On Location at McCarran International Airport: First Impressions

Still, this is the kind of misinformation that baffles travelers all the time. But few take the time to consider why they fall victim to false or misleading information. The answer lies in IT. Most airport information systems are run by the airlines, which use decades-old legacy systems on the back end. These systems don't play well with others, giving the airports virtually no choice but to cede all informational control to the airlines. This is why, in most domestic airports, flight boards contain only one airline's flight information. Each operator must operate a separate set of screens. It's also why most U.S. airports devote entire terminals to one airline; the proprietary airline systems are hardwired, and no other airline can use them.

McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is an exception. Contributing Editor Jonathan Feldman and I spent two days there interviewing the airport's corporate and IT leadership. McCarran has convinced virtually all 26 of its airline "tenants" (Southwest is the holdout) to use Windows systems run by the airport. These systems tie into each airline back end via terminal emulation. As a result, gates, baggage carousels and ticket counters can be used by any airline (except Southwest)--and McCarran can control the information that goes out over the flight information displays. If the airport closes because of weather or some other calamity, the airlines' on-time records take a back seat to consumer interests.

(Actually, most of the time, the FIDs show the airline's on-time data. Only when that data conflicts with the Federal Aviation Authority's data by more than 12 minutes does McCarran replace the airline's data with the FAA's, reflecting the new, expected arrival time.)

McCarran models its IT approach after foreign airports, which pioneered common-use terminals. And McCarran has an advantage over a lot of other U.S. airports because it's a so-called origin and destination airport; people don't generally fly through Vegas to get to other destinations, they fly to it. This means no one airline dominates by operating a hub; those that do, such as United Airlines in Denver, can dictate the IT approach, says McCarran Director Randall Walker. Essentially the CEO of the airport, Walker's position is an appointed one. He and all airport employees work for Clark County.

McCarran takes on the expense of administering and maintaining nearly all airport systems on behalf of the airlines. (Southwest and America West still have some IT staff on the premises.) So upgrades are McCarran's problem. In return, McCarran officials believe they save 757s full of money because the airport uses preferential leasing instead of dedicated leasing of gates. If a gate isn't being used, McCarran can assign it to another airline on the fly. This makes more efficient use of the gates as well as helps the airport avoid building more gates to accommodate more passengers.Ross Johnson, assistant director for finance (essentially the CFO), figures the airport has saved $120 million since the common-use systems were deployed in 1998 because the airport avoided building 10 additional gates. (The common use systems cost about $60 million to install, he says.)

It also helps McCarran stay nimble. When National Airlines suddenly went out of business last November, McCarran's IT staff was able to move another airline into its counter space in mere hours. If the airlines were using proprietary systems, this process might have taken days.

From a financial perspective, McCarran also has some advantages over other airports. It pulls in about $40 million per year in slot-machine revenue--does your airport do that? All that money must go to capital projects, such as new buildings. This frees up funds for other nonbuilding projects. (About eight percent of the airport's some $200 million budget goes to IT, and IT represents about 40 percent of the airport's nonbuilding capital budget.)

The airport has some other creative avenues to fund IT projects, too. As I write, McCarran is undergoing a $1.8-million network upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet. The vendor, Enterasys, accepted a barter in lieu of cash: McCarran will give Enterasys 15 percent of its unused signage in exchange for the gear. The airport will still pay the $95 thousand for installation and about $110 thousand per year for maintenance, says Gerard Hughes, senior network analyst and our main host during our two-day visit. (Even with the barter, McCarran was concerned enough about the health of Enterasys that it insisted on seeing the vendor's books.) McCarran has a similar deal brewing with Computer Associates (CA) for the vendor's Unicenter network management package. McCarran is replacing its Hewlett-Packard OpenView software with CA's.

McCarran's aggressive IT culture comes straight from the top. Walker made it clear when he arrived at the airport in 1990 that he viewed it as nave to skimp on technology. At the time, the IT department was barely a department--there were 10 PCs in the whole place. Administrative assistants used CPT word processing, a terminal-based system that required a connection to the server.

One time, the system went down for a day and a half. "I was livid," Walker recalls. "I found out it was just some Mickey Mouse piece of equipment they cheaped out on, and I remember saying to the guy who was in charge, 'If you ever try to save me money again, I will fire you. That $1,000 you saved me just cost me tens of thousands of dollars in productivity.'"

The message was clear: This airport lives and breathes information, and Walker is going to give IT the resources it needs to keep the place running smoothly.

Walker, Johnson and company shared many more tidbits with us that you'll read about in our April report. Among them: how McCarran has kept employee turnover at virtually zero in the last five years (there are some 35 IT staffers) and dealt with the demands of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which seem to change every day during this jittery time. Stay tuned.