Mardi Gras this year was back to pre-Katrina levels, which is fabulous.

Now we���ve climbed back to approximately 80 percent of our pre-Katrina levels and continuing to grow. 

Immediately after Katrina, I was at the state office of emergency preparedness. FEMA came to me right away and said can we set up a field hospital at the airport. We got that arranged and within 2 days they were set up here behind me at concourse D lobby area, saved lives, delivered 27 babies, some lives did pass away. They took care of everything. Really it was a tremendous effort, probably the first important way that FEMA came to our aid here at the airport.

The hospital was here for about 2 weeks. The first week was the biggest influx of folks being brought off rooftops, being brought in, any variety of things. Also, there weren���t very many hospitals open in the area, so in some cases some of the deliveries were actually driven here because there wasn���t anything else available that was close by. So this actually served the community in addition to the evacuees.

Every concourse, baggage claim, our offices became occupied with military personnel and other federal agencies that were here to help.

We were a dry spot where they could stay. This area was not flooded and other than some roof damage on concourse c, the facility was able to house everybody just fine.

Another important thing that FEMA did was the community disaster loans. We got over 10 million dollars in community disaster loans in 2006. That really helped us with our cash flow. With the reduction in flights, one whole month with basically no income at all to the airport. You still have expenses, even if you cut everything you can, there���s still tremendous expenses. So that 10 million, even if it���s just a loan, it was very important to help us keep our cash flow going.

At the beginning of a year that everyone is so concerned about a recession, its great to see that the new Orleans market is still holding its own and continuing to grow.

The forecast is very bright for our airport.