boeingkid From United States of America, joined May 2009, 103 posts, RR: 0 Posted (11 months 6 days 1 hour ago) and read 1525 times:
I have been doing research into SFB and I wanted the forums comments about this. The CEO of the airport was the former mayor of Sanford and got the then CEO kicked out over complete nonsense(Former CEO is now CEO at DAB) and takes over the airport. He then replaces 3 of the board members with people of his own.Within 6 months of being there forms his own Airport Police dept which he is the chief of. CEO is also the commander of the ARFF.
If you remember SFB is the 1st airport in the country to get rid of TSA and there are private companies bidding for it. CEO is part owner of one of these such companies, hmm I wonder who gets this contract.
What happens if G4 goes belly up (not saying that it will) what will happen to the airport? Can it survive on just UK carriers and heavy mx?
ouboy79 From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 4055 posts, RR: 23 Reply 1, posted (11 months 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 1437 times:
Quoting boeingkid (Thread starter): What happens if G4 goes belly up (not saying that it will) what will happen to the airport?
Definitely hard to imagine being one of the, if not still the most profitable "airline" in the country.
Obviously if G4 leaves SFB the airport would have difficult choices to make. However, SFB has been interesting to watch as it has grown in popularity over the years. Before G4 you saw companies like TransMeridian and Vacation Express use it as a main focus point in Florida for their operations. There is an established market for that airport now and chances are if G4 fades away, another will step in.
Any opinion/comment posted is that of my own and not that of Southwest Airlines Co.
PHLJJS From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 412 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (11 months 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 1411 times:
Quoting boeingkid (Thread starter): I have been doing research into SFB and I wanted the forums comments about this. The CEO of the airport was the former mayor of Sanford and got the then CEO kicked out over complete nonsense(Former CEO is now CEO at DAB) and takes over the airport. He then replaces 3 of the board members with people of his own.Within 6 months of being there forms his own Airport Police dept which he is the chief of. CEO is also the commander of the ARFF.
If you remember SFB is the 1st airport in the country to get rid of TSA and there are private companies bidding for it. CEO is part owner of one of these such companies, hmm I wonder who gets this contract.
What happens if G4 goes belly up (not saying that it will) what will happen to the airport? Can it survive on just UK carriers and heavy mx?
There have been airports operating with private security for years. SFB wasn't the first airport to switch from TSA to private security. They were the first to be able to switch since new regulations went into effect. I believe ELK and some others small airports in the upper midwest switched years ago under the older set of rules and EYW hired private security when they started commercial ops a few years ago and never had TSA.
It sounds like this guy is a mico-manager and has somewhat of a Napolean complex. He wants to be in charge of everything and show everyone he's the boss. Putting himself in charge of everything and replacing board members with "yes men" could be a way to pay himself more money and funnel lucrative contracts to companies or people that he is associated with.
I don't know of any actual wrong doing, but it certainly looks fishy if he's done all of the things you've suggested.
As far as G4, they seem to be doing well. If they did go under, I'm sure SFB would try to lure other carriers with incentives like other airports do.
NASCARAirforce From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 3099 posts, RR: 5 Reply 3, posted (11 months 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 1144 times:
Quoting ouboy79 (Reply 1): Obviously if G4 leaves SFB the airport would have difficult choices to make. However, SFB has been interesting to watch as it has grown in popularity over the years. Before G4 you saw companies like TransMeridian and Vacation Express use it as a main focus point in Florida for their operations. There is an established market for that airport now and chances are if G4 fades away, another will step in.
Well just think from Feb 2010-Feb 2011 G4 experimented with service at MCO, pulling I believe 8-10 destinations from SFB and flew them to MCO. The goal was to eventually move the flights to MCO but that didn't work out for them - they left MCO long before their lease was up as Gate 11 and 13 at MCO are still Allegiant gates I believe for another 3 years that no one can use without paying Allegiant.
dlramp4life From United States of America, joined Jun 2011, 716 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (11 months 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 1065 times:
Quoting NASCARAirforce (Reply 3): Gate 11 and 13 at MCO are still Allegiant gates I believe for another 3 years that no one can use without paying Allegiant.
The airport can not terminate the lease on those gates?
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2travel2know2 From Panama, joined Apr 2010, 2071 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (11 months 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 891 times:
The amount of money CM could be saving by flying to SFB instead of MCO is amazing, specially taking into account that Orlando is mostly a CM O/D market, very little connecting traffic to/from UA.
But there are times flying to a prestigious well-known airport than a cheap-to-operate secondary one makes a lot of sense to an airline.
FWAERJ From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 3220 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (11 months 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 795 times:
Quoting dlramp4life (Reply 5): Quoting NASCARAirforce (Reply 3):
Gate 11 and 13 at MCO are still Allegiant gates I believe for another 3 years that no one can use without paying Allegiant.
The airport can not terminate the lease on those gates?
That is correct: G4 is a signatory carrier at MCO. They entered into a 5-year lease deal with MCO, IIRC.
The original plan for G4 at MCO was rumored to be a phased complete move to MCO from SFB to fight the "AllegianTran" less-than-daily services that FL was running from MCO to smaller markets. SFB cut G4 a better deal, and G4 moved their MCO ops back to SFB in February 2011. It was good timing, too, as WN cut almost all of the "AllegianTran" routes following the WN/FL merger.
Another possible factor in the move back to SFB: MCO has the Disney Magical Express service (free for Disney resort hotel guests) and SFB doesn't (one needs to get a car or shuttle). I feel that by moving back to SFB, G4 also wanted to protect their deal with Enterprise Holdings (G4's car rental partner).
I flew G4 from FWA-SFB a little over 18 months ago for a trip to Universal and Kennedy Space Center. I liked the airport: it was clean, modern, and very easy to use. And unlike MCO, the gas stations closest to the airport don't charge $2 more per gallon than normal.
CIDFlyer From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 2008 posts, RR: 3 Reply 9, posted (11 months 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 725 times:
I know last week there were rumors of a NK/G4 merger...not that it would happen, but speaking hypothetically, if the two did merger, would they dump SFB to focus at MCO? or keep SFB so they could have that all to themselves? Ive flown to SFB before and thought it was a nice, easy experience, and it didnt seem to bad getting to the west side of Orlando to the theme parks. Plus SFB was closer to Daytona Beach.
ginger727 From United States of America, joined Nov 2003, 50 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (11 months 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 634 times:
In the early 2000s, well before G4 even thought about Orlando area service, SFB was the fastest growing airport in all of North America. Back in those days, the vast majority of its air service consisted of mostly UK flights. Today, it has flip flopped so that domestic traffic is the heavyweight thanks to Allegiant.
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