Comment from Anonymous

I respectfully request that the Department carefully evaluate several factual assertions contained in this application before relying upon them in its scoring. The application frequently relies on regional ("RGV") data while attributing those benefits primarily to McAllen International Airport. Several demand analyses, including the Denver origin-and-destination market analysis, expressly combine passenger demand from McAllen, Harlingen, and Brownsville into a single regional figure. Those combined statistics should not be interpreted as representing demand unique to McAllen when evaluating the merits of this proposal. Additionally, the application characterizes McAllen as one of the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan areas based largely on long-range projections extending to 2060. While future forecasts may be informative, they should not be treated as evidence of current economic conditions or current air service demand without additional supporting analysis. The Department may wish to verify that the economic growth assumptions, passenger demand forecasts, and market characterizations relied upon in the application accurately distinguish between regional demand and airport-specific demand so that funding decisions are based on objective, comparable information. In recent years, significant economic growth drivers within the Rio Grande Valley—including aerospace activity centered around Starbase, the Port of Brownsville, and related industrial investment—have occurred outside the McAllen metropolitan area. These regional developments may influence future travel demand and should be considered when evaluating assumptions regarding airport-specific passenger demand.