The Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport and the people of northwest Ohio deserve better. No valid reason exists to explain why the airport underperforms similar airports in Ohio and other states. The airport should be a success story and an economic driver for the region.
Instead, it languishes under the “leadership” of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority while other similar airports prosper. The airport must gain an independent leadership. Staff positions remain unfilled, the airport struggles, and the authority says “all is well.”
All is not well, according to Kevin Healy, the lead author of a new study on the airport. Toledo Express is down to one “network carrier” and faces “unacceptable risk” if it fails to act, according to the study, as reported by The Blade’s Tom Troy. Mr. Healy isn’t some bean counter from a consulting firm. He’s president of Campbell-Hill Aviation Group, of Tysons Corner, Va. His concerns include that the Toledo airport is losing connections for passenger flights and barely hangs onto daily Chicago flights. The underperformance reaches dangerous levels, Mr. Healy said.
The airport must add revenue and get folks interested in using the airport again — traffic continues to fall off precipitously. The airport also needs dedicated on-site staff. These needs should not be difficult to solve. Not for any competent leadership anyway.
The preposterous notion contained in a similar authority study is that the airport should continue the glide downhill until 2029. Then, if it’s still underperforming, perhaps the time will come for a dedicated airport authority. That proposition is absurd and ridiculous. The airport needs independent leadership now. Not later. Thomas Winston, the president and chief executive officer of the port authority, says he’s comfortable with the resources in place for the airport. He shouldn’t be comfortable with failure.
The airport needs staff vacancies filled now, not later. The failure of the Port Authority to anticipate and quickly fill those positions speak to the unbelievable level of incompetence they have in managing the airport — or anything.
The English lexicographer Samuel Johnson observed of an individual that “... it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, sir, is not in nature.” Those words apply to the port authority’s management of the airport. They must go. The authority has killed progress at the airport for years and did nothing to deter the absurd roundabout now installed that limits the ability to build new runways. Those runways stand essential to the future of the airport. If you can’t do your job, get out of the way.
Business travelers should not have to go to Detroit for business here, rather than come directly to and from Toledo. That’s a killer for business development. Continuing that pattern aids Michigan, not Ohio.
An Ohio Airports Focus Study, completed a few years ago, emphasized that airports play a significant role in economic growth.
The airport named for a space pioneer deserves better. Toledo deserves better.
It’s time for local leaders to act and give the airport dedicated authority and leadership. If they fail, our region will long regret the lost opportunity. The Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport should be a gem and not an afterthought.
First Published February 20, 2022, 5:00 a.m.