mardi Gras in the back of their minds for getting their facilities open and operating," Priez said.

Roy Williams, director of the New Orleans airport, said he's surprised at how fast business has come back to New Orleans and particularly his airport.

He said he originally expected it to be August or September before the airport had half its usual number of passengers.

"What I failed to realize is how strong the recovery effort this is," he said. "It is a big economic driver of activity."

And Mardi Gras is pretty important too.

"It's a real economic activity," he said, "but more importantly, it is putting a stake in the ground for saying, 'We're open for business in the hospitality and aviation industries.'" From the Star-Telegram, January 18, 2006

Plans gearing up for airport land swap
Airport land swap in works

Saturday, January 14, 2006
By Matt Scallan and Mary Swerczek
Kenner bureau

The New Orleans Aviation Board has reached a land swap agreement that could put a coveted 25-acre tract of land near The Esplanade mall in Kenner back into commerce.

The deal, which must be approved by the New Orleans City Council, involves a combination land swap and lease of a 26-acre tract of land near the airport's southwest corner known as the Iafrate property, for the 20-acre airport-owned property, which is between Interstate 10 and 32nd Street, a major entrance to the mall. Kenner owns about five acres of street rights of way that run through the property.

However the deal will fall through unless the company gaining the north Kenner property, RMGC LLC, can persuade the Kenner City Council to rezone and resubdivide the property for commercial use, and to sell the developers the streets.

Kenner officials and political candidates have touted the tract's potential for years, but have balked at making the property developable because city officials have wanted to control what is built there much more closely than is possible through the traditional mechanism of zoning.

"Kenner has always contended that the property should be developed," Mayor Phil Capitano said Thursday. "We just want to make sure the development is conducive to neighborhoods and Kenner's quality of life."

In recent months, officials have been more concerned about attracting businesses that would not compete with the city's existing ones. They courted a Bass Pro Shop, but hurled insults at developer Greg Clayton, who proposed building a Lowe's Home Improvement Center under tents on the property shortly after Hurricane Katrina until a permanent store could be built. Clayton asked that the property be rezoned to accommodate the store as part of the deal, and Kenner officials accused him of trying to take advantage of the emergency.

Clayton, along with Robert Merrick, chairman of Latter & Blum Inc., are partners in RMGC. Neither could be reached for comment.

Capitano has been lobbying Louisiana's congressional delegation to persuade the Federal Aviation Administration to donate the land to Kenner, without success.

The deal is unusual in that the airport will get 18.6 acres of the Iafrate property for the north Kenner property, and lease the remaining 7.4 acres from the partnership for $1 a year for two years, plus taxes, maintenance and insurance. The lease agreement is a way for the airport to put off paying the $2 million difference in the value of the two properties for two years.

The airport still is reeling from revenue losses in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with only about half the daily flights compared to before the storm, and doesn't have the cash for land purchases now.

"Hopefully our finances will be such we'll be able to find the $2 million to buy the rest of the property in the next two years," Aviation Director Roy Williams said.

The airport bought the north Kenner neighborhood in the 1990s as part of its noise mitigation program.

The airport is required by the federally financed noise buyout program to return the property to commerce; it cannot be developed for residential use.

From the Times Picayune, January 14, 2006

Airline adds five flights
Texas, Florida on Southwest itinerary

Friday, January 13, 2006
By Jaquetta White
Business writer

Southwest Airlines, will add five new flights to its New Orleans service beginning in March, boosting to 18 the number of daily flights it offers from the city, the company announced Thursday.

Southwest will add three nonstop daily flights between New Orleans and Houston, and one nonstop daily each to Orlando and Dallas. The airline now has five flights to Houston and two each to Orlando and Dallas.

When the new flights are added in March, the airline will have returned to about 30 percent of its pre-Katrina flight activity.

"We never wanted to promise anything and not deliver it," Southwest spokesman, Ed Stewart said. "But as we see demand increase we'll continue to add flights."

Southwest's announcement comes one week after a spokesman for the airline, responding to a question about the lack of Southwest flights from the city, said the company was in the process of monitoring demand and adding flights as necessary.

Activity at the New Orleans airport is slowly but steadily climbing. The airport averages about 70 daily flights, down from about 166 in August.

However, Southwest, which before Hurricane Katrina was the metro area's largest airline, is behind the airport's other major carriers in terms of the percentage of flight activity recovered.

Airport spokeswoman Michelle Duffourc said most other major carriers, which include Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines, have returned to between 50 percent and 70 percent of their pre-Katrina activity.

"On that side they are definitely lower than we would like," Duffourc said.

In a news release announcing the addition of flights, Southwest President Colleen Barrett acknowledged the airline's slow return.

"We are behind in our efforts to rebuild our service, but we are committed to growing with the city as it rebounds," Barrett said. "Rebuilding our service in New Orleans remains one of our top priorities." From the Times Picayune, January 13, 2006

JetBlue Launches Additional Nonstop Flight From 'The Big Apple' to 'The Big Easy'
Sale Fare From $69(a) Each Way

NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq:JBLU) announces it will add a second daily nonstop flight from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport beginning January 12. JetBlue continues to be the only airline providing nonstop service between New York's JFK and New Orleans.

JetBlue is currently offering a sale fare starting at $69(a) each way. This sale fare must be purchased by January 19, 2006 for travel between January 3 and February 15, 2006 and requires a seven day advance purchase. Round trip purchase is never required on JetBlue.

"JetBlue's additional service is bringing New Orleans back strong in 2006, making it easier for people to come to New Orleans and participate in the City's rebirth," said C. Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans.

"We're proud to be bringing back this second flight and to be a part of the ongoing renewal of the 'Big Easy,'" said David Neeleman, Chairman and CEO of JetBlue Airways.

JetBlue Airways is a low-fare airline based in New York City that operates 355 flights daily to 33 destinations. JetBlue offers customers roomy leather seats with 36 channels of free DIRECTV(R)(b) programming, the most live television offered by any airline. On flights longer than two hours, the airline also features a selection of first-run movies and bonus features from FOX InFlight. Customers enjoy brand name snacks and beverages, including fine wines selected by JetBlue's "Low Fare Sommelier," Joshua Wesson, founder of Best Cellars. With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all travel is ticketless, all fares are one-way and an overnight stay is never required. For information or reservations call 1-800-JETBLUE (1-800-538-2583) or visit www.jetblue.com

New Orleans Airport at 50 Percent of Pre-Katrina Service

Posted: January 5th, 2006 05:05 PM EDT

CityBusiness Staff Report
New Orleans CityBusiness (New Orleans, LA)

New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport today reported Delta Air Lines has added three nonstop roundtrip flights to Atlanta, for a total of 10 daily - the same frequency as Pre-Katrina. Armstrong International will now have 77 daily round trip flights to 27 destinations on nine major air carriers, which means Armstrong has nearly 50 percent of its pre-Katrina passenger service. Delta will resume service to Salt Lake City Jan.

31 with one daily round trip and add one daily round trip flight to New York's LaGuardia Airport beginning Feb, 16. The LaGuardia service will have an introductory fare of $69 one way.

Delta also provides regional jet service to Orlando, Washington Reagan National and two roundtrips to their Cincinnati hub.

JetBlue Airways adds a second daily roundtrip Jan. 12 and is offering one-way fares as low as $69 to and from New York's JFK Airport.

Today, Continental Airlines resumed service to Cleveland Hopkins Airport with one daily round trip flight, which marks the return of service to all three of Continental's pre-Katrina nonstop markets. Continental operates 12 round trips to Houston's Intercontinental Airport, two flights to Newark and one flight to Cleveland. Continental's new service brings it to approximately 80 percent of the flights and seats offered pre-Katrina.

United Airlines will also increase its level of air service Jan. 9 at Armstrong International by adding a second Denver roundtrip and introducing the first post-Katrina nonstop flight to Los Angeles International. United will also begin service to two new destinations Feb. 23 when it offers roundtrip service to San Antonio and Oklahoma City, Okla.

US Airways adds a second Charlotte roundtrip Jan. 16 and Air Tran Airways adds a third Atlanta roundtrip Feb. 15.

All service will be operated with mainline jet aircraft seating more than 100 passengers except for the Delta service to New York and Salt Lake City, the Continental service to Cleveland and the United service to Oklahoma City and San Antonio. These service additions will use 50- and 70-seat regional jet aircraft, respectively. All passenger service at Armstrong uses jet aircraft. From CityBusiness, January 5, 2006

Microsoft cancels 3 N.O. visits Spotty air service to city is blamed

Passengers pour out the perfume

Cargo airport idea gets 6-month reprieve Proceed or let it die? Ruling is in February

Hospitality industry passing big test Library convention going well, but flight shortages to N.O. noted

Southwest adds 6 flights from N.O. Dallas airline is largest at airport

Kenner wary as dump cleanup starts Council delays work on spending plans

Storm plans satisfy airlines Big carriers review Katrina response

Airport access road just got a little faster The speed limit now increases to 45 mph

Hunt for new airport chief gears up as fill-in selected N.O. board plans to hire search firm

Thursday, May 11, 2006 By Matt Scallan Staff writer

Hotels will be empty in storms Guests, workers, locals will have to evacuate

Airport flights take off Traffic passes 50% of prestorm level

Kenner mayor draws 4 rivals

Airport baggage search leads to bust Meth, knives, bullets found, deputies say

Security breach clears concourse Woman bypasses airport screening

New Orleans gets more flights Continental plans pre-Katrina level by May