Las Cruces (NM) Airport Master Plan | Airport Master Planning

 My writings about airport planning are pretty much limited to asking for there to be a transportation demand management plan as an element of a master plan.

-- "Manhattan Institute misses the point about the value of light rail transit connections to airports | Utility and the network effect: the transit network as a platform ," 2020
-- "Airport transportation demand management in flux," 2019
-- "Transportation demand management, transit: Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and Logan Airport, Boston," 2019
-- "London's Stansted Airport provides digital information on transit options," 2019
-- "Why not a bicycle hub at National Airport?, focused on capturing worker trips but open to all," 2017
-- "A brief comment on ground transportation at National Airport vis a vis VRE rail service," 2016
-- "Revisiting stories: ground transportation at airports (DCA/Logan)," 2017
-- "Airports and public transit access: O'Hare Airport and the proposed fast connection from Downtown Chicago," 2018
-- "More on airport-related transit/transit for visitors," 2013
-- "To and from origin stations can be difficult: More on the Silver Line and intra-neighborhood transit (tertiary network)," 2022

The Las Cruces plan is interesting in that they list economic development matters as a primary goal.  That's not that exceptional, but they way they lay it out may be.

A Vision for Las Cruces International Airport (LRU) 

The Las Cruces Master Plan process is built on eight guiding ideas that have been used to develop the overall vision for what LRU will be in the next ten years. Through the implementation of this plan, LRU will be: 

• Safe for all users
• Welcoming and supportive of business
• A hub for regional, national, and international tourism
• A center of education and job development
• Supported by the City
• In position to be an economic development engine
• Supportive of Aviation and Commercial Aerospace
• Important to the people of the Las Cruces region

-- "Economic impact of National and Dulles Airports," 2014
-- "Trial balloons in the Washington Post and Dulles Airport as an aerotropolis," 2013
--"Aerotropoli and rethinking the scale of mobility networks in the context of a global economy," 2013
-- "Do tax incentives pay off? : Illinois; Tennessee; Rosslyn + "The Airport Access Factor"," 2017

But the plan mostly covers airport needs like a new watchtower.   Likely that's the "fault" of FAA planning requirements which are pretty much limited to the infrastructure elements of flying in and flying out, just like how previous to the Biden Administration, airport revenues couldn't be spent on transit systems connecting to the airport versus airport-exclusive systems.

There are two mentions of parking and provision of lodging.

But there's no TDM element.

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Local ad promoting improvements at the Orange County Airport in California.  Art by Darren McArdel.

User/visitor experience.  I have also written about this from time to time about airports, and how the very police like US officials vis a vis international air travelers doesn't show the US too well--it's worse now--a point made by Tyler Brule in a Financial Times column many years ago.  From a past blog entry:

Airports, visitability and international visitors: 
Bureaucracy dooms the brand promise of Brand America

Another "problem" is that three of the main entry points into "Washington" aren't in DC proper-- National Airport and Dulles Airport in Virginia and Marshall-BWI Airport in Maryland.  Each has a visitor information desk, but none of the services are comparable to the airports with the best visitor information set ups.

Plus, at Dulles Airport especially, the experience for visitors leaves a lot to be desired, which is something that Tyler Brule of Monocle Magazine mentions from time to time, especially in his weekly column in the Financial Times, where he has been very negative about Dulles Airport, because of big problems with the customs entry process.  From "Let’s play ‘Guess where I am?’":

I’ve just come off an airliner and it’s absolute pandemonium. There are gate agents screaming for transfer passengers, there are sniffer dogs, there are loads of immigration officers and there’s a general sense of disorganization. My fellow passengers look bewildered and flustered after their eight-hour, 45-minute flight from Frankfurt, and there’s a lot of huffing and puffing as we’re divided up into groups of arriving passengers and “connectors”. ...

description of 1,000 people waiting to go through ICE at shift change, when many people leave their posts, with the result that even fewer agents are there to work with the passengers.

As I approach the desk, I feel like giving the young gentleman a lecture about how bad this whole performance is for Brand USA – particularly on top of a whole week of television reports about the new fee that visitors will have to pay to get a visa and how these funds will be used to create a campaign to encourage more tourism to the US. I want to ask him if he (and his bosses not far away in the District of Columbia) think a 90-minute wait in a dumpy airport is any way to welcome the world and if his department is really that interested in having people visit the US.

Of course, this is even worse now given the "America First" and anti-global rhetoric and actions of the Federal Government as discussed in the previous entry, "National Tourism Week (May 7th - 13th), Public Diplomacy, National Heritage Areas, etc."

When air travel was "taking off", airlines touted airport improvements.  Now flying is pretty much a commodity, although many companies do distinguish service in multiple ways still.

New Pan American Airlines Worldport Terminal, JFK Airport, c. 1960

Combine this experience, plus the then less than sterling experience of getting to the city from the airport--this will change in a few years when there is subway service there, but the location of the subway station will be less than ideal--and then think about what this says not only for Brand America ("Brand USA, a campaign to lure back foreign tourists — and their money" Washington Post and "Re-branding America" from the Sunday Boston Globe) but BrandDC (see the blog entry "Creating Brand Washington"), and is it any reason that the number of international visitors to the US is falling?

Note that while the FT piece is from 2011, the problem at Dulles continues.  See "Editor's note: BWI is the big winner in the battle for passengers" from the Washington Post.  And the MWAA has responded with a advertising campaign.  But I would aver the problem is more structural and fundamental--something that marketing can fix, but advertising can't.

An evaluation of area airports in terms of the "visitability" approach is long overdue.   

I don't get Airport Planning magazine anymore but a lot of the articles are about the improvement of the visitor experience, throughput, etc., including the quality, range, and cost of retail amenities.  (Remember when it was a big deal that airports upgraded their retail offer?  Pittsburgh was a leader in this, partly because a British firm had the contract to implement what they already were experienced in doing).

-- "Some DC tourism issues (National Tourism Week: May 7th - May 13th)," 2017

This comes up in the NYT article "Airport Lounges Sound Luxurious. I Keep Getting Duped," about the quality (not very) of airport lounges.  That's another element of the visitor experience that smart airport executives and planning teams should consider when developing master plans.

The Wall Street Journal also runs an annual article on the quality of the airport experience.  From "Best Large U.S. Airports 2023":

Each airport is evaluated on 30 factors that span the trip, from buying a ticket to arriving at a final destination. Using data from government agencies, a survey of travelers conducted by our research partner Dynata and other sources, the Journal’s rankings highlight the airports that boast on-time flights, short waits throughout the trip and the amenities that travelers like best.

Just a reminder to do and effectuate access planning before major transportation infrastructure opens: Peru's airport

 According to Bloomberg, "Nice Airport, If You Can Get to It: No Subway, No Highway, No Bridge," Lima Peru is getting a new airport without roadways to it--they are planning to cross a river with temporary bridges and no transit.  From the article:

A highway meant to whisk travelers to the $2 billion terminal has yet to be built, even though flights are supposed to begin operating in just seven weeks. A bridge to get across a river that runs along the grounds was never constructed. There’s a subway stop labeled “Airport” planned for Lima’s new metro system, but that station is set to be built (three years from now) much closer to the old airport that’s being decommissioned.

“Having a subway station named ‘Airport’ where there won’t be an airport anymore — it’s just the most graphic example of our lack of planning as a nation,” said Carlos Gutierrez, the head of Peru’s airline industry trade association.

... The bridges will get private cars from congested side roads into the terminal, but there’s no bus service currently scheduled, and there’s no room to allow pedestrians to walk across. That’s a problem for the airport’s 17,000 workers, most of whom now arrive at the existing terminal via public transportation. And officials are worried about the safety of travelers forced to navigate the traffic-choked streets in the crime-filled neighborhood that surrounds the airport.

I do think airport mobility planning in the US can be weak.  It was abetted for years by a rule by the Federal Aviation Administration that airports couldn't pay into existing transit systems that also serve non-airport riders.  Fortunately, the Biden Administration dropped that rule.  But it still affects airports like LaGuardia, Newark, JFK, and Philadelphia.

... US airports with decent transit like Cleveland or National in DC are connected through the largesse of local authorities.  

-- "Manhattan Institute misses the point about the value of light rail transit connections to airports | Utility and the network effect: the transit network as a platform," (2020)

-- "To and from origin stations can be difficult: More on the Silver Line and intra-neighborhood transit (tertiary network)," (2022) -- links to many past entries

Although lack of access planning for regular transit stations is an issue too.  In Baltimore it was an issue with the Lutherville light rail station. In DC, with the NoMA station among others ("Revisiting creating Public Improvement Districts in transit station catchment areas," 2020).

Why you should take transit to the airport: it's safer than leaving your car parked and accessible to thieves

A Utah County family from Lehi got wiped out after their car was burglarized while parked at the Salt Lake City Airport during their week long vacation  ("Family’s car broken into at SLC airport, thieves use garage door opener to break into home," KSL-TV).

First, they couldn't find their car.  Reviewing airport security tapes they found it was burgled and moved to another floor.  The car registration--with their home address, and garage opener was taken, which they didn't realize.

Second, when they got home, all the lights were on, the house was trashed and burgled, and their second car was gone.  It turns out the lady's documents they found (birth certificate, etc.) were used to open credit card accounts etc.

Now the guy had an air tag in his car, and he tracked the car (to Salt Lake City) but the thieves got away.  But the family still isn't ready to move back in.

Taking transit to the airport wouldn't have left them vulnerable.