DAYTON — Dayton International Airport will close its city-owned hotel Jan. 31, 2010, which will leave the airport without an on-site hotel for most of 2010 until a planned Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites opens by the end of 2010, the city’s aviation director said Monday, Nov. 16.

The airport administration had previously considered keeping the Dayton Airport Hotel open until the new, privately franchised hotel was open. But declining revenues, along with maintenance needs and the lack of modern amenities or a reservation-system affiliation, at the 39-year-old hotel dictate an earlier closing, said Iftikhar Ahmad, Dayton’s aviation director. He estimated that it could cost the airport $50,000 to keep the old hotel running until the end of January, and decided to eliminate the “negative cash flow” that is a drain on the airport, he said.

Off-site hotels within 15-minute drives offer alternatives for travelers, Ahmad said.

The hotel will be torn down to make way for about 650 new economy parking spaces in what will be a credit-card payment lot, generating revenues and supplementing the airport’s current 1,350 economy parking spaces, Ahmad said. Competitive bidding will be scheduled to find contractors to demolish the building and install the parking lot there.

The airport also will :

• Close the business traveler center located in Concourse C by Jan. 1, 2010, and add Sunday operating hours at the airport’s other business traveler center in the terminal building, which is more heavily used. Closing the less frequently used center will save the airport an estimated $80,000 annually, Ahmad said.
• The space vacated by the business traveler center to be closed will be converted in early 2010 to a new, larger space for the United Service Organizations (USO), the private nonprofit entity which supports military personnel. The USO space will be relocated from the airport terminal lobby, so that military members will have more time to await their flights after passing the security checkpoint, Ahmad said.
• A Starbucks coffee counter opened Monday in Concourse C. A redesigned, expanded Boston Stoker in the terminal building’s lobby opened earlier this month, offering tables and chairs for on-site consumption of coffee and other items.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.