ASHEVILLE — Somewhere, there's a wish list of destinations. Airport officials won't tip their hand about which cities are on it, they say for competitive reasons. But every so often and more frequently of late, they'll call it out when a new flight from Asheville is heading somewhere most desirable.

Just in the last year, Washington, Dallas and Denver routes have been on the list. Roughly the same period also brought new service to Philadelphia, New York City, Detroit and three new Florida destinations.

And it's hardly an accident. Like the city that shares its name, the Asheville Regional Airport is expanding its profile, a result attributed to increased attraction to the region's natural assets and industry, as well as targeted tourism marketing efforts.

What's come of it is a 67 percent increase in passenger service in the past five years, making it one of the fastest-growing airports in the country. Last year, after 58 years, it crossed the million-passenger mark.

The airport also puts a lot of lines in the water, said airport spokeswoman Tina Kinsey.

"(We want) to understand what the business travelers need and what — from a tourism perspective — makes sense for our region," Kinsey said in a March 14 interview. "This is not throwing darts at a dart board of a map.

"A lot of the new routes, we have have checked a lot of the boxes on a wish list."

Dillon Davis reports on Asheville's growth and development, including news on Asheville Regional Airport. Don't miss a story — become a full-access subscriber here.

But with growth comes growing pains.

Asheville's airport in the coming years needs to double its 113,000-square-foot terminal to meet current and future needs of the travelers and airlines it serves, officials said. And that comes at a cost: Early estimates place the project between $150 million and $200 million — far more than Project SOAR, a five-year, $75 million effort to construct a new runway with airfield lighting that wraps this year.

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Ahead is a financing hurdle that Lew Bleiweis, the airport's executive director, hopes to clear by pushing to raise the federal cap on airport upgrade fees by 89 percent to $8.50. The difference roughly doubles the revenue the airport receives from passenger facility charges, which are remitted by airlines for the maintenance of airports.

Bleiweis said the airport and its managing body, the Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority, would use the additional funding to pay down millions of expected principal and interest payments each year for the terminal expansion, which they said they believe is a needed asset.

"Hopefully we’ll be able to get there," he said. "Right now, in doing rough math we’ve done internally, we’re about $2 million to $3 million short to be able to make that revenue or debt service payment.

"By raising the (passenger facility charges), it takes care of that gap and we can afford to move forward with our terminal project."

Dollars and sense

Asheville's airport is far from alone in its capital project needs.

A report last month by Airports Council International-North America, a trade association representing commercial service airports, found U.S. airports require more than $128 billion in infrastructure upgrades by 2023. Terminal projects make up the largest share — some 56 percent — of the needs of all airports in the next four years.

North Carolina's 11 commercial service airports have $4.2 billion in infrastructure needs in the same time period, with the potential to create about 91,000 new jobs, the report shows.

But the report also calls out budget shortfalls related to PFCs, a fee tacked onto the cost of a commercial airline ticket that is capped at $4.50 per flight segment. Airports with a PFC program are able to use the funding on "projects that enhance safety, security, or capacity; reduce noise; or increase air carrier competition," per the Federal Aviation Administration.

The problem? That funding is constrained at airports like Asheville's until 2024. At the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, it's tied up until 2031.

"Modestly adjusting the outdated federal cap on local PFCs would allow airports to take control of their own investment decisions and become more financially self-sufficient," the report reads.

In the current fiscal year, the Asheville airport's average monthly revenue is about $914,559 and its expenses average out to $801,411. It draws annual operating revenues from terminal space rentals, parking and concessions, among others.

Of nonoperating revenue, it primarily takes in both PFCs — for which it has budgeted $1.85 million annually — and customer facility charges, a fee imposed on rental car users.

The airport's budget office projects a deficit in its cash balance in June 2020, the result of which is related to "projected expenditures for the terminal rehabilitation and expansion," by that time in the amount of $25 million. That is mostly the result of the airport not yet confirming its funding sources for the project, though it is anticipating a mix of bonds as well as state and federal grants.

What the airport is experiencing is fairly common, said Pamella Seay, a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University and chairman of the Charlotte County Airport Authority, which manages the Punta Gorda Airport in Florida.

Seay, who teaches airport law, said the Asheville airport, like Punta Gorda, is in a "good position" because it's a growth market that caters well to tourists. For reference, Punta Gorda drew 1.57 million passengers in 2018 — up 22 percent from the previous year — to Asheville's 1.12 million passengers.

All of the Florida airport's passengers come from Allegiant Airlines flights, whereas Asheville hosts six carriers: Allegiant, American Airlines, Delta, Elite Airways, Spirit and United.

But Seay notes that keeping a growing airport on the up and up can be a "challenge," and her airport has responded by being "very conservative" in its spending. That may be something for Asheville to consider as well, she said.

"Asheville is big and growing exponentially, which is great," she said. "You need to be careful about spending too much money too fast and certainly be careful not to get into debt. No matter stable your airlines might be, they may not be there forever."

'When you're home, you're home'

To raise the passenger facility charge, it takes an act of Congress. Bleiweis said he's had discussions with Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, and Rick Larsen, D-Washington, both of whom sit on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and support raising the fee.

In a March 26 hearing, DeFazio said raising the fee "supports local decisions about what is best for airports and their surrounding communities." He also blasted major commercial airlines, which historically have opposed the increase on the basis that increasing the fee would lower the demand for air travel.

It has not been raised since jumping to the $4.50 cap in 2000.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved in 2017 a bipartisan proposal to raise the cap to $8.50, but it went no further.

"We need more terminals, more runways and taxiways," DeFazio said. "And without an increase in the PFC, who bears the brunt? Passengers. They end up paying basically double for a project and wait years longer than necessary for project completion."

The impact of raising the fee could discourage casual travelers — particularly those using low-cost options like Spirit or Southwest Airlines — from flying nearly as often, Seay said. But it's not the only fee increasing for travelers. In 2018, several airlines including American, Delta and United raised checked baggage fees, a rise DeFazio said airlines disregard when discussing the law of supply and demand.

But Seay said it's still worth considering.

"Business travelers are not going to care one way or the other," she said. "Where it’s going to hit the pocketbook is the casual, tourist traveler. Those are the ones that fly into Asheville. Those are the ones that fly into my little airport. Those are the ones that fly into Rockford and some of the smaller airports around."

The airport plans to start construction on the terminal expansion in mid-to-late 2021, Bleiweis said. It is expected to be a roughly four-year project that officials argue would be beneficial to the community for years to come. In the near future, the airport plans to add comment boards in the terminal for passengers to add input on how the expansion should go.

"We need our community to continue to use our airport and think of us first," he said. "I like to say when you're home, you're home. It's easy to fly out of another airport when you're leaving; it's coming home — you fly, you land, you're tired — and to be 15 minutes from home is nice.

"We just want to be able to provide to the community what they're looking for."