Dallas/Fort Worth Airport wants to build more parking spaces.
The airport recently opened 1,150 covered spaces in its Express North lot and unveiled plans at its board meeting Thursday to add 2,550 to that lot.The next phase -- adding 1,225 covered spaces by November 2013 -- could cost up to $9 million, Perfecto Solis, the airport's vice president of development and engineering, told the board.The last 1,325 covered spaces could cost up to $9.25 million and could be completed by November 2014.The airport has expanded its Express North lot since demolishing its Terminal A parking garage this year to make way for a new terminal garage.DFW Chief Executive Jeff Fegan gave the board a year-in-review report for the fiscal year that ended Oct. 1. Fegan called it one of the best operating years in history, with $20 million more in revenue than was budgeted."We started this year and we weren't quite sure how it was going to play out," Fegan said, referring to last November's bankruptcy filing by AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines. "But we continued to move forward and do some good things."The airport added several international and domestic destinations during the year and welcomed JetBlue Airways, Emirates Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines and Asiana Cargo. And American reaffirmed all its lease and use agreements and paid the airport $11 million to cover a pre-petition bankruptcy claim.Fegan received a $15,000 raise, or 3.75 percent, from the board Thursday. His new salary will be $415,000, and he will receive a one-time bonus of $68,000 for meeting most of the airport's strategic goals in the past year.The board also approved plans for the initial phase of the Southgate Plaza development, which will include a Hyatt Place hotel and new headquarters for the airport staff.The airport's owner cities, including Fort Worth, have approved paying for part of the project with the public improvement facility corporation fund, which collects revenue from the two current hotels and the rental car center.DFW had fewer passengers in its terminals in October, down 0.7 percent from the same month last year, as Superstorm Sandy caused hundreds of canceled flights.In its monthly operations report, the airport said American carried 4.1 million passengers, down 2.4 percent.The airline said it had operational issues when its pilots filed last-minute maintenance requests and called in sick. The pilots union denied that it was engaging in a work slowdown.International traffic grew 8.7 percent from October 2011 as the airport served 488,183 international passengers.Andrea Ahles, 817-390-7631Twitter: @Sky_TalkHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
