Colorado Springs, Colo., Airport Hopes to Refinance Bonds
By Wayne Heilman, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Mar. 1–The Colorado Springs Airport hopes to save $300,000 a year by refinancing $11.8 million in bonds next month that were originally issued 11 years ago.
The savings would allow the airport to cut fees it charges to airlines by up to 15 cents per passenger, or about 2.2 percent of the $6.75 carriers paid last year, Gisela Shanahan, the airport’s assistant director of finance and administration, said Wednesday.
As a result, airlines are expected to pay about a penny less per passenger this year compared with 2006 as the interest savings more than offsets a 2.5 percent increase in operations and maintenance costs included in the airport’s budget, Shanahan said.
The bonds are expected to be sold April 9 by Piper Jaffray & Co. to institutional investors and will be insured against default, which means the bonds will carry the top rating by the nation’s bond-rating agencies. The airport has $46.6 million in bonds remaining to be paid. The Colorado Springs City Council is scheduled to vote March 13 on the refinancing plan.
The new issue will refinance bonds issued in 1996 to pay for adding 3,000 parking spaces, toll plazas, road widening and a corridor that links the rest of the passenger terminal to a temporary concourse built by the now-defunct Western Pacific Airlines.
“This refinancing also reduces our debt-reserve requirements, freeing up capital and increasing our debt-coverage ratio as well as increasing our debt-financing capacity for the future, if it is needed,” said airport director
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