The Once Iconic Albuquerque Sunport
How will the $100 million terminal upgrades restore passenger traffic to 2007 levels?
The Albuquerque International Sunport was one of the economic engines driving the Albuquerque Metro economy. Not anymore. Passenger traffic has been down by twenty percent since 2007, showing the lack of passengers in the terminal and empty shops at the airport.
Companies looking to locate or expand in the Albuquerque market consider the number of direct flights in and out of the airport an important factor. In an October Bloomberg article dated 10/31/2017, the headline, “Nonstop flights between cities are a more effective way of generating inter-city investment than increased airport capacity.”
Albuquerque passenger count and non-stop flights to the west and east coast are down. I am attending a memorial service in two weeks in the San Francisco area, and I will have to change planes in either Phoenix or Las Vegas. It is inconvenient and increases the chance of weather delays. Just years ago, I flew direct to Oakland, Sacramento, Portland, and Seattle, but no more.
What are the Mayor and City Council Members doing about this?
A simple walk-through of the Albuquerque Airport shows that our Mayor and City Council are focused on yesterday’s solutions to today’s challenges. They are spending ninety million dollars on airport terminal infrastructure comprising of architectural, mechanical, and electrical upgrades. At times it seems, construction workers, airport staff, and concession staff outnumbered passengers.
This reminds me of my first summer as a construction laborer; I had completed the tasks assigned to me, then asked the foreman what to do next, and he told me to look busy. The foreman was overhead his head if he could not even manage a laborer.
The Mayor and City Council have authorized nearly ninety million dollars in construction projects to look busy for the voters.
The trend in the annual passenger traffic at the Albuquerque Sunport is alarming. In 1990-5,000,000, 2000-6,300,000, 2007-6,700,000, 2010-5,800,000, 2020-1,800,000, 2023-5,400,000. We are just above the annual passenger traffic levels of thirty years ago. At this rate, the Mayor and City Council will turn portions of the Sunport into homeless shelters.
What are our options to boost air passenger numbers?
Albuquerque Airport’s landing fees must be competitive with the other regional airports. Communicate to the airlines we want their business to begin with competitive rates and great service. We must market our airport as a competitive alternative to Phoenix without being shut down due to dust storms in the spring, high summer heat, or congested air space.
The film industry spent $855.4 million dollar in New Mexico in 2022 and received $110 million in tax incentives. It is time to get this industry out of private aircraft and into commercial aircraft. End the practice of New Mexico tax incentives and tax deductions for private aircraft travel. This will get the Hollywood high earners out of If Hollywood travels back and forth on commercial airlines, we can help the film industry stop climate change while increasing the air passenger count between Albuquerque and Los Angeles by reimbursement of travel expenses on commercial airlines, allowing their use of private jets for travel.
The Albuquerque Tourism Department should create an advertising campaign to reach out to retired and young professionals who are a direct flight away from Albuquerque. Encourage them to visit Albuquerque for a long weekend, to get away from their cold and snowy or hot and humid weather, or for a romantic getaway.
The high-tech industry wants us to believe that video conferencing has replaced in-person meetings. However, it is difficult to collaborate solely by video conferencing. Hit situation comedies were written collaboratively, not with video conferencing. Seinfeld and Thirty Rock would not exist if the writers collaborated via Zoom. Albuquerque is perfectly situated to become a center for Airport Venues for Meetings and Events. John F Kennedy Airport and O’Hare International Airport currently provide meeting and event spaces at their airports for out-of-state businesses. Albuquerque is perfectly situated for this business opportunity; we are almost equal in distance between Southern and Central California, the Midwest, and Texas. And we do not have the bad weather that Kennedy and O’Hare airports have.
Most airports in the country look the same. You can only tell where you are by looking at the signs on the walls and the mayor's smiling face welcoming passengers to their city. However, a few exceptions exist: Bozeman, Denver, Las Vegas, and Portland. Portland even sold visitors framed used pieces of the airport carpet with their unique pattern. It used to be Albuquerque with our rich New Mexico culture and the friendly people greeting travelers. Today, Albuquerque Airport is turning into the corporate culture of Taco Bell / Chipotle Grill while efficiently moving people out of the airport with minimum interactions with our best resource, our people.
We can only continue our successes with your help. In 2024, we will publish our articles every Wednesday. However, only one monthly article will be sent to our non-contributing subscribers. We will send ten-minute podcasts to our contributing members on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. This will allow us to continue providing you with fact-based articles on overcoming our state's challenges, challenging the status quo, and holding our elected officials accountable while not being beholden to our advertisers.
We will provide more information on these changes in the coming weeks.
From a reader "Are you telling me this (Wright Amendment) had nothing to do with lower airport traffic?" Great Question. The slide in ABQ passenger traffic began in 2007; the Wright Amendment ended on 10.13.2014. Between 2007 and 2014, national air passenger traffic increased by 168%, and ABQ decreased by 27%. The ABQ leader can't tell which way the wind is blowing, and the $100 Million terminal upgrade will not solve Albuquerque's problem.
Getting Hollywood out of their private jets is not going to solve or improve the commercial travel. Although their method of travel is ironic as is NM’s incentives for it, given our climate alarmism, the real way to improve airport throughput is make NM attractive to families and business. Families, including service members, are not thrilled about coming to a state where crime is a real problem. And businesses look at the mandates and threats about energy, taxes, zoning and the environment and just say “pass”. A nice airport is nice, especially for those of us who use it to transit out of NM. For those coming here it should be unique and welcoming but it is a pass through and should not be the end all destination for people coming to NM.