Gate Space At Cmh

[MiAAmi]

Whats going on with all the old HP space at CMH? Is the airport going to take back the space and offer it to other carriers? Or is it possible that HP will use this space again eventually?

 

[N905AW]

America West is still paying the leases on all their gates in Concourse B. Their lease doesn't expire until December of this year, so even though they're not using all the gates, they still owe money to the airport. United has been using some of the Dew bridges on the north side of the terminal, and Independence Air is supposed to be using gates 16 and 18, which are America West's. I'm not sure how that agreement was made (HP leasing the gates to DH, etc). But there's no way HP will ever ramp up service in CMH again. The city of Columbus is totally against the airline now, Southwest is slowly eating away at their loads, and the airline has dropped the evening Las Vegas flight. I wouldn't be surprised to see them out of Columbus entirely in the near future.

 

[funguy2]

Whatever lease payments HP owed to CMH were probably paid as part of the one-time "Special Charges" they recorded on their Financial Statements when the hub was closed... (I remember Press Releases that noted Special Charges, but I don't remember how much they were, and have no idea what was due on the leases.)That is to say that HP probably doesn't "owe" any money to the airport, as they kind of "pre-payed" the balance of the lease.

This is a typical type of "special charge" when a company closes a facility.

As to whether HP receives some payments for other carriers using "its" facilities, I have no clue.

I agree that it is unlikely for AWA to ramp back up in CMH... As the situation was, CMH had been getting downsized since the mid-90's (less mainline and more RJ). I think it was almost all RJ at the end, right?