A lot of things have changed since the county's airport system started on the project back in 2000. A lot of the numbers projected for the new terminal failed to materialize.
In fact, the whole reason for building the new terminal was a study in 2000 that said the number of passengers using the airport by 2016 would double from 8 million to 16 million and Terminal B couldn't handle the capacity. Airport Systems Director Hardy Acree says the forecast is now under 11 million but that doesn't mean the airport is losing money on the new terminal.
ACREE: "The recent forecast on an annual basis is about $5 million in excess revenues versus expenses."
That's half of what was expected, but Acree says other numbers have dropped too, like interest rates on bond payments and construction costs that allowed the project to come in $65 million under budget. But, they're still looking at making another number drop: costs.
ACREE: "For custodial cleaning of this facility,we decided to contract with an outside entity versus using internal county resources. That action alone is saving us about $3 million a year. So there's other opportunities out there."