MEET­ING MIN­UTES BUD­GET WORKSHOP

PANA­MA CITY ‑BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DISTRICT


The Bud­get Work­shop Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., Sep­tem­ber 3, 2026 by Chair Will Cramer.

Roll was called. In atten­dance were: Ms. Vic­to­ria Williams, Mr. Ben Lee, Ms. Hol­ly Melz­er, Mr. Mark Shel­don, Vice Chair Les McFat­ter, and Chair Will Cramer

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Vice Chair Les McFat­ter. The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Chair Will Cramer. 

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no pub­lic comments.

Pro­posed Bud­get Pre­sen­ta­tion and Review: Reports:

Airport Activity:

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan pre­sent­ed August pas­sen­ger activ­i­ty reports high­light­ing growth at approx­i­mate­ly 5.5%. The year-over-year com­par­i­son indi­cates steady growth with mar­ket share main­tained at 24% for the month.

Finan­cial:

Ms. Dar­lene Gor­don reviewed the finan­cials for July 31, 2026 stat­ing the total assets have increased $15.5 mil­lion from July oflast year, while total cash is up $7.5 mil­lion in the past twelve months. The total cash bal­ance at July 31, 2026 is $63.3 mil­lion, with unre­strict­ed cash equal to $38.4 mil­lion and restrict­ed cash total­ing $24.9 million.

The total lia­bil­i­ties at the end of July equal $36.0 mil­lion. Excess rev­enues over expens­es reflect a year-to-date total of $24.1 mil­lion, with oper­at­ing rev­enues over expens­es mak­ing up $11.0 mil­lion of the total and non-oper­at­ing rev­enues over expens­es equal­ing $13.1 million.

As of July 31, oper­at­ing rev­enues were 103% of bud­get while total oper­at­ing expens­es equal 94.9% of planned expen­di­tures. Year-over-year, oper­at­ing rev­enues are up $563,680.

Air­line Agree­ment:

Mr. McClel­lan reviewed the cur­rent Air­port-Air­line Use and Lease Agree­ment (AAULA) key points, stat­ing the third option to extend the lease begins Octo­ber 1, 2026 and will expire on Sep­tem­ber 30, 2028. Nego­ti­a­tions for a new agree­ment will begin next year.

2027 Bud­get Details:

Ms. Gor­don reviewed his­tor­i­cal Air­port finan­cial per­for­mance and reviewed the year-end ​“set­tle­ment” cal­cu­la­tion process. She explained that the cal­cu­la­tion, which is done at the com­ple­tion of the audit, deter­mines the amount which the air­lines are refund­ed (or billed) for the recal­cu­lat­ed rates (a ​”true-up”.) Also includ­ed in the year-end cal­cu­la­tion is an amount of rev­enue shar­ing, which is a por­tion of net income allo­cat­ed to the air­lines based on lan­guage in theAAULA.

Ms. Gor­don also dis­cussed how rev­enue shar­ing and set­tle­ment affect the costs to the air­lines, and that the year-end cal­cu­la­tion and pay­ment results in the air­lines’ cost of doing busi­ness at ECP being sub­stan­tial­ly reduced. She stat­ed that it is our desire to increase non-aero­nau­ti­cal rev­enue as much as pos­si­ble in order to low­er the costs to the air­lines, which will fos­ter our part­ner­ships, as well as be a pos­i­tive attrac­tion to new air carriers.

High­lights for the pro­posed FY 2027 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Bud­get were pre­sent­ed. Includ­ed in the dis­cus­sion were land­ed weight, which is esti­mat­ed to be up 9.8% over FY 2026, enplaned pas­sen­gers, which are bud­get­ed to be up 7.5%, oper­at­ing expens­es that reflect an increase of 4.4% over last year, and oper­at­ing rev­enues, which are pro­posed to increase 2.8%.

In regards to rev­enues in the pro­posed bud­get ver­sus the cur­rent year’s bud­get, air­line rev­enues show an increase of2.7%, rental car rev­enue is up 5.9%, both the ter­mi­nal com­plex and gen­er­al avi­a­tion show an increase of 1.9%, while oth­er rev­enue reflects a decrease of 4.3%.

The pro­posed oper­at­ing expens­es for FY 2027 increased by 4.4%, with per­son­nel costs 6.0% high­er and oth­er gen­er­al oper­at­ing expens­es up 2.5%. A sum­ma­ry of the bud­get­ed expens­es by type and depart­ment was presented.

Mr. McClel­lan dis­cussed bud­get increas­es for per­son­nel, includ­ing the recent addi­tion of a Bud­get Man­ag­er posi­tion and the chang­ing of an IT posi­tion from part-time to full-time.

Dis­cus­sion ensued and the Board request­ed two addi­tion­al employ­ees for 2027, a Con­struc­tion Accoun­tant and Con­struc­tion Contract/​Procurement employ­ee with a focus on ongo­ing con­struc­tion projects.

Ms. Beth Har­less reviewed cap­i­tal equip­ment bud­get­ing items, explain­ing each item and report­ing which depart­ment had request­ed each of the items.

Mr. Richard McConnell pre­sent­ed the FY 2027 cap­i­tal projects bud­get, detail­ing each project and giv­ing infor­ma­tion as to his­to­ry, cur­rent sta­tus and future plan­ning for each item.

The esca­la­tor project was men­tioned and the Board agreed to defer the project to a lat­er date. The Board fur­ther request­ed a com­pen­sa­tion study be con­duct­ed in FY 2027 as well as an employ­ee morale survey.

Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ed images of cur­rent and future projects and focused on a North Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion Project update.

Ms. Gor­don end­ed the pre­sen­ta­tion by review­ing the pro­posed rates, includ­ing the ter­mi­nal rental rate, land­ing fee, and pro­posed CPE. The ter­mi­nal rate is pro­posed to increase 4.5% to $88.65 per square foot, the land­ing fee is pro­posed to decrease 8.1% to $4.44, and the CPE is pro­posed to decrease by 3.1% to $4.62.

There were no addi­tion­al comments.

Next meet­ing sched­uled: Sep­tem­ber 23, 2026 — Reg­u­lar Board Meet­ing The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 11:08 a.m.

Park­er W. McClel­lan, Jr., AAE Exec­u­tive Director

Will C. Cramer III, Chair