Reception
The airport has faced severe political criticism in the 1980s and 1990s. A 1995 Chicago magazine exposé called it "A Monument to Lavish Spending of Taxpayers' Money, a Haven of GOP Patronage, and the Target of a Federal Probe."
According to an article by John K. Wilson:
- Philip, the patron of DuPage airport, helped push forward a disastrously expensive enterprise which included land purchases making it four times the size of Midway Airport, a $10 million terminal, a $14 million golf course, and a charter airline run by the airport. The DuPage Airport budget grew from $1.6 million in 1984 to $46 million in 1993 at a time when airport use was declining. In 1992, DuPage Airport handled only 177,000 takeoffs and landings, while Aurora Municipal Airport took care of 134,000 takeoffs and landings at a cost of only $2 million.
According to a May 2006 article in Aviation International News:
- Before 2003, the airport had been on a trend of worsening annual operating losses. That trend was reversed in 2003 and the airport has continued to show improved operating results each quarter since. Last year the airport experienced a record-breaking year, with revenue up and expenditures down. The cornerstone of the airport’s financial turnaround is the mission statement developed by the airport’s Board of Commissioners in 2003. It establishes the framework for moving the airport toward operating as a self-sustaining facility while contributing to the economic impact of the county. The aggressive philosophy has resulted in two leases that will bring 60,000 sq ft (6,000 m2) of new hangar space to the airport. The airport is also developing another 48,000 sq ft (4,500 m2) of hangar space.
In June 2010, the board of the DuPage National Technology Park, an 800-acre (3.2 km2) technology park that secured a $34 million state grant called for the dissolution of their organization.
Read more about this topic: Du Page Airport
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)