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Airport reports January 2025: enplanements fall, revenues up and expenses rise with payroll timing
Summary
Airport staff told commissioners that January 2025 passenger activity fell about 5.9% year over year while operating revenues rose and operating expenses spiked because the month contained a third payroll period.
Will Mack, the airport operating budget financial manager, told the commission that January 2025 passenger enplanements totaled about 683,000, a 5.9% decline from January 2024.
Mack said operating revenues for January 2025 totaled $25,800,000, a 9.3% ($2.2 million) increase from the prior year and a 10% increase year to date. He attributed the revenue increase primarily to updated rates and charges implemented in FY25.
Mack said operating expenses were notably higher: “Operating expenses increased $4,400,000 in the month of January, or 38% compared to the prior year.” He and other staff explained the largest single driver was payroll timing — January 2025 included three pay periods versus two in January 2024 — which adds roughly $2.5 million to $3 million of personnel cost per additional pay period. Mack said similar dynamics occur twice a year when months include three pay periods.
Year to date, staff reported operating expenses up $7.8 million or 16%. Mack said the year-to-date surplus totaled $25,300,000, a 10% decrease compared with the prior year, although that surplus was about 8% ($1.9 million) above a seasonalized budget estimate.
Commissioners pressed staff for clarification. One commissioner asked whether a single extra pay period could explain the large monthly net income variance; Mack reiterated the payroll timing and noted some contractual payments to public safety partners and parking operators can follow the same pay-period cadence, amplifying the effect.
Staff also addressed parking and retail revenue. Mack said those lines showed year-over-year increases but lagged the department’s forecast because passenger traffic was lower than expected. “The driver of that is gonna be passenger traffic,” Mack said. He told commissioners the department’s forecast assumed stronger passenger growth than the airport experienced in the months leading up to January.
