The estimate, outlined in documents obtained by Newsday, raises concerns that BAA may have minimized its costs to win a city consulting contract that could pave the way for it to manage LaGuardia and Kennedy airports when the Port Authority's lease expires in 2015. Experts say BAA's estimates for environmental and airport capacity reviews, and especially for prep work on master plans for both airports, are below industry norms. These estimates seem low for airports that are among the largest and most complex in the world, said Jim Bach, vice president of the Louis Berger Group Inc., an engineering firm that has designed airport master plans.
Much smaller airports have bigger budgets for their master plans.
This BAA estimate sounds cheap to me, said Richard Gritta, a business professor and aviation expert at the University of Portland. It seems like they're proposing a high level of work. BAA spokesman Gary Lewi refused to comment on the criticism, saying the company's figures are not final. To have industry speculation about what our consulting fee will be at a time when we are still negotiating those numbers doesn't make a lot of sense, Lewi said. The Federal Aviation Administration must approve airport master plans, but it does not set cost guidelines.