By: W. Scott Bailey | From: San Antonio Business Journal
The city of San Antonio has secured commitments for new airline use and lease agreements, or AULAs, with seven carriers that will extend their operations at San Antonio International Airport.
The new leases are for 10 years and include an additional five-year option. They will run much longer than the current agreements and are expected to generate $3.2 billion in revenue for the city over their 15-year period.
The seven signatory airlines that have committed to the new AULA terms set to begin soon include American, Delta, United, Spirit, Viva Aerobus, UPS and FedEx. That signatory status means they pay lower airport rates, share in certain revenues, have access to preferred gates and have a say in future airport construction.
“Every one of the signatories will have more gates in the future than they do today,” Assistant City Manager Jeff Coyle said.
An eighth current signatory airline, Southwest, has not yet agreed to the terms, according to Jesus Saenz, director of airports for the city of San Antonio. One of the hangups, he said, is that the carrier wants space in the planned new third terminal.
Southwest currently operates out of Terminal A, which is set to undergo a $200 million makeover as part of the city’s planned $2.5 billion airport expansion and improvements plan.
Not everyone can be in the new terminal, Coyle said, noting that the door to a deal with Southwest has not been shut.
“We hope they join,” he said.
"Southwest is not in favor of the gate allocation within the use and lease agreement as it stands and have communicated to the airport and city that we will not sign it in its current form," Southwest Airlines noted in a statement provided to the Business Journal. "We will continue to work with the airport on a solution that provides the experience our customers and employees deserve."
Saenz said city officials have been working with the airlines for the last 24 months.
“We went through a very rigorous, fair and equitable process with our master architect engineer to define the best balancing for the entire complex,” he said. “Within that effort, we went out and met with all of the carriers at their headquarters and established what their future plans were going to be in San Antonio.”
Timing is now somewhat of a factor as the current AULAs are set to expire at the end of September.
“We've started the process of defining the gate utilization and the gating assignments for each of the carriers with the opportunities that will exist,” Saenz said. “We will work to continue to get the 8th to sign on.”