CLEVELAND - Ricky Smith walked the ramp near the terminal building of Burke Lakefront Airport, contending the smaller of Cleveland's two airports was vital to the local economy. While he spoke, several small aircraft landed on the runway of the airport, nestled along the shoreline of the city within sight of Cleveland's skyline.
"What is not always recognized is the importance of general aviation, corporate aviation, and flying schools," said Smith, director of Cleveland's two airports -- the larger Hopkins International and the smaller Burke. "There are important aspects not just for aviation, but important to the economy.”
It was during an interview on the role the airport has played. Though there are no longer any regularly-scheduled airlines in and out of the airport, which is sandwiched between the city's East Shoreway and Lake Erie, there have been years of airlines here. In the 1960s, TAG Airlines flew twin-prop plans, shuttling passengers between Cleveland and Detroit.
Years later, in the late 1970s and early 80, Wright Airlines flew passengers from Cleveland to Columbus to Cincinnati. Those days are gone, but Smith contends there is still air traffic to warrant the airport's existence on the 500 acres of prime land.
"If we were to add those operations to Hopkins International Airport," said Smith, "It would severely slow the traffic there and it would be costly to the region."
For the last few years, there have been calls periodically for the city to close the smaller airport for the land to be developed into something more. Cleveland recently unveiled a big plan for continued waterfront development, but it is to the west of the downtown airport.
Burke is the nation's only airport built on a Great Lake in the downtown area of a major city. Smith speaks highly of that fact, citing the numbers of flights, many of them during overnight hours, which bring canceled checks destined for the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland. He also said medical patients are often flown into Burke when they are bound for Cleveland hospitals. He also said human organs destined for transplant patients are also flow in through Burke with less traffic they would encounter at the larger Hopkins International Airport.
Smith said he believed the importance of Burke would grow.
"General aviation, particularly corporate aviation, is going to grow," he said as he looked out of the wide windows of the control tower at the airport. To his north was the wide Lake Erie. To his southwest, about a two-minute drive from the airport, was the skyline of Cleveland.
Source: http://www.newsnet5.com
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