00:00I just want to check in on capacity right now, ahead of next week's holiday.
00:04What are you seeing at Pittsburgh International Airport, especially in the context of, well,
00:08flights being back at full capacity after that government shutdown?
00:12First of all, thanks for having me on. It's always a pleasure to be here.
00:16And what we're seeing is that people are traveling and that travel is strong. Demand is strong.
00:22We are expecting record numbers for the Thanksgiving holiday, as everybody in the airline industry is for Thanksgiving this year.
00:32So we're ready. You're ready. Well, you've got a new terminal for them to go through.
00:38Tell us a little bit about and I wasn't sure, was it one and a half, one and one point seven billion?
00:42I think the initial thought was to be about one point one.
00:46Tell us about the cost and tell us about the upgrades.
00:48Well, first of all, one point one billion was the estimate at zero percent design.
00:53That was never a budget. So let's just be clear about that.
00:56But I appreciate you you asking the question.
00:59It's kind of what I tell my husband when we're doing kind of a rehab money.
01:03That was before. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
01:06Just say that was a zero percent design. I didn't really know what we were buying then.
01:10That's fair. So, yeah, the final cost came in at one point seven and we needed it.
01:16It has been a huge that was for a terminal, a new garage, a new roadway system, a new customer service building where our rental cars are housed and a whole lot of upgrades.
01:27So it's been fantastic. And we opened on Tuesday, November 18th.
01:33We switched over from Monday, the 17th. A lot of planning went into it and it was a seamless opening.
01:40We're really so proud. How does it improve? Not not just, you know, the customer experience at airports is important and it totally is.
01:50I love airports. You have been to some places that need upgrades.
01:55Yeah, exactly. We have. But, you know, we know it pretty well here in New York because LaGuardia has, you know, it went from being this pariah.
02:02Yeah. And thinking about airports to being a place that you really want to fly out of.
02:05Yeah, exactly. And it does. It does change. Newark, the same thing. They've been redoing things.
02:10I mean, tell us a little faster. I'm just going to say it makes a difference.
02:15Listen, you know, and you know this, you travel airports. I would say airports are portals.
02:20There are you're you're going through them in order to go to something or from something that was really important to just you.
02:26It matters that that the that the experience is good for you, that you can move through it without a lot of stress and that when something goes wrong, it can get fixed.
02:36And so infrastructure has a surprising impact on how people feel about the space they're moving through and the services that we can provide in that space.
02:45So I'm really happy to hear you all understand that passenger experience is important.
02:50We understand it. Airports understand it. And I think we're all getting a lot better at providing it in ways that really deliver value for passengers and staff and meters and greeters and partners, everybody who relies on the airport.
03:05So, yeah, that's what we built and that's what we opened. And that's what we're excited to have people traveling through this holiday season and beyond.
03:10Hey, Christina, the thing I care most about is it all being safe. I'm cool going through TSA if I have to take off everything.
03:18I'm fine if that means I'm going to be safe. But I not really.
03:22But I'm just saying I appreciate those agents that were working during the government shutdown.
03:26Same thing with the traffic controllers. And I think that is something that Bloomberg has reported a lot on about the lack of air traffic controllers that are out there and what's required for one to be one and so on and so forth.
03:39Tell us about that at your airport, what you're seeing, what could be better, what still needs to be done.
03:45We I love that you brought this up. So we we believe strongly that if you don't get safety and security right, nothing else matters.
03:52I do want to point out that in that one point seven billion dollars worth of build, there was no loss of life.
03:58And I say that because when the original airport was built, three construction workers lost their lives building it.
04:04So having an owner's controlled insurance program, delivering a safety program for the construction while we operated safely and security securely was job one every day.
04:14Our TSA partners, Customs and Border Protection partners and air traffic control partners.
04:20We actually did not see major call offs ever during the shutdown.
04:26We have an incredibly dedicated team out here.
04:29We have lots of people who helped out in making sure that they had food and diapers and baby formula and stuff that they could help their families with.
04:40We had a food drive. The food bank held a food drive, which we helped support.
04:46So there was a lot of care and and taking care of our federal partners.
04:50And we reminded people every day to thank them.
04:53And we have had a very good partnership throughout their the shutdown as we were getting ready to open.
05:01And I think that's a real testament to the dedication that they have to their jobs out here.
05:07Yeah. I want to go a little existential with this because, you know, during the shutdown,
05:10I was thinking, why is the FAA the employer of all air traffic controllers?
05:17Like, why aren't they employed by the individual airports where they work or the territory they're responsible for?
05:23In your view, is this is this the right way to have a centralized database or decentralized entity pay them and have centralized standards?
05:31Like, is this the right way to do it?
05:33Yes, but I'm not sure that it should be I think that there might be something to be said for how we take it away from the how we take it away from the continuing resolutions.
05:46In other words, how do we make sure that they never have to shut down?
05:50OK, so, yes, I think, you know, you need the you need the consistency and the handoff from tower to tower.
05:55You want the same standards.
05:56I believe in that.
05:58And I also think that the FAA does a remarkable job.
06:00They have a huge mandate and there's a lot at stake for the work that they do.
06:05But I think that what we see is with the aging technology and some of the infrastructure.
06:10Right.
06:10And it would be it would be more beneficial if we could get those solutions, you know, invested in.
06:17Faster and that can't happen if you're subject to.
06:21Yeah, if you're subject to congressional budgets and stuff like that.
06:25So I think that there are other solutions that we can explore that have been successful in other countries.
Be the first to comment