Community Comes First

CITY

Left: Rick Tucker, AXN’s Director of the Year in the small airports category, has overseen the Port of Huntsville for 27 years and has worked for the organization his entire professional career.

HSV’s Rick Tucker Has Big Impact On Local, State and National Levels

BY CAROL WARD

Huntsville, Ala. is a small southern city with a big impact. Dubbed “Rocket City” for its history of building rockets for the U.S. space program, the city is heavily reliant on space-related business, federal Department of Defense business and all the supporting companies and infrastructure necessary to support those endeavors.

In the center of it all, Port of Huntsville provides the connectivity those entities need to conduct business on a global scale.

Rick Tucker has overseen the Port of Huntsville for 27 years and has worked for the organization his entire professional career, which began in 1978. He’s enmeshed in the community, colleagues say, and plays a pivotal role in the success not only of Huntsville International Airport (HSV) and the Port of Huntsville, but in the entire community.

“His work on behalf of that community is extraordinary,” says Bill Swelbar, chief industry analyst, Swelbar-Zhong Consultancy, and a longtime colleague. “The guy just simply bleeds Huntsville.”

But Huntsville and HSV are far from Tucker’s only concerns. He works with both state and federal trade organizations to troubleshoot issues and promote airports and the aviation industry. Tucker’s long service to his airport and to the industry at large prompted Airport Experience News to honor him as its Director of the Year in the Small Airports category.

A Hometown Career

Huntsville born and bred, Rick Tucker’s entire professional career has been spent at Port of Huntsville. He didn’t plan to enter aviation initially but, fresh out of college with an accounting degree and the goal of becoming a certified public accountant, Tucker landed a job at the airport.

“I came to the airport as the chief and only accountant back in 1978,” he recalls. “It’s a great title – chief – but I was chief of myself.”

At that time, the team was small, and the airport was operated through a public-private partnership with the Hertz Corporation which, at that time, was attempting to partner with multiple small airports. Hertz was purchased by RCA, which eventually nixed the program, and the airport came back under public control through Port of Huntsville in 1988.

“We bought them out and moved forward and took control of our destiny then and issued $50 million worth of debt back in the late 1980s to construct a new concourse and upgrade terminal facilities,” Tucker says. “We have continued to expand the facilities through the years in order to keep pace with the growth of the community.”

HSV isn’t a stand-alone airport. It’s part of the Port of Huntsville, which consists of the airport for both passenger and cargo traffic, the International Intermodal Center for rail cargo and the Jetplex Industrial Park. As CEO, Tucker oversees it all.

His predecessor, Ed Mitchell, laid the groundwork in the 1970s. “He would often say, ‘you can’t sell from an empty wagon,’” Tucker recalls. “He was all about trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together for us to accommodate commerce and industry to do business in. At that time, the future was a global marketplace.” In 1978, the year Tucker joined the organization, the airport filed to become a U.S. Customs port of entry and ultimately received that designation in 1980. Three years later they gained Foreign Trade Zone status.

In the 1980s, rail intermodal facilities were added, creating an intermodal center for both air and rail cargo, to ensure ongoing competitiveness. “We’re one of the rare rail intermodal facilities in that it’s publicly owned and operated,” Tucker says. “We were putting all of these pieces together to help commerce and industry do business in what is now… a global marketplace. Most people

Left: An art piece recognizes the city’s connection to NASA, which has a huge presence in Huntsville with its Marshall Space Flight Center for development of hardware and technology. Above: In February 2020, before the pandemic, Tucker says Huntsville International was nearing 730,000 enplanements for the year. Leisture traffic is thrumming again but business traffic is slow to follow.

in the 1970s and 1980s, when that was all being put together, didn’t quite understand what was about to happen.”

Greg Jones, vice president, ForeignTrade Zone Corporation, says Tucker built on Mitchell’s vision. Mitchell, he says “envisioned the transformation of cotton fields into an international airport and industrial complex. From Ed, Rick learned and improved upon the skills necessary to expand one’s field of vision, and to transform vision into reality.”

That vision included air cargo infrastructure, which was developed over time. HSV now hosts two international air cargo companies. The recent addition of the second company means that HSV is seeing “substantial growth” in air cargo operations. “All of our space is leased and we have flights to Asia, Europe, South America.”

The JetPlex Industrial Park, another facet of the Port of Huntsville, is thriving as well. “We’re seeing the growth in our industrial park mirror what’s happening economically in our community, with lots of growth,” Tucker says. “Some of that is warehousing distribution, some of that is just companies, new companies building new facilities. Even during the pandemic, nothing stopped that growth from occurring.”

In fact, airline revenues have never been more than a third of total revenues at Port of Huntsville, and during the pandemic, that percentage fell further. The industrial park kept the Port on solid financial footing, Tucker says.

Development isn’t stopping. Earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) selected HSV as a test site for its unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) detection and mitigation research program. Under the program, the FAA plans to evaluate at least ten UAS detection and/or mitigation systems. Separately, Tucker says, HSV, in partnership with University of Alabama in Huntsville, has been working with the private sector in Huntsville and with various federal agencies to develop a Center of Excellence on the airport campus.

Slow Recovery

While there are lots of developments at HSV, the core business of passenger service is still struggling after the pandemic crushed a string of 12 record months through February 2020. “Our total passengers were nearing 730,000 enplanements, which was a record. We were showing double-digit growth and there was no end in sight,” he says.

At that time, the community had been growing rapidly. NASA has a huge presence in Huntsville with its Marshall Space Flight Center for development of hardware and technology. But event larger is the Redstone Arsenal Army post.

“Our community has just been growing rapidly, diversifying beyond just the federal presence, which is significant because there’s not just NASA but the [U.S. Department of Defense] has a significant presence much greater than even NASA,” Tucker explains. “On Redstone Arsenal, prior to the pandemic, there were over 40,000 people going to work there each day. And then there’s Cummings Research Park just outside the gate and another 25,000 people going to work there every day.”

“Historically, pre pandemic, we were a 70 percent business market, 30 percent leisure,” Tucker continues. “What has mainly returned is the leisure traffic. We’ve been lagging behind the rest of the country in the five to 10 percent range. We’ve probably seen about 25 to 35 percent of our business traffic return.”

One bright spot has been the recent launch of service from Breeze Airways, the new ultra-low-cost carrier. Tucker says the service is crucial to his ongoing efforts to keep Huntsville-area residents using the airport. Leakage is a significant factor.

“The reason we’re only 30 percent leisure traffic is because of the competition of surrounding airports and the ease of people

to drive to competing airports to get access to these ultra-low-cost carriers,” Tucker says. “With Breeze coming in here, our community’s trying hard to support them because we would like to see them grow. Having them here is a significant event for us in our community and for our airport and the customers who use our facility.

“Most people want to fly out of their hometown airport,” Tucker continues. He describes surveying parking lots at competing

Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International

Airport (BHM) and Nashville International (BNA), recognizing by car tags the county in which the owner resides. “We have quite a history of knowing the ebbs and flows of the drive traffic that go to those airports,” he says. “Several years ago, we were able to attract AirTran Airways in our community. When they were in our community we saw those drive traffic numbers decline rather significantly. And we’re beginning to see the same thing now that we have Breeze Airways.”

Below: Tucker says the newly announced service from new ultra-low-cost-carrier Breeze Airways is helping keep Huntsville residents interested in their hometown airport.

Tucker and his team are also looking forward to the return of regular service to Washington D.C., HSV’s number-one market. “Before the pandemic, we had four flights a day to Washington D.C.,” he says. “We see some signs that bookings are maybe leading to some of the return of that service.”

State And National Impact

Tucker’s influence in the Huntsville community is significant, but he’s also made an impact on the larger state and national stages.

Todd Storey, president of the Aviation Council of Alabama, credits Tucker with inclusivity. “From the littlest guy all the way up to our largest airport… he understands that relationship and what we need to do as an organization to support all facets of aviation in the state,” he says, adding, “He’s concerned about aviation, not only in his community, but in his state, nationally and globally. Huntsville reaches out across all those facets. Rick is always on the move, has great ideas and takes a leadership role.”

Tucker is also actively engaged with elected officials from Alabama on the national level. “We put together a package every year…that focuses in on funding and regulatory relief, lots of different issues that we have based on surveys our membership of the Aviation Council of Alabama,” he says. “We come together on a package and then we go visit, personally, our delegation.”

In 2020, Tucker concluded a stint as chair of the U.S. Policy Council for

Airports Council International-North

America (ACI-NA). Nationally, Tucker is advocating for increased autonomy for airports. “I do not personally understand the need for airports to be regulated economically,” he says, noting the competition that small airports, in particular, face. “You don’t see that around the world. Airports are operated as businesses. And they charge fair market rental rates to their customers, the users. Airports here are not able to do that. As far as airline fees, all we can charge is something based on cost.

“I’ve been proposing a pilot program, just see what airports and communities can do,” he continues noting that the pilot program should start with small airports. “Give us the freedom to negotiate for the type of service that needs to occur within our community. We’re not talking about reregulating the airline industry…but give airports the freedom to economically do just like any other business does.”

Tucker has spent the past 43 years serving HSV, the broader Huntsville community and state and national groups. He’s not finished yet. “I’m obviously closer to retirement than ever before,” he quips. “Exactly when that will be I don’t know, but people have asked me am I going to have a second career? And the answer to that is no. I will be involved in some nonprofit activities when I retire.”

Tucker enjoys spending time with his wife, three children and six grandchildren. He plays golf and pick-up basketball. And sources say he makes a tempting ice cream and candy blend. The most important aspect of his life, he says, “is my relationship with the Lord - that’s front and center. My faith is central to who I am and the faith community that I’m a part of.

“Of course, I tell everybody that the Lord has really blessed me here,” Tucker says. “Even at the airport, we have a great team of staff members, a great team of board members. Any success that we’ve been able to achieve has been a result of that blessing. I give the credit to them because I certainly couldn’t do anything by myself.”