Fitch Releases U.S. Airport Performance Report; Teleconference on Thursday, April 2 @ 3pm EDT

NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
A deepening recession and difficult credit markets will continue to contribute
to further weakening and declines in U.S. airport traffic throughout 2009,
according to a special report released by Fitch Ratings today. Fitch's outlook
for U.S. airports remains negative as the sustained economic downturn coupled
with ongoing weakness of airline counterparties that are expected to remain
present for 2009 into 2010 continue to be major factors affecting the health of
the sector.

'Falling demand for air travel and capacity reductions from carriers continue to
negatively affect the financial growth of U.S. airports,' said Seth Lehman,
Senior Director at Fitch. 'The growing unemployment rate in the U.S. has taken
center stage, with both business and leisure air travel remaining under
significant pressure. Airports most at risk over the near term are secondary
hubs, reliever airports and airports with a significant leisure component.'

Overall, Fitch expects rating downgrades to be mostly limited to one-to-two
notches, as default risk in this sector is still viewed to be remote. However,
the relevance of airline risk to airport ratings may become an increasingly
important credit consideration for airports with high individual carrier
concentration, particularly in cases where a carrier bankruptcy filing or
liquidation would adversely affect service or cash flow stability. Fitch
believes credit concerns may develop at airports with growing debt burdens or
those that remain committed to large-scale capital programs, resulting in higher
projected cost profiles.

With economic dislocations affecting air travel across most metropolitan areas,
many airports will face greater difficulties in maintaining stable airline cost
profiles, a stark departure from trends in recent years. Given the accelerated
pace of traffic declines over both the latter part of 2008 and into early 2009,
Fitch believes that the next one-to-two year period could be particularly
testing as it relates to preserving current levels of financial performance.

Fitch will hold a teleconference on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 3:00p.m. EDT to
discuss airport traffic, revenue performance and the outlook for the sector. The
discussion will be followed by a question and answer session - emailed questions
can be submitted in advance or during the conference call to:
cindy.stoller@fitchratings.com.

To participate in the teleconference, interested parties should call (877)
713-4667 (domestic) or (706) 634-1958 (international) five minutes prior to the
3:00 p.m. EDT start time and give the title of the call 'US Airports Performance
Update' or the call leader name 'Seth Lehman'.

A replay of the teleconference will be available starting two hours after the
teleconference is completed and will be available until May 2, 2009 close of
business. To listen to the teleconference replay, participants should call (800)
642-1687 (domestic) or (706) 645-9291 (international). The conference ID number
for the replay is '92239231'.

The special report 'U.S. Airports Performance Update: Spring 2009' is now
available at www.fitchratings.com.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on
the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and
methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of
conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance
and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of
Conduct' section of this site.

Fitch Ratings, New York
Seth Lehman, 212-908-0755
Mike McDermott, 212-908-0605
or
Media Relations:
Cindy Stoller, 212-908-0526
Email: cindy.stoller@fitchratings.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009