CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It's budget season and Corpus Christi International Airport has released their proposed fiscal year 2024-25 budget.
Lacey Guzman, CCIA'S Air Service Development Manager, said her team works with a primary goal in mind.
"Our main focus during any budget season is to increase our revenues and decrease our expenditures," Guzman said.
Money left over each year is invested back into the airlines to help decrease the cost of airline operations and attract new airlines to the airport. In the 2024-25 proposed budget, new plans include more restaurants, coffee shops, an outdoor patio and a VIP lounge.
In addition, there will be some parking lot upgrades like new entrance lane devices with License Plate Readers and new exit lane equipment to improve wait times and payment processing.
They also want to increase parking rates by one dollar. Although travelers may not want to hear that, it helps them in the long run when it comes to reinvesting into the airport.
"In the grand scheme of things it makes a big difference when that adds up over the whole entire year," Guzman said.
CCIA proposes to spend $12.8 million from its Aviation Department budget. That's a $1.6 million decrease from the 2023-24 budget.
They're also expecting to earn $12.5 million in revenue funds. This will come from car rentals, restaurants, terminal rent, airline fuel flowage and other income.
But they're also saving a little money by eliminating several administrative positions. Guzman mentioned those positions will not impact maintenance, operations or air field team members.
"They [employees] either retired or got another job elsewhere," Guzman said. "And we're not doing this for our our benefit. We're giving all of that money back to the airlines, so they can operate out of the airport at a cheaper cost.
Guzman added there is one big surprise that's in the works. CCIA is in the planning stage of collaborating with Texan Stores to build a new fuel station located at International Drive near HWY 44.
It's expected to serve the nearby community, which includes nearly 700,000 passengers, 57,000 rental car customers, and 600 airport badge holders each year.
"We want to build a fueling station, firstly because there's not really accessible gas station near the airport. I think this will be great for our rental car customers. So this will be great for when they're returning. But also, what's really important is that it's our land," Guzman said. "We'll be leasing that land, which means we will actually get a percentage of the fueling flowage fees which again, increases our revenue for the airport. We think it'll be a really great partnership."
The proposed fiscal year 2024-25 budget goes into effect Oct. 1.
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