People are living in hangars at Shreveport Downtown Airport, FAA says

A land-use report conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration has identified longstanding problems at the Shreveport Downtown Airport that could threaten future federal funding for the airport.

The airport is operating at a loss, people appear to be living in hangars in violation of FAA policy, and the airport authority has failed to enforce rules and regulations, according to the report.

An FAA representative presented the report findings Thursday. The presentation followed nearly a year of fighting between tenants who rent or own hangars at the downtown airport and airport officials.

Airport representatives say they have tried to fix the problems. They say they are trying to run the airport as a business, making up for budget shortfalls and enforcing rules spelled out by the FAA.

Tenants counter that the airport is violating their property rights.

The FAA report was presented to members of the Shreveport Airport Authority, which manages the downtown airport and the Shreveport Regional Airport, and to City Attorney William Bradford, Chief Administrative Officer Brian Crawford and Mayor Ollie Tyler. Gary Loftus, airports compliance program manager with the FAA's Southwest Region, presented the findings.

The 16-page-document highlights findings during an FAA inspection done Feb. 27 through March 1. The inspection was conducted after the FAA saw what appeared to a "home" on the airport during a July visit, Loftus said.

"That was a direct violation of the non-aeronautical use of airport hangars policy," he said.

Long-standing problems

Many of the problems found in the report, Loftus said, date to the early days of the airport.

"The issues I'm going to be addressing I found to be ... more than 30 years old," Loftus said.

The FAA claims that the downtown airport's rules and regulations are not being enforced, with negative impact on the airport's ability to generate revenue.

While sample commercial and non-commercial leases provided by the airport met FAA standards, the report states that the airport had not required tenants to comply with the lease terms.

"The Airport sponsor does not appear to maintain adequate control of the Shreveport Downtown Airport evidenced by the lack of enforcement with airport minimum standards," according to the report.

Another finding: the airport's failure to take ownership of or remove privately built hangars on airport property has hurt its ability to generate revenue. Seventy privately built hangars should have reverted to city ownership or been removed, according to the report.

Instead of raising the rental rates on these 70 hangars, the price for the hangars now on month-to-month leases is about $100 per month. Hangar rental rates normally are higher, the report says.

"The failure to exercise this reversion clause, or implement a suitable lease alternative seriously affects the ability of the airport to generate revenue necessary for airport needs," the report says.

Hangar tenants resist changes

Tenants, the report goes on to say, refuse to honor reversion clauses that would give the hangars to the city.

The last increase in rates occurred in 2011, and nearly 100 aircraft are operating on the airport without charge while the airport continues to operate in the red, the report states.

The inability to generate funds "do not appear to meet the obligatory requirements for a federally obligated airport and could impact future grant funding," according to the report.

The airport is supposed to be run as self-sustaining as possible, according to obligations spelled out by the FAA. The obligations are put in place when organizations accept funds from FAA-administered airport financial assistance programs.

The FAA report seems to shed light on issues fought over by airport managers and tenants over the past year. The disagreements date to June 2017 when Airport Director Henry Thompson sent a letter to tenants about lease changes.

In the letter, Thompson stated that the airport authority had reviewed hangar leases to ensure they met federal guidelines. Lease revisions were to be made "in the best interest of the airport and the tenants while promoting financial self-sufficiency," Thompson wrote. The letter also addressed the proposed reversion of property to the airport.

"Shreveport has not been in compliance with this requirement and has offered very liberal rates for leases and services for several years," Thompson wrote at the time. "This has resulted in financial challenges to meet essential operations cost and obligations to maintain expand or improve airport facilities."

Thompson and airport staff proposed changes to airport rules and regulations that addressed issues brought up in the FAA report, including hangar-use policies. The airport authority board approved the changes at Thursday's meeting.

Run more like a business

In interviews conducted prior to the presentation of the audit Thursday, Thompson said he and other airport managers are trying to run the regional and downtown airports as a business.

"We have to function like a business enterprise," Thompson said. "We receive no general fund, no local tax dollars to help us run either airport. All the revenues generated on the airport have to be sufficient to cover the operating costs of each of the individual airports."

Thompson said Thursday that the Downtown Airport had a $150,000 budget deficit in 2018.

"All combined, we have a pretty significant issue or gap that we have to address," Thompson said.

Laurel Rice Brightwell, a Shreveport real estate agent whose father owns a hangar at the airport, has advocated for tenants. In an interview before Thursday's presentation, she said airport managers' attempts to claim ownership of privately built hangars is unconstitutional.

"This is a slippery slope," Brightwell said. "There are existing laws that say municipalities cannot take private property ... unless it is for public or quasi-public use and that you have to compensate the owner fair market value."

The reversion clause without just compensation, she said, is a violation of property rights.

"What would stop them from taking other property at that point," she said. "You're heading down to communism at that point."

The report also touched on several other issues at the downtown airport.

One offense was allowing people to reside in "hangar homes" — in direct violation of the FAA's hangar use policy, according to the report.

Beds, dog runs, storage in hangars

"Tenant leaseholds were used as storage areas, recreation areas, dog runs and residences," the report says. "Although there is a waiting list for T-hangars, one of the hangars evaluated was found to be full of non-aeronautical items."

During the FAA's visit, a bed mattress was delivered to a hangar, said Loftus, the FAA representative.

"There are several residences or the appearance of several residences on the airport," the report says.

Loftus said during the Thursday presentation that hangar homes were an egregious violation of FAA regulations.

Loftus also complimented the mayor's office and airport officials for being forthcoming and open during the reporting process.

The airport authority must submit plans to the FAA aimed at correcting the issues outlined in the report by Aug. 1.

Brightwell found several things in the presentation hopeful and said she looked forward to reading the report.

"I do think that rules and regulations ... do need to be enacted," she said. "I think that entire document needs to be reviewed and make sure they are all up to date and that it's all fair and it makes sense to both the tenant and the city."

Brightwell said she is crafting a letter to President Donald Trump about the federal private property rights issues and the "opinionated" interpretations of the FAA manual surrounding the airport.

Following the presentation, Thompson said the audit identified long-time concerns of the airport authority.

"We have been aware of this and we had attempted to begin to address these more than a year ago, but we had not made a lot of progress," Thompson said. "We have a lot of work to do."

Thompson said the airport has been explaining the coming changes to tenants for more than a year. Rent increases are going to happen, he said.

"This is a common theme," Thompson said. "Their interpretations of those requirements and obligations have been different from ours for the past year.

"The report will speak for itself."