BLOOMINGTON - The Central Illinois Regional Airport Authority is calling the Federal Aviation Administration's decision to cut its air traffic control funding "mindless."
It says the federal government has some explaining to do.
In a special meeting Thursday, the airport authority officially agreed to take legal action against the FAA. The board filed for a judicial review as to how the FAA chose the 149 airports that will soon lose federal air traffic control funding.
"These are their marching orders and they're simply running with the orders that they've been given," said Carl Olson, CIRA executive director. "Our point is that in doing so in the rush to make these cuts and put them in place, they didn't follow federal statues and they didn't follow their own internal orders."
The board says nearly 130 FAA control towers in the U.S. serve less people and are not being touched.
"Not only is Central Illinois Regional Airport by far the largest airport on the list - in fact, the second ranked airport in employment was about 105,000 fewer than us. The third ranked was 137,000 fewer than us," said Olson.
Airport director Carl Olson says the FAA is required to review the impact of such closures beforehand. He does not think that happened. Now, the airport must figure out how to keep its tower running before May 5th -- the day the FAA planned to shut it down.
"Early numbers suggest that the annual operating cost to keep the tower going. The contract costs alone are probably in the $400,000 to $500,000 range per year," he said.
But that's not including costs like insurance and maintenance. Olson says the airport's finances can sustain the balance, if necessary, until a permanent solution is found. Thursday, the board also agreed to begin talks with air traffic control providers, so it would not skip a beat if that funding goes away.
The board says it has no plans of closing the tower and most of the airport's funding comes from revenue other than tax dollars.
Source: http://centralillinoisproud.com
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