Northern Kentucky’s largest economic driver has a new CEO.
On Cincinnati Edition, we talk to the new head of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport about infrastructure projects and the customer feedback he’s getting.
Plus, we look at the pivotal role the airport has played in our region over time, and we'll discuss a recent announcement by American Airlines that it is adding new daily flights.
Guests:
- Larry Krauter, CEO, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
- Brent Cooper, president, Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
You can read a full transcript of the conversation below.
Beginning at noon, call 513-419-7100 or email talk@wvxu.org to have your voice heard on this topic. You can catch a recorded replay at 8 p.m.
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For millions of people each year, the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport is a gateway to family trips, dream vacations and important business deals with an economic impact of billions of dollars on the local economy. Now the airport has a new CEO. This is Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. I'm Lucy May, joining me now to talk about what's ahead for CVG and what the airport means for the region are CVG CEO, Larry Krauter and Northern Kentucky Chamber president, Brent Cooper.
Larry, you've been the CEO of CVG for a little over eight months now. So not brand new, but still kind of new. What was your top priority when you started the job?
Larry: Top priority when I started the job Lucy was to make sure that I went out into the community and really got to know our partners and sitting right next to one of my most significant partners, Brent Cooper from NKY Chamber, but also just had a remarkable as I told the board in my first several months, it was going to be burning a lot of shoe leather and just getting around the community, interacting with our partners, understanding how we've worked together, and setting goals together. So NKY Chamber, Cincy Chamber, Reddie, BNKY. But other groups too, like United Way, ArtsWave, Blink, visited the Findlay kitchen as well University of Cincinnati, NKU, 1819 Innovation Hub. So just a lot of moving around the community, interacting with our partners.
So what did you hear from all those folks about what was working well and what needed improvement at the airport?
Larry: I think probably the most encouraging theme that I heard from all of the partners was the understanding of CVG as an economic engine in our region, and wanting to lean in, to be helpful, to work with us, to advance our air service, to advance our employment, large employment center, as you know, all of those things they were really leaning into and had a really good understanding of the importance of it, and The importance of the collaboration and and our network working together.
Yeah, Brent, how important is the airport to Northern Kentucky? I mean, how intertwined is the airport's health and success to the health and success of the region?
Brent: It's critical. And Larry just articulated it as he's been visiting with the community leaders. They all say the same thing, same thing I'm about to say, which is, you know, the economic engine for Northern Kentucky and for all of Cincinnati, my opinion, is the airport, and we all speak to it. Part of my role as chamber president is we try to promote business growth and improved economy in Northern Kentucky is to help to connect those dots for people so they understand a small business or a large business ultimately, is impacted by what happens in and around the airport, and that's why we have to continuously support that kind of investment. And you know, make make extra efforts to get involved and engage is it is critical to our collective success.
Well, we're talking about what's ahead for the Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky International Airport, and what CVG means for the region, do you have questions or comments? We already have a caller on the line. Hi, Greg, thanks so much for calling. What's your question or comment?
Caller: Hello, yes, this is a kind of a minor issue for the airport, but I think an important one, there is a cell phone lot, which a lot of people use, waiting for someone to call them for baggage claim, and then they can go pick them up, you know, families and so on. Wait out there until somebody arrives. And of course, there's inevitably flight delays and so on. And they end up in that lot for quite a while. And it seems to me that a first class airport would have restroom facilities there that are first class rather than a couple of nasty port-o-lets.
That's okay. Well, thanks, Greg. I appreciate that. I know that I certainly use that cell phone lot. I was a great innovation. I thought when the airport opened it, what about the bathroom facilities there? Larry, is that something you all are looking at?
Larry: I can't agree more with Greg's comment. The cell phone lot, really, from our perspective, is in an interim location, and we want to move it to an area where. We can really say this is really more or less going to be the permanent location of the cell phone lot. And once we do that, I think Greg and others that use the cell phone lot are going to be very happy, because we will have first class facilities, I promise.
Do you have a time frame for that when you're looking to move it?
Larry: Not yet. We have some work to do in the terminal area around roadway and parking lot planning, as well as cargo related planning in the northwest quadrant of the airport. And so we need to take all of those things into consideration so we don't keep moving a lot around for the customers. We want to make sure we land exactly where we intend to be for a really long time.
Okay, well, thanks for that call, Greg. We sure appreciate it. We have another caller on the line. It's Laura. Hey, Laura, thanks for calling. What's your question?
Caller: I was just wondering if there are any plans or discussions in the works to correct our re entry process of customs at our airport the last time we traveled internationally, my husband and I were being yelled at to throw away our water that we had from the plane. They were making people throw away medications that they needed. We were screamed at by TSA, and we were actually home, so we weren't going through any other processes. I had emailed the past director about this, and she just said it was the way that it was designed, but there's something has to be changed, and how embarrassing it is to be a traveler back to our own city.
Thanks, Laura, this is something we were chatting a little bit about before the show started. Larry, you want to address that absolutely.
Larry: Laura, first of all, I am apologetic that the TSA treated you the way in which you described, and that's important for me to be able to take back to the Federal Security Director and talk about customer service. So thank you for pointing that out. I think the other issue is that as I've moved around the community, I can remember being at the Winter house opening in Fountain Square and meeting people who had had a similar experience that Laura had. And what I've indicated is that the prior, the prior response to that Laura received is true is that the the Federal Inspection facilities are out in the B Concourse, and those were built because, really the intent was to connect so people were intending to, you know, the airline was going to fly you in, connect you through that facility so that you never left the airport. It really wasn't designed for what we call an origin and destination airport. And so we have to move forward and ultimately build a new Federal Inspection facility in a location that is more convenient, and we don't have this recheck requirement that Laura mentioned.
Brent: And if I if I could just add to that, from the chamber of commerce perspective and the rest of the business community, we fully support that investment, and we've been talking about making our airport competitive against other airports around the country that do offer better facilities, like that international arrival system. And so for us to be able to tout that, I think will be easier for us to get the next British Air flight, the next Delta flight, direct flight to France. So, you know, for us to have those opportunities, we have to make that investment. And so that's part of our advocacy platform.
But that sounds like it'd be a big investment. That's a lot of money, isn't it Larry?
Larry: A big investment, definitely Lucy, but an important and strategic investment that our community needs to move forward with.
Thanks so much for your call, Laura. It sounds like Larry and the other folks know that that's a problem, and they're working on it. So thank you. We appreciate that. We also got an email from Nicholas. Nicholas writes, will there ever be better transit options between downtown Cincinnati and CVG? Maybe bus, rapid transit or train? I'm going to ask you about this Brent, but I will say to Nicholas, I learned last year that there is an express bus route, a tank bus route that leaves from the Fountain Square area for two bucks. You go from Fountain Square to or government square, I guess, to the airport with no stops. So I Northern Kentucky native didn't know that was there, but that's there. Brent, have you heard any other discussions about things like that?
Brent: Well, yeah, this is an ongoing conversation that's been going on for quite some time. What are some strategies? I'm really glad you brought up the Express Route, because with both Metro and tank, you know, those are the types of things that they're trying to do to streamline the process. But you know, we've talked about other mechanisms, like like train and other options over the course of time, expense is always the thing that gets in the way. As we're talking about a major infrastructure upgrade with the Brent Spence bridge trains always seem to come up, but we haven't yet found a way to make that investment as a community, or at least get to come to terms with how we would grapple with the cost of that and so Larry, I don't know if you have anything to add, but it is something we talk about pretty regularly.
Larry: I'm really happy that Nicholas emailed this in because. There are conversations, as Brent mentioned, around bus rapid transit, and we know that Metro is doing a really good job over the next couple of years of building some of those really significant BRT routes. And I think the logical extension of that is to talk about what's next after those BRT routes are completed, which will be about 2027 from what I understand. And I know that City Councilman Jeffries and others are very interested in talking about what's next. And those conversations are beginning now, and I think it's going to be really positive ultimately, but I would say, back to Nicholas's questions. I think BRT is really the more practical and more shorter term objective that we can work on.
Well, let's talk about some of the improvements that you've got in the works. Larry tell us about the terminal redevelopment project and what that will mean for people using the airport.
Larry: Well, back to Laura's point. The fundamentals of the way that the terminal was built was as a connecting hub. And so a lot of the work that we're focusing on now is somewhat fundamental in that we just have an older facility. Now we have some aging facilities, the things that I call out that are behind the wall that we need to look at and make sure that we are not bypassing those things. But we also want to upgrade the customer experience. And you know, have modernized restrooms, better finishes in the terminal take more advantage of natural light. And also, I think one of the things that listeners are going to really appreciate is that we're going to take an opportunity to tell the story of our region in the terminal building much more than we do today. And as I said to people, if you can imagine yourself coming up the escalators into the bee concourse. Today, we have this remarkable opportunity. And right now, we give you Sunglass Hut and the mastodon. And I think that when we look at these opportunities, that, to me, is like a town square, we have a really great opportunity to tell the story of our region and imprint that, particularly for people who are coming home, it's a welcome home, but also to tell the story of our community and make those important first and last impressions on people who are visiting here. So a big part of that is going to be focused on telling our story as a community and really, really imparting a sense of place to the experience of the terminal, in addition to all the things you would expect us to do, like replacing the elevators and escalators and replacing restrooms and reconfiguring all of those types of things, it will it will be remarkable, because today what you see when you come into the terminal building, it will be much different, and it's going to be a much easier, convenient and I think it's going to be a really impressive passenger experience.
Brent, before the break, we were talking about these plans to kind of redevelop the terminal. Did you want to chime in on that, too?
Brent: Yeah, I was just going to say, if you spoke with Lee Croom, who heads up our economic development, he would tell you the number one issue in Northern Kentucky and all of Cincinnati is growing, attracting, retaining talent. The airport is our front door. And Julie Kirkpatric of Meet NKY, who heads up our tourism efforts, she would say the exact same thing. That would be music to her ears as you come into our airport to have it tell our story of all the arts, all the sports, all the wonderful amenities our community has to offer. It really does lead to attracting and retaining talent in the long run. And you know, we are Northern Kentucky represents 20% of the tourism for the state of Kentucky. The airport is a huge, again, economic driver, not just for manufacturing and logistics, but also for tourism and all the other industries, financial it and otherwise. So, yeah, I'm really excited to hear all the things that are coming to the airport. It's going to make a huge difference for all of our quality of life.
Yeah, well, we got an email from Ben, who writes, I fly through CVG about three times a month. I'm always super disappointed when I arrive after about 8pm most all the shops and restaurants are closed and the trams are either not working or On Demand mode, which takes forever. In addition, I frequently arrived into the baggage claim area to find overflowing trash cans and bathrooms in a condition that are worse than a gas station. Is this a staffing issue? Will the number with the number of travelers arriving in the evening. Why is the airport not more prepared for this? Well, Ben has some concerns, obviously. Larry, can you take on any of those that he's raised?
Larry: Absolutely. Lucy and first of all, three times a month, that's a really significant user of the airport, getting a lot of looks at the facility different times of the day and night. First of all, we are striving to try to bring as much service forward as we can. The challenge is, the airport's operational day, it can be in excess of 20 hours. And if you're a small business trying to figure out how to staff your operation. It doesn't help that we are an airport that has significant peaks and valleys during the course of that operational day, so a massive amount of people coming through very early, and then, as Ben points out, a number of people coming through very late at night. So we're always trying to figure out, when is it uneconomic to stay open for these providers, and when most people are de planing, they're not necessarily looking to stop and eat, they're looking to get their luggage or get out to the parking lot and go on home. And so we're constantly trying to figure out that that right offerings hours wise. But I also say we try to also augment that with really good vending machines, like in the welcome Point area as well, and making that as convenient as possible to begin to offset some of those hours of operations. And with regard to baggage claim and restrooms. I think that's an issue for us to take up with our contractors and also with the airline ground handling companies as well. And I think Ben does have a point that particularly we have seen some operational disappointments because of staffing of the ground handler operation. In many respects, a lot of folks think that's us, by the way, Lucy that we are responsible for everything out there. And I always respond to say, If only, yeah, you just get the blame right in many instances. And it's, you know, people do struggle with that because they don't understand how segmented that is in their journey, but it's important feedback for us, so I really appreciate the email.
Yeah, and we have another caller on the line. It's Kara. Hi, Kara, Thanks for your call. What's your question?
Caller: Some time ago, they switched the drop off point from the Remote Parking if you get on the bus. You come in to get your flight. And people I know in my family, actually with disabilities, find that down the down the ramp from baggage claim a really difficult place to get dropped off. Used to be that you could get dropped off right in front of the terminal. I'll hang up and listen.
Okay, thanks, Kara. Is that something you've heard concerns about Larry?
Larry: Not significant concerns that I've heard Lucy. I appreciate Kara bringing that to our attention. Obviously familiar with the area and making sure that ramps are not overly steep for people trying to navigate them, especially coming back up from the drop off points, but it's good information for us to have so that we're making sure that we can still do convenient drop offs curbside for everyone.
Okay, and we got a question from Carrie that's similar saying for decades, the off site parking for the airport and the commercial off site parking picked up and dropped off passengers at the entrance to the terminal or baggage claim, and the redesign is a little bit different. Is that? Was that a necessity in terms of changing how that worked at the airport?
Larry: Yes, and it goes back to how the airport was laid out. Again, Lucy is that we just don't have enough curbside capacity to allow all of that to sort of free flow, and so organizing it around these these specific pickup and drop off points, allows us to manage that curbside as efficiently as possible. But understand Carrie's point.
We've gotten so much interest from our listeners in this we might have to have you all back for a part two, but I do want to talk about Brent. Anybody who's lived here for a while remembers when the airport appeared regularly on the lists for highest airfares, and that's a whole different case now, right?
Brent: It really is. You and I met Lucy when I had moved to Covington years ago, and at that time, we were the most expensive airport in the country. And when I joined the Chamber of Commerce board of directors, that was the case, I remember vividly having to go to Dallas for work for on a Tuesday, and it was $900 and we were talking about how wonderful it was with that we had the direct flights, but being the most expensive for most small businesses and most of our citizens, we were driving to Dayton, Lexington, Louisville, Indianapolis and so forth. Now the reverse happens. I just got back from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On the flight out, there was a gentleman sitting next to me, an IT guy who lives in Versailles, Kentucky. He's literally five minutes from the Bluegrass airport, but he drove to Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, because he had a direct flight and it was cheaper. And this is what we hear all too often. This is why I was speaking earlier about growing, attracting and retaining talent. The airport has such a big impact on that, and people see that, and it impacts our quality of life. So we are now the 78th so even though Cincinnati is in the top 33 I think markets, we're 78th in cost, and that's been a lot due to the amount of cargo that we now do, and that's lowered landing flights and allowed us to attract some additional carriers, and that's been a wonderful development for everyone here in the Greater Cincinnati area, in my opinion.
Yeah, that's one of those lists where you want to be a very low number instead of very high numbers, right? Larry, is affordability still a big focus at the airport?
Larry: Absolutely, and that's a great point. Lucy, I think that we have worked very hard over the last decade, really, to diversify the service offerings with our airline partners. And I think that diversification has been really good for the region. As Brent points out, it has allowed fares to become much more competitive consumer choice. You have every potential travel choice. I think that really is available in the United States today in terms of the types of carriers to fly on. But I think this year coming up is really going to be a network, what we will call a network optimization year. I think some of the ads that you mentioned previously by American Of course, we have the British Airways service that is going on to a larger aircraft with more frequency, beginning March 29 as well as additional service from southwest to Chicago, Austin, Nashville and Allegiant service to Orange County, as well as 10% increase in seat capacity from Delta Airlines. So I think we are continuing to do well in terms of attracting all the types of different carriers to the airport, offering more seats and more destinations. And obviously that's just an ongoing process of working hard to retain what we have and then making the case for the airlines for new service.
We do have Susan on the line. Hey, Susan, thanks for. Calling. Could you give your comment very quickly, in 10 or 15 seconds?
Caller: I just wanted to say recently returned from total 21 hour flight schedule from the other side of the world on a vacation and arriving in the Cincinnati airport late at night, it was actually quite pleasant. The bathrooms were clean. Our luggage was waiting for us at the carousel. It was fun to see the dinosaurs again. It really felt great to be home, even though the shops were closed and there wasn't anything that we wanted to stop and try and get out of a vending machine. In spite of the improvements that need to be made, we were really glad to be home in Cincinnati. So CBG, was pretty welcoming experience for us.
Well, great Thanks, Susan, that's great to hear. Very quickly Brent.
Brent: Just to say that's been my experience as well. And I travel quite a bit, we are super proud of our airport when we come back in. I realize there are issues from time to time, but it's wonderful that someone else is recognizing that as well, because it's a wonderful amenity for our community.
Yeah, well, gosh, we do have so much more. We could be talking about Larry, but we're running out of time. I guess I need to wrap this up. And really, we do need to try to have you back. I've been talking with CVG CEO Larry Krauter and Northern Kentucky Chamber President Brent Cooper. Thank you both so much for your time today and for your willingness to take all these questions and listen to what people have to say.