Shooting oneself in the foot at the DeKalb airport

We’ve been talking about fuel sales at DeKalb’s airport recently. This was in the context of DeKalb’s new marketing practice of deeply discounting fuel in order to bring in new customers, and perhaps reaching at some point the same successful level of sales of 2013, the good old days when net sales more than covered…

DeKalb’s airport fuel sales were better in 2013

City of DeKalb is extremely happy with airport fuel sales over the past few months, and according to the 2018 draft budget is estimating $416,000 in gross fuel sales for 2017. However, the recent increase is due to deep discounting of fuel, and fuel sales were better in previous years. The airport in DeKalb began…

Airport Operating Deficits

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for FY2014 is out. So far the document is only accessible as part of the December 8 council meeting agenda, but at some point will probably appear on the city’s downloads page under the Finance title. Let’s stick a toe in by first visiting the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport…

City Revenues from Corn Fest 2011

We need for DeKalb to collect, at minimum, about $30,000 in Corn Fest annual revenues on behalf of DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport (DTMA) because that’s what city administrators told the FAA it would do. They also said they’d put these revenues, consisting of sales taxes and parking fees, directly into the airport fund instead of…

Corn Fest Financials Through 2010

DeKalb Corn Fest was lucky to have funds in reserve when it moved from the downtown to DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport in 2008. [table id=60 /] Except for the “Lady Antebellum boost” in 2009, revenues have been trending downward. Revenues are no longer itemized on the tax forms, so we don’t know which categories have…

Progress at the Airport

I decided to see if DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport has made progress in growing its non-governmental revenues now that it has added fuel sales and new tenants. Below is a table showing the primary revenue category, rentals, along with the newbie, fuel sales. These are not the only non-governmental revenues, but the remainder combined don’t…

DeKalb’s Airport as a Grant Funding Priority

Was the Daley Policy Group initially hired just to get money for the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport, or are airport grants simply the low-hanging fruit in DC? Over the past 20 years: At least 20 separate airport projects were funded, compared to seven non-airport-related projects $28.6 million, which is 68% of the total grant/earmark dollars,…

Well. Finally.

The DeKalb City Council is getting close to approving a DeKalb-Taylor Municipal Airport (DTMA) Marketing Plan. (See here, starting on p. 5.) The proposal is a concise and informative 15 pages. I found the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) more direct and insightful than I think we would have gotten in-house, so maybe…