Contact: Matthew Brelis or Danny Levy
Massport Board Votes $300 Million Budget for ConRAC In Other Action Search for CEO Proceeds with Screening Committee Formed
BOSTON – The Massachusetts Port Authority Board today approved a $300 million budget for a Consolidated Rental Car facility for Boston Logan International Airport. The four-level garage and customer service building, located in the Southwest Service Area of the airport, will enhance customer service, ease airport roadway and terminal curbside congestion, and replace rental car diesel buses with clean, alternative fuel buses.
The ConRAC will place all rental car companies operating on the airport in one convenient location and reduce the rental car bus fleet and Massport shuttle buses from more than 100 to 28, dramatically reducing vehicle emissions, terminal curbside congestion and improve customer service by serving both the arriving level roadway and the departure level roadway.
“This represents an important investment in building a better Logan,’’ said Thomas J. Kinton Jr., Massport’s CEO & Executive Director. “The ConRAC will be LEED silver and will have solar panels that will produce at least 2.5 percent of the building’s electrical needs. Not only will the new unified bus system improve air quality through alternative fuels, it will reduce emissions by cutting congestion and dwell times at the terminal curbs. It also represents a significant improvement in customer service, because departing passengers will be dropped off on the upper level and a separate bus loop will pick up arriving passengers on the lower level.’’
The project is expected to create 180 full time construction positions and support some 1,500 jobs in design, manufacturing and related industries that will supply materials for the ConRAC. Funding to construct this new facility will come from a mix of revenue bonds, an existing Customer Facility Charge, a Massport loan, and a Federal Aviation Administration Voluntary Airport Low Emissions AIP grant which covers some of the purchase price of alternative fuel buses. The buses will be built by Anniston, Ala.-based North American Bus Industries, Inc. and will also service the MBTA’s Blue Line Airport T Station. The ConRAC is scheduled to open in late 2013.
In other action, the Board voted to have a screening committee interact with Boyden Global Executive Search as the selection of a new CEO & Executive Director proceeds. Massport finalized the formal job description for the position, which will be posted on massport.com and in industry publications.
The vote to create the screening committee is the most recent step to find a replacement for Kinton, who is expected to retire on or about June 1, 2011.
The screening committee will recommend a slate of finalists for the full board to consider. The full Board will ultimately select the next CEO and determine compensation based on the candidate’s experience. No state tax dollars are used to fund salaries, operations or capital improvements at Massport facilities.
The screening committee is also tasked with identifying an interim CEO candidate, if one is needed.
Massport owns and operates Boston Logan International Airport, public cargo and cruise terminals in the Port of Boston, Hanscom Field and Worcester Regional Airport. Massport is a financially self-sustaining public authority whose premier transportation facilities generate more than $8 billion annually, and enhance and enable economic growth and vitality in New England.
Boston Logan, 15 minutes from the intersection of Route 128 and I-90 and five minutes from downtown Boston, serves as the gateway to the New England region and offers nonstop service to 70 domestic and 32 international destinations and in 2010 handled 27.4 million passengers. Boston Logan is the Air Line Pilot Association’s Airport of the Year for 2008 because of its commitment to safety. Over the past decade, the airport spent $4.5 billion on a modernization program that includes new terminals, parking facilities, roadways and airport concessions, and has been transformed into a world-class 21st Century facility. The airport generates $7 billion in total economic impact each year. www.facebook.com/bostonlogan or www.facebook.com/cruiseportboston and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bostonlogan or www.twitter.com/cruiseboston .