Airport director aims high as he navigates the oils lump
The director of the Houston Airport System tells what’s ahead for IAH , Hobby and Ellington. He has a flight t plan
Mario Diaz has seen a lot of growth during his six years as director of the Houston Airport System. He’s helped welcome nonstop international flights, license Ellington Airport as a spaceport and usher in the next era of international travel from Hobby Airport.
The drop in oil prices has slowed some things down, but Diaz says the reprieve is giving the system some “breathing time” to build and prepare for future successes. He spoke to the Chronicle about this and other topics:
Q: What are some of the Houston Airport System’s top priorities and new initiatives?
A: We have three very important strategic initiatives. No. 1 is make the passenger happy. No. 2 is maintain our facilities in opening-day fresh condition. And No. 3 is build the platforms for future success. In the short range, there are two main events that we are targeting: holiday travel that’s coming up on us very, very soon, and then the Super Bowl.
Q: What are some changes that travelers will notice inside the airports?
A: Remember the concessions that council approved back in 2015? We’re going to really finish all those concessions up. The other service that we’re really very happy about is the performing arts program. We’re going to expand it over the holiday season in Intercontinental. We’re also going to focus on sprucing up and brightening up our terminals. In Terminal A, the entire terminal is going to be repainted inside and out. We’re going to be replacing a lot of the furniture, a lot of the seating, especially at Hobby. We will be installing furniture that the passengers can just plug into directly. In Terminal A, all the lighting is being replaced, making it much brighter.
Q: What are some of the larger projects happening at the Houston Airport System?
A: At Ellington, we will be starting with the construction of a brand new air traffic control tower that will have the capability to receive arriving flights from orbit. It’s going to truly be a spaceport. Moving up to Intercontinental, of course, here the focus is on working with our partners at United and completing Terminal C North. We’ve also got their new hangar complex that we just celebrated the groundbreaking on. It really says a lot about United and United’s confidence in Houston. You don’t simply make that kind of investment in facilities when you don’t plan on major expansion. And then we’ve got the Mickey Leland International Terminal. In order for Houston to really stand out as an international gateway, we’ve got to make sure that we maintain the pace and that we accelerate.
Q: When can we expect the City Council to vote on the contracts for expanding the Mickey Leland International Terminal and its surroundings? How will the delay in receiving approval affect the completion date?
A: One of the criticisms that was leveled at us last year was that we were rushing things. Well, we don’t want anyone to think that we’re rushing anything again. We are going to hold committee meetings with the economic development committee before we bring anything to council. We’re going to brief the committees on where we are with the selection process and who the awardees, or recommended awardees, are and how they were selected … with the hope that in December, or maybe the latter part of November, we will be able to get to council for the actual approval of the two main contracts. As for delays, we’ve lost a year. I would say that some of that time can be made back because we were not simply standing still.
Q: For the past several years, the Houston Airport System has been very successful at attracting new international carriers. Why haven’t you announced any new carriers this year?
A: Prior to the energy downturn, we were super Houston. We had the highest average ticket price of any city in the U.S. It was the front of the airplane that always filled up because you had oil executives and operators flying globally. So because of the oil sector being down, there’s less movement of the front, of the business class of these aircraft. However, we were able to diversify our portfolio. So we have more foreign flag carriers flying to Houston, and then of course we’ve got Spirit, we’ve got Southwest. And it’s in the international component of traffic that we continue to see significant growth.
Q: How has the oil downturn affected the airport overall?
A: Luckily for us, passenger traffic has been fairly flat. The decrease in passenger traffic domestically has been offset, for the most part, by international. At Hobby from Oct. 15 of last year to Oct. 15 of this year, 735,000 international passengers passed through that airport. And while at the same time, there was an increase of over 400,000 new passengers at Intercontinental. But that growth is coming because prices have been reduced. You’ve got airlines like Volaris that came in last year. You’ve got Spirit that started providing service. You’ve got Southwest that’s providing service. The ticket price has come down. Why? Because the balance of load in the aircraft has shifted from the front end of the aircraft to the back end. So airlines, when they rationalize their network, they said, ‘OK, well in the past Houston had been premium. Today, it’s about average. So let’s think about where we might be able to redeploy those aircraft.’ But they will come back as soon as the energy sector rebounds.