Airport seeks ratification of $16.45 million PFC application to fund TSA checkpoint expansion

City staff told the Finance Committee that airport staff had submitted, and now seek to ratify, a Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) application to the Federal Aviation Administration to fund a TSA checkpoint expansion project. The application amount presented to the committee was $16,449,413.

Jose Zavada, the airport director, explained how PFCs are collected: "any passenger that uses the airport, gets charged $4 and, 50¢ on their ticket," he said, adding that multi-leg itineraries can accumulate charges up to a statutory cap so collections can reach as much as $14 per trip. Zavada said the airport has seen higher passenger volumes than anticipated, which accelerated the need to submit a new application so the airport can continue to collect PFCs for the project.

Staff asked the committee to ratify earlier manager actions to file the application and to approve accepting and appropriating the funds if the FAA approves the application. Committee members asked clarifying questions about how the fee is assessed and Kimball explained the administrative fee retained by airlines and the monthly remittance process. Both the ratification and the appropriation were described as items that will appear on next week's full council agenda; no committee vote was recorded at this meeting.

The Finance Committee's discussion did not adopt the appropriation at committee level; final acceptance and appropriation proceed at the full council following the city's standard agenda process.