A New Cranky Talk Is Live: How Do Airports Make Their Money?

Jul 12, 2020

More Reading on This Topic: Podcast

How airports are funded and the impact of COVID-19

This week on Cranky Talk, Dave and I decided to take a swing at airport funding. After all, with flights down dramatically right now, how are airports staying afloat? Do they have to take your taxpayer money? Listen in to learn more.

Oh, and do me a favor. We experimented with some background music this week. Let me know if you like it better with or without.

Download it here or listen below.

I’m very pleased to thank this week’s sponsor, Turbulence Forecast. Almost every flight you take has turbulence, but wouldn’t you like to know how much there will be and when it will happen? Check out turbulenceforecast.com for worldwide turbulence maps, interpretations, and a concierge forecast by email service. You can receive a personalized turbulence forecast before your flight from the founder of the website.

Brett

6 responses to “A New Cranky Talk Is Live: How Do Airports Make Their Money?”

jlkoch23

Jul 12, 2020 at 5:29 am

Good morning!

Fascinating info.

Dump dour Dave…for a female commentator…better balance. Sorry Dave. Try accounting….

Head shots in your emails of you & other speakers when scripted into podcast.

No music please….you could use bumper music in beginning and end; a signature piece not to obscure…not too long, or you will pay royalties…unless you compose & perform it.

I’m assuming you are going Big. Have fun!

Interview your sponsor…How do they predict turbulence?

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Matcha

Jul 12, 2020 at 9:43 am

Please no background music. Or just reduce it by 25 dB.

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Tom

Jul 12, 2020 at 11:44 am

Thank you for this podcast… music was fine.. only issue was I could not hear Dave very well at times but not because of the music..

You gave a very good summary of how the airports are funded and the specifics are eye-opening.. thank you

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Michael

Jul 12, 2020 at 11:26 pm

Couldn’t finish it. Music is distracting.

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Kilroy

Jul 13, 2020 at 2:27 am

Except for the intro and outro, I didn’t notice the music much (generally a good thing), but count me as neutral rather than arguing for or against it. I did find the volume of the voice audio to be pretty low; even with the volume on my computer and on the podcast player on this page turned all the way up, I had to strain my ears to hear it.

Also, I was a bit disappointed that the conversation focused on taxes and airport funding at a VERY high level, instead of going down a layer or two. As a follow up podcast (or podcasts), I’d suggest going through the financials for “typical” large, medium, and small airports, breaking out the % of each airport’s revenue / funding into a half dozen or dozen buckets (retail, restaurants, landing fees, pax fees, parking, tolls, airline space leases, etc etc), and perhaps inviting the CFO of each airport’s authority onto the podcast for a quick interview about their revenues, costs, biggest challenges, etc etc.

With regards to TurbulenceForecast.com, one feature that would be very value-added would be to allow the user to put in an upcoming or past flight (e.g., DL 1234) and get numerical (0/100) grades on average and max turbulence intensity, as planned/actual flight paths and altitudes are available online (e.g., on some flight tracking sites). Could also try to overlay a flight’s path (again, planned or actual) onto the turbulence map… I’m just trying to think of ways to make this tool more succinct/useful/easier to understand for people who know nothing about weather or aviation; a “Your upcoming flight has an overall turbulence score of 5/100, meaning extremely little and extremely light turbulence is expected” summary would be plenty for most people.

Finally, does Cranky Concierge include turbulence forecasts as part of its flight monitoring services?

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CF

Jul 13, 2020 at 10:12 am

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We’re going to repost this without the music.

Also, Kilroy – We have a couple of specialized clients who we include turbulence forecasting for, but it’s not something we regularly put out.

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