Walker puts it this way: If the airport had to take out a loan to build a new terminal, at an interest rate of 6 percent, that $120 million would have cost McCarran $39 million during the five years since CUTE went live.
Even with that added capacity, the airport is expanding. Later this year, construction will begin on an extension to the D gates and a new consolidated rental-car facility. McCarran sold $250 million in bonds for these and other capital projects, but the projects have been on hold since 9/11, Johnson says.
From a financial perspective, McCarran has some advantages over other U.S. airports. It pulls in about $40 million per year in slot-machine revenue, money that must go to capital projects, such as new buildings. This frees up funds for other, nonbuilding projects. In fact, much of the airport's IT infrastructure can be traced back to gambling revenue.
About 8 percent of the airport's some $218 million operating budget goes to IT, and IT represents about 40 percent of the airport's non-building capital budget. In addition to the operating funds which come directly from revenue, McCarran generates about $44 million per year from passenger facility charges and another $12 million from jet fuel taxes.
McCarran has some other creative ways to fund IT projects. This month, the airport is upgrading its 100-Mbps FDDI network to Gigabit Ethernet. Its infrastructure vendor, Enterasys Networks, accepted a barter deal in lieu of cash wherein McCarran will give Enterasys 15 percent of its unused billboard space for three years in exchange for the gear. McCarran will still pay Enterasys $82,000 for installation and about $110,000 per year for maintenance, says Gerard Hughes, McCarran's senior network analyst. The gear, including enough switches to outfit the airport's 75 closets, is worth about $1.8 million.
Likewise, Computer Associates is giving McCarran a discount on its Unicenter network-management package in exchange for signage. The software, which replaces Hewlett-Packard's OpenView, is being implemented with the network upgrade. Both should be completed by August, Hughes says. McCarran is paying CA $725,000 for the software. Hughes would not disclose the full price.
