Reflecting on the Past and Looking
Ahead:An interview with airport Director Kelly L. Johnson, A.A.E.
For the first 18 months after she accepted the position as airport director, Johnson worked as the only airport employee. XNA had hired Ozark International Consulting (OIC), owned by Uvalde and Carol Lindsey, and Johnson shared office space with the company staff. Scott VanLaningham also was employed by OIC and is now executive director of the airport authority. One of Johnson’s first duties was to develop the operational budget needed to sell bonds to build XNA. The airport authority already owned the property and had hired consultants who decided on the master plan. Johnson recalled that she worked with renderings of the proposed buildings to calculate expected expenses, such as how much electricity the airport would need to operate and what it would cost to purchase.
Kelly L. Johnson, A.A.E., formerly assistant manager at Drake Field in Fayetteville, Ark., is the first and only manager at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. For her, the past 10 years have been a combination of challenges to be surmounted and successes to be savored. But the job didn’t come with guarantees, and Johnson explained that she didn’t know whether the carriers would relocate from Drake Field to the new airport and whether XNA would succeed. “Drake Field had six nonstop markets,” she said. “My goal at XNA was to have 12 destinations in 10 years. We have 14 now, despite losing some service this year.” She set a personal goal of 500,000 passengers annually within 10 years. In 2007, XNA recorded just under 600,000 passengers. When XNA first opened, “I didn’t have a life, nor did our consulting team,” Johnson said. “We all worked 10 to 12 hours a day or more.” The decision for Johnson to take the airport manager’s position was made by her family as a group. “They understood the limits it would mean for me at home,” she explained. Johnson’s daughter Morgan was 16 at the time and son Brent was 13. Her husband Rick is administrator of the Washington County Health Department. “We worked out the home situation,” Johnson said.
xna
Being an Accredited Airport Executive (A.A.E.) was a determining factor in being hired as XNA director, Johnson said. The A.A.E. designation, awarded by the American Association of Airport Executives, indicates that an individual’s knowledge of the airport industry and management ability has been measured, tested and verified. “I earned my A.A.E. six years prior,” Johnson said. “I don’t believe I would have gotten a job interview at XNA without that. Having the A.A.E. was important because it taught me the concepts of how to build and staff an airport.” 4
SPECIAL SECTION
Even something as straightforward as selecting the airport’s three-letter identifier brought with it months of paperwork. FAA sent Johnson a list of available designators, and Johnson and the airport authority determined that XNA would be the best fit for the new airport. The “NA” would symbolize Northwest Arkansas, while the X could be used in promotional material, such as “the Xroads of America, or eXtra nice airport.” Johnson budgeted to hire 14 full-time employees. She contracted for five law enforcement officer (LEO) positions who were Benton County sheriff’s deputies and hired Wackenhut to staff the seven-person ARFF department. The airport now has its own LEO staff and fire department. The authority funded construction of the control tower and paid for its operation for the first six months. The tower then became part of FAA’s Contract Tower Program. “We did some unconventional things” during the start-up phase, Johnson explained. This included entering into a five-year agreement with the airlines that retained their old Drake Field rates and charges with a small adjustment. This agreement provided for a 45-cent landing fee per 1,000 pounds for five years. “Our money came from rental car and parking fees for the first five years,” Johnson said. “We also had an LOI from FAA for five