With airline boardings down nearly 17 percent in Minot so far this year, members of the city’s Airport Committee Tuesday took a hard look at prospective income levels once the new terminal opens this winter.

The committee voted to recommend the Minot City Council approve fee changes for terminal rent, plane landings, parking and other charges in 2016. But the vote came only after getting assurances that the fees will be adequate to pay off the debt on the new terminal and meet operating expenses.

Committee member Doug Rued questioned whether the calculations on estimated income are based on historical cost averages or the realities of the past several months.

Airline boardings at Minot International Airport reached a high of 224,421 boardings in 2012. That number settled in at just over 222,000 in 2013 and 2014. Through October this year, boardings have totaled 152,452, down from 183,019 for the same period a year ago.

City manager Lee Staab said the airport budget was drafted based on recent boarding numbers. The city is levying a half mill of property tax for the airport next year, which it has not had to levy previously. If boardings don’t pick up, it could affect budgeting into the future, but the city should do fine in 2016, he said.

“We don’t know if we are going to cash flow in the first year. There’s too many unknowns,” city finance director Cindy Hemphill said. However, she added the situation has been closely examined, including stationing a finance department employee at the airport to try to get a handle on what costs might be once the new terminal opens. Proposed fees were determined based on that information.

“At this point, we are comfortable with making the changes and are ready to move forward with them,” Hemphill said.

A proposal to slash the rent charged to airlines from $19.80 per square foot to $8.75 per square foot particularly raised some concern among committee members.

Airport director Andrew Solsvig said airlines will have triple the square footage in the new terminal, but tripling the price will deter airlines from operating in Minot.

“We worked tediously to come up with a rate that made sense,” he said. “We can justify this.”

Committee and council member Larry Frey noted that even at $19.80 a square foot, the city didn’t pay off the debt on the existing, 25-year-old terminal until just before starting construction on the new terminal.

“The new terminal had to be more costly per square foot. I can’t see cutting it more than in half,” he said of the rent “We have additional staff that’s costing us money. Who’s going to make up the difference for the additional staff?”

Although rent won’t triple, airlines still would see increases in space rental cost. Solsvig said landing fees also are going up and should generate significant additional revenue. He added a revenue increase is expected from advertising allowed within the terminal and from concessions.

Proposed airport parking fees make a new separation between short-term and long-term parking. Instead of getting 15 minutes free in short-term parking, airport visitors could park free for 20 minutes. Costs from that point are higher, though. At $2 for the first hour in either short or long term, the rate is double the current one-hour fee and a $1 an hour higher after that. The daily fee would be $14 in short-term parking and $12 in long-term parking, up from the current $10. The weekly maximum would increase from $45 to $72.

Committee member Don Larson said the higher parking fee is one more cost that could drive travelers to another airport.

Solsvig said the parking fees are based on usage analytics by parking operator Republic Parking and are in the range of fees at other airports in the region.

“People don’t choose Bismarck over us because of parking, but there’s no question they will choose Bismarck over us because of fares Delta charges,” committee and council member Jim Hatlelid said. “I have serious concerns about that.”

Lee Staab said the city is aware of the fare discrepancy between Bismarck and Minot and has sought to address those issues with Delta.