DAYTON — A second bond-rating agency has given a favorable assessment of the Dayton International Airport’s financial performance, which could help lower borrowing costs and make the airport more attractive to airlines looking to locate or expand service there.

“You want to go into an airport that’s in good financial health,” Iftikhar Ahmad, Dayton’s director of aviation, said Monday, Aug. 3.

Standard & Poor’s, the bond rating agency, issued an upgraded rating of the Dayton airport’s revenue bonds. The agency issued a rating of A-minus, up from the prior BBB-plus, on the $38.1 million in outstanding revenue bonds the Dayton airport issued in 2003 and 2005 to pay for capital improvements.

“That’s a heck of a door opener when you need money for a new terminal,” Michael Boyd, president of the aviation industry consultant Boyd Group Inc., said of the higher rating.

An improved bond rating reduces the interest rate payable on bonds issued to fund airport projects, including terminal, parking lot and infrastructure upgrades and airfield improvements.

The improved rating will also help when the Dayton airport borrows up to $10.9 million toward the overall $25.7 million cost of a three-level parking garage that is being built, Ahmad said.

The $10.9 million will be for construction of rental-car facilities on the first floor of the garage, Ahmad said. That amount will be paid back with revenues from a surcharge that is being collected on car rentals at the Dayton airport through 2030. The surcharge will remain at $3 through 2014, when it is scheduled to drop to $1.92, Ahmad said.

The garage’s upper two floors will be for airport passenger parking.

The airport reduced the operating costs of airlines in Dayton by cutting their local cost per passenger boarding to $5.50 in 2008 from $14 in 2006, and is further slicing that to $4.50 this year, S&P noted. Still, Dayton faces brisk competition from airports at Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis for passengers, S&P noted.

Last month, the Fitch Ratings agency said it was maintaining its investment-grade, BBB+ rating on the Dayton airport revenue bonds. Fitch said the airport’s credit rating outlook is stable.

The airport’s current $156 million, five-year capital improvement program also includes construction of a new air traffic control tower and a new hotel, resurfaced parking lots with additional lighting, relocated news and gift shops in the terminal’s concourses, and a redesigned lobby for the terminal.

The airport is owned by the city of Dayton but is independently funded and self-sustaining, operating on revenues generated from its own operations.

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