Let’s face it San Bernardino, Million Air is a boondoggle. Weak oversight and miniscule internal controls have left this sucker ripe for the plucking. And pluck they did.
Our elected officials should have turned it into a logistics airport instead. Supply chain management is one of the pieces of the Inland Empire’s strategic movement to becoming an economic powerhouse. However, strong and visionary leadership is required to pull off the quest to greatness.
San Bernardino has many assets that can transform this city into a more modern and robust city. We must leverage them.
I usually agree with you, William, but you could not be more wrong regarding San Bernardino International Airport and the Million Air executive terminal with its hangar-integrated office space. I think you've been hanging around Neil Derry, Jim Penman, and Wendy McCammack too long.
ReplyDeleteThe San Bernardino International Airport Authority will gain control of the executive terminal soon and will probably directly enter into a franchise-licensing agreement with Million Air Interlink eventually. So, San Bernardino gets the asset while Scot Spencer's creditors are the ones who are left holding the proverbial bags as the company files for bankruptcy protection. Almost all of the risk has been borne by private interests, and relatively-little local money has been used to finance the construction of the project. So, the citizens of the San Bernardino Valley should be celebrating the fact that the officials involved were able to get the international airport built in such a clever way.
A commitment to integrate the airport with the Metrolink and California High-Speed Rail system is now necessary. SCAG's 2008 Regional Transportation Plan projects 9.4 million passengers at SBD each year by 2030, and the access to non-stop flights from the facility is necessary for the eastern Inland Empire to attract and retain major employers, especially those like ESRI that are responsible for high-paying white-collar jobs.
But why use SBIA for high end folks? It just seems like an inefficient use of resouces, especially when the surrounding area is surrounded by logistics facilities.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for the boondoogle post is because this whole fisaco has been operating on autopilot, with little oversight from our elected officials.