Despite dip in passengers, Bob Hope Airport reports increased revenue

Revenues from concessions, car rentals and film-production fees helped boost Bob Hope Airport’s financial performance for the 2013-14 fiscal year, according to a financial report released this week following a recent audit of the airfield’s financial statements. In addition, for the first six months of the 2014-15 fiscal year — July through December — all categories were on budget, said Kathy David, the airport’s deputy executive director for finance and administration, during a presentation to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.

Operating expenses increased last year by 3.8%, or about $1.33 million, compared to fiscal year 2012-13, while operating revenues increased by about 2.9%, or about $1.28 million, according to Scott Smith, director of financial services for the airfield. David said that despite a nearly 4% decline in passengers, the airport’s operating revenues were above budget by 3.1% — about $1.4 million — for the 2013-14 fiscal year, which ended last June. Film-location receipts contributed $383,000 to a roughly $640,000 budget surplus in “other revenues,” a category that also included $137,000 in reimbursements from the Transportation Security Administration. Food and beverage concessions saw strong results in 2013-14, David said, remaining relatively flat in a year-over-year comparison, despite the passenger decline. Those revenues resulted in $178,000 out of more than $240,000 in better-than-expected results in the concessions category. Overtime wages, primarily for the airport’s police force, were about $104,000 over budget in 2013-14, David said, but $74,000 of that was for security work during film projects and will be reimbursed by the production companies. Regular wages were under budget by $20,000, she said. The airport used roughly $5 million more in authority funds than budgeted, with about $1.4 million going to costs for outreach and environmental-impact report work for a proposed replacement terminal and the balance related to the completion of the regional transportation center project, including loans to rental-car companies. “The important point is [the transportation center loans] will be reimbursed through the rental payments by the [rental-car] tenants,” said Terry Tornek, one of the Pasadena commissioners on the airport authority. “I just wanted to emphasize that that was not just money out the door that wasn’t going to be recovered.” For fiscal year 2014-15, David said, financial performance trends were favorable, but there was still volatility with financial performance and “uncertainty to how it all plays out.” She added that, “at this point, there’s nothing significantly going off track” from the budgeted operations and maintenance expenditures. However, there are about $270,000 in unbudgeted information-technology projects that airport officials think may need to begin before the end of the fiscal year in June, she said. Officials will seek the board’s approval for those projects in the coming months, she said. Rental-car revenues from customer charges and rental fees for space in the transportation center were roughly $500,000 ahead of budget, she said. “Receipts are coming in strong,” David said, adding that “all-in-all, we’re tracking fairly close to budget or ahead.”