Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority has adopted a 5-year, $46 million capital projects plan that pushes most of the expensive projects beyond 2016 so it first can repay its debt.
That means for the next three years, the airport will be focused on necessary minor maintenance like runway repairs and vehicle purchases, while more than $35 million of big ticket items like main terminal renovations are put off until 2017 and 2018.
It is the reality for a struggling airport that must spend the next three years focused on paying off the remaining $14 million of a $26 million court judgment against it for taking a developers land in the mid-1990s.
"We really had no choice but to back-load the capital plan," authority Executive Director Charles Everett Jr. said. "You can see that most of the spending is delayed until after we've paid the judgment."
The airport is scheduled to make a $3 million payment this week to WBF Associates, the development group that won a $26 million judgment against the airport when a Lehigh County judge determined that the airport effectively condemned 632 acres of development land around the airport in the mid-1990s.
That payment must be followed by payments of $5 million in 2015 and $6 million in 2016. It's caused the airport to begin selling unneeded assets, including all that WBF land, and has limited how much it can spend on capital projects.
As a result, only $1.5 million of the $46 million capital spending plan will be spent in 2014 for such things as computer upgrades, vehicle purchases and roadway repairs. The biggest chunk — more than $200,000 — is the airport's match for a federally-funded project underway to install a collapsible section of roadway at the end of the main runway. The runway extension, called an Engineering Materials Arresting System, is designed to safely stop a plane that has run off the end of the runway.
Another $2.8 million is scheduled to be spent in 2015 for such things as completing that EMAS project, security system upgrades and nearly $300,000 in improvements at Queen City Airport, the small-plane airfield in a south Allentown.
Roughly $6.3 million slated to be spent in 2016 for projects includes more upgrades at Queen City and the replacement of the terminal building at Braden Airpark, the small-plane airfield in Forks Township. The authority is trying to sell Braden, which means that work may not need to be done.
But the bulk of the money is scheduled to be spent in years four and five, and Everett admits some of that may never happen. Included in that is $15 million in main terminal renovations designed to improve the baggage-handling system, and to expand the security area for arrivals and departures.
Both changes were expected to be necessary to improve security and relieve congestion, but unless the airport's passenger traffic doesn't rebound, it may not be justified. After hitting the 1 million passenger mark several years ago, airline mergers and a difficult economy have caused passenger counts to fall. The total number of passengers is projected to drop to just more than 600,000 this year — the lowest mark since the mid-1980s.
A second project slated for 2018 is a $10 million parking garage, a parking expansion that is currently unnecessary because the airport's existing surface lots aren't close to capacity. Everett explained that those projects have been on the airport's capital plan list for years, and will again be pushed back if the airport's passenger traffic doesn't improve. Everett said he is still hopeful that can still happen, particularly if the facility can attract new airlines.
For example, though its parking lots are not currently full, expansion would have been necessary if the airport had been successful in attracting the popular Southwest Airlines into the main terminal last year. At it turned out, after months of consideration, Southwest declined.
"Obviously we'll be reassessing this plan annually," Everett said. "The only projects set in stone for now are those in 2014."
Source: http://www.mcall.com
Showing posts with label FAA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAA. Show all posts
Friday, November 29, 2013
China: General aviation 'set for takeoff'
The general aviation industry in China is poised for a boom, with the authorities encouraging its development, but the money pouring into the sector may lead to a bubble, industry experts said.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China and the General Staff Headquarters of the People's Liberation Army jointly released regulations on Nov 18 concerning general aviation, a move that's giving a lift to these flights.
General aviation consists of non-scheduled civilian flights.
Under the regulations, general aviation flights that don't affect national security will be subject to approval by the CAAC, not the military. In some cases, operators will only need to file a flight plan rather than seek specific approval.
"The regulation will improve the development of general aviation, but we are still waiting for the real opening of low-altitude airspace, which means more space for general aviation aircraft based only on filing flight plans, no approvals," said Gao Yuanyang, director of the general aviation industry research center at the Beihang University.
Contracts worth 22.9 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) were signed during the China International General Aviation Convention 2013, which was held from Oct 17-20 in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as China's general aviation industry is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan per year eventually.
Some local governments are already seeking a piece of the action by building general aviation industrial parks.
Statistics from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of China show that as of July 30, there were 116 cities above the county level that were building or planning general aviation industrial parks.
That's in addition to the 10 State-level aviation high-tech industrial bases approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner.
However, some experts warn that investment is already overheated, and some general aviation parks without any advantage in technology, facilities or staff will end up being just more real estate projects.
"The industry has a critical shortage of general aviation airports, but it's not necessary to develop airports into industrial parks," said Gao. "Reckless construction of the parks will have an adverse effect on the industry."
He Liang, director of the Xi'an Yanliang National Aviation Hi-tech Industrial Base's administration committee in Shaanxi province, also expressed concern.
"Like the booming in the vehicle industry in the early 1990s in China, overheated construction of general aviation parks will also lead to a downturn, and some facilities without the necessary technological and industrial conditions will fall into disuse," He told China Daily.
He's base, established in 2004, aims to create an entire industry chain, including the major industry of aircraft manufacturing, production of aircraft engines and aviation activities, He said.
More than 500 aviation enterprises and supporting companies have been established at the base.
Private capital is surging into the industry, with 178 general aviation enterprises around the country as of June, 32 more than at the end of 2012.
But some general aviation aircraft manufacturers said that their business isn't yet improving.
"Our sales have even gone down recently, since new operators only need one or two planes for appearances," said the marketing director of a helicopter builder, who declined to be identified.
It's quite possible that some companies are only trying to gain something from various governments' preferential policies for the general aviation industry, he said. Some companies are even just trying to get land in the industrial parks, he added.
"We'll need to wait for a long time before the industry really booms," he said, adding that he remains optimistic about the outlook for the sector.
As of June 30, there were 1,610 registered general aviation aircraft in China. The total flight time of general aviation will be more than 600,000 hours in 2013, 80,000 hours more than last year, according to the CAAC.
Compared with some 230,000 general aviation aircraft in the United States, there's huge market potential in China, said Gao.
The State Council, China cabinet, issued a document on promoting the development of civil aviation industry in July 2012, which said that emerging general aviation services such as private and business flights should be greatly developed.
"The total number of general aviation aircraft is expected to be more than 10,000 within five to 10 years," Gao said.
Some experts suggested that more general aviation airports should be built, while controlling the number of industrial parks.
China only has some 100 general aviation airports at present, and 70 of these are registered with the CAAC, said Wang Xia, deputy dean of the general aviation college of the Civil Aviation University of China.
These airports can't meet the huge market demand, Wang said. The small number of general aviation airports is a major constraint on the industry, she said.
"China now has no national standard for the construction and management of general aviation airports, and it urgently needs to develop uniform standards for the industry's management," Wang added.
He Liang, the director of the industrial base in Shaanxi, said that his base will work jointly with other government departments to build five or six general aviation airports in the province. The base also aims to establish a low-altitude network with more than 10 airports for general aviation in the province in the coming decade.
"We plan to open a general aviation air route from Neifu airport in Pucheng county in eastern Shaanxi to Hengshan airport in northern Shaanxi in 2015, which could be a commuter route or tourism route," He said.
Source: http://www.chinadaily.com
The Civil Aviation Administration of China and the General Staff Headquarters of the People's Liberation Army jointly released regulations on Nov 18 concerning general aviation, a move that's giving a lift to these flights.
General aviation consists of non-scheduled civilian flights.
Under the regulations, general aviation flights that don't affect national security will be subject to approval by the CAAC, not the military. In some cases, operators will only need to file a flight plan rather than seek specific approval.
"The regulation will improve the development of general aviation, but we are still waiting for the real opening of low-altitude airspace, which means more space for general aviation aircraft based only on filing flight plans, no approvals," said Gao Yuanyang, director of the general aviation industry research center at the Beihang University.
Contracts worth 22.9 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) were signed during the China International General Aviation Convention 2013, which was held from Oct 17-20 in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as China's general aviation industry is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan per year eventually.
Some local governments are already seeking a piece of the action by building general aviation industrial parks.
Statistics from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of China show that as of July 30, there were 116 cities above the county level that were building or planning general aviation industrial parks.
That's in addition to the 10 State-level aviation high-tech industrial bases approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner.
However, some experts warn that investment is already overheated, and some general aviation parks without any advantage in technology, facilities or staff will end up being just more real estate projects.
"The industry has a critical shortage of general aviation airports, but it's not necessary to develop airports into industrial parks," said Gao. "Reckless construction of the parks will have an adverse effect on the industry."
He Liang, director of the Xi'an Yanliang National Aviation Hi-tech Industrial Base's administration committee in Shaanxi province, also expressed concern.
"Like the booming in the vehicle industry in the early 1990s in China, overheated construction of general aviation parks will also lead to a downturn, and some facilities without the necessary technological and industrial conditions will fall into disuse," He told China Daily.
He's base, established in 2004, aims to create an entire industry chain, including the major industry of aircraft manufacturing, production of aircraft engines and aviation activities, He said.
More than 500 aviation enterprises and supporting companies have been established at the base.
Private capital is surging into the industry, with 178 general aviation enterprises around the country as of June, 32 more than at the end of 2012.
But some general aviation aircraft manufacturers said that their business isn't yet improving.
"Our sales have even gone down recently, since new operators only need one or two planes for appearances," said the marketing director of a helicopter builder, who declined to be identified.
It's quite possible that some companies are only trying to gain something from various governments' preferential policies for the general aviation industry, he said. Some companies are even just trying to get land in the industrial parks, he added.
"We'll need to wait for a long time before the industry really booms," he said, adding that he remains optimistic about the outlook for the sector.
As of June 30, there were 1,610 registered general aviation aircraft in China. The total flight time of general aviation will be more than 600,000 hours in 2013, 80,000 hours more than last year, according to the CAAC.
Compared with some 230,000 general aviation aircraft in the United States, there's huge market potential in China, said Gao.
The State Council, China cabinet, issued a document on promoting the development of civil aviation industry in July 2012, which said that emerging general aviation services such as private and business flights should be greatly developed.
"The total number of general aviation aircraft is expected to be more than 10,000 within five to 10 years," Gao said.
Some experts suggested that more general aviation airports should be built, while controlling the number of industrial parks.
China only has some 100 general aviation airports at present, and 70 of these are registered with the CAAC, said Wang Xia, deputy dean of the general aviation college of the Civil Aviation University of China.
These airports can't meet the huge market demand, Wang said. The small number of general aviation airports is a major constraint on the industry, she said.
"China now has no national standard for the construction and management of general aviation airports, and it urgently needs to develop uniform standards for the industry's management," Wang added.
He Liang, the director of the industrial base in Shaanxi, said that his base will work jointly with other government departments to build five or six general aviation airports in the province. The base also aims to establish a low-altitude network with more than 10 airports for general aviation in the province in the coming decade.
"We plan to open a general aviation air route from Neifu airport in Pucheng county in eastern Shaanxi to Hengshan airport in northern Shaanxi in 2015, which could be a commuter route or tourism route," He said.
Source: http://www.chinadaily.com
Aviation: Too Regulated, Too Expensive - Capt. Daniel Omale
By: Capt. Daniel Omale on November 30, 2013 - 1:48am
Without the intervention of the Senate Committee on Aviation, non- schedule operators would have been paying the most exorbitant levy in the history of aviation. The reason for such hefty levy is unknown, but one thing is certain: it can only happen in Nigeria, irrespective of the negative effect it will have on the industry.
A few years ago, the United States government proposed a $50 levy for corporate jet, and it was quashed by the Congress because, according to the lawmakers, such a levy would have impeded the freedom associated with air transportation.
Corporate jet owners, including heavyweights like Dangote and TY Danjuma woke up one day, without forewarning, and got bombarded with extortion of $3000 per trip. The danger posed by the government's action is that any of the agencies, at will, can increase charges without due process of the law governing the aviation industry in this country. It also shows that an investor is constantly at the mercy of the agencies.
Those who risk their body and soul to borrow funds and invest in the industry do so at extreme perils. It's becoming overly expensive to engage in airline business in Nigeria because it is 1000% more costly than anywhere else.
Just two weeks ago, a friend and I were lamenting at the associated costs to Dana Air, the prolonged grounding of its operation. If there is a justifiable cause for suspending the airline's operating permit, there wouldn't have been a cause for alarm, but, out of the blue, a suspension letter came from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). This undefined action of the government has, appropriately, plunged the airline and its financiers (some local banks) in a huge financial mess.
Chanchangi and IRS airlines, two enterprises of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), will forever remain huge liabilities to AMCON, if they are forced to stay on the ground because of a single aircraft operation dilemma.
The future of aviation industry in Nigeria is precarious; it is also disturbing for those who have no other choice but to hang in there. This fear is genuine as the majority of investors borrowed at exorbitant interest rate.
Airline business, generally, is unprofitable with uncertain return on investment. But it is even harder to maintain focus if an investor is unprotected from arbitrary, draconian, and selfish misuse of the guiding rules/legislation.
Aviation remains the most regulated of all our economic sectors. It is appropriate if safety is the surrounding issue of this intense over-regulation but when economic effects are added, aircraft operation in either private or commercial category becomes unbearable.
It's practically unjustifiable to exclude stakeholders (investors and workers) from the scheme of how aviation development/underdevelopment should be shaped.
Without the stakeholders, there will be no industry for the agencies to heavily feed on. This is the reason why a country like the United States recognizes the absolute importance of those who operate aircraft in all categories. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gives ample time for stakeholders' input in all intended policies.
Rule-making by the FAA
It comes as no surprise to anyone that the primary function of the FAA is to regulate civil aviation. In so doing, it proposes, promulgates, and enforces certain titles of the Code of Federal Regulations. A Federal Aviation Regulation is changed or originated when the FAA issues a document known as a Notice of Proposed Rule Making.
Everyone has had high school civics lessons regarding how the government is organized. The function of the legislative branch, namely Congress, is to pass laws; the job of the executive branch and its many agencies and administrations is to enforce those laws; and the function of the courts is to interpret and apply those mandates. The entire body of administrative law is a special area unto itself.
Administrative agencies often act as rule makers, rule enforcers, and, to a great degree, arbiters of conflicts that come about as a result of persons operating in spheres of activity controlled by those rules. The FAA is not an exception.
The law requires that when the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) is issued, the administrative agency must allow a particular period of time for comment upon that rule, unless certain emergency conditions exist. Therefore, when the FAA wants to either originate a new regulation or change an existing one, it issues the NPRM and allows the industry a reasonable period of time in which to comment.
Quite often, the comment period appears short, and various industry sources petition the FAA to extend that comment period, which is frequently accomplished. After the comment period closes, the agency is then supposed to consider the comments of the public and those to be affected by the rules proposed and deliberate and consider the same in its process of rule making. Quite frequently, a large outpouring of comment does in fact influence the FAA. Several proposed rules over the past few years have been abandoned or significantly modified after the consideration of public comments. When this process has run its course, the agency then issues its Final Notice of Rule Making, which sets forth the rule as it will be adopted, and gives an effective date for it.
There is absolutely no doubt that public comment is a most important stage of the rule-making process and is, frankly, the only one in which the average person to be affected by the rule has any real voice.
Although trade associations and other relevant groups frequently meet with representatives of the FAA to discuss upcoming rules, average people on the street have an opportunity to make their feelings known through the public comment process.
Nigeria must embrace this rational system or aviation industry will remain under developed, no matter how much lipstick we put on the pig.
Source: http://leadership.ng
Without the intervention of the Senate Committee on Aviation, non- schedule operators would have been paying the most exorbitant levy in the history of aviation. The reason for such hefty levy is unknown, but one thing is certain: it can only happen in Nigeria, irrespective of the negative effect it will have on the industry.
A few years ago, the United States government proposed a $50 levy for corporate jet, and it was quashed by the Congress because, according to the lawmakers, such a levy would have impeded the freedom associated with air transportation.
Corporate jet owners, including heavyweights like Dangote and TY Danjuma woke up one day, without forewarning, and got bombarded with extortion of $3000 per trip. The danger posed by the government's action is that any of the agencies, at will, can increase charges without due process of the law governing the aviation industry in this country. It also shows that an investor is constantly at the mercy of the agencies.
Those who risk their body and soul to borrow funds and invest in the industry do so at extreme perils. It's becoming overly expensive to engage in airline business in Nigeria because it is 1000% more costly than anywhere else.
Just two weeks ago, a friend and I were lamenting at the associated costs to Dana Air, the prolonged grounding of its operation. If there is a justifiable cause for suspending the airline's operating permit, there wouldn't have been a cause for alarm, but, out of the blue, a suspension letter came from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). This undefined action of the government has, appropriately, plunged the airline and its financiers (some local banks) in a huge financial mess.
Chanchangi and IRS airlines, two enterprises of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), will forever remain huge liabilities to AMCON, if they are forced to stay on the ground because of a single aircraft operation dilemma.
The future of aviation industry in Nigeria is precarious; it is also disturbing for those who have no other choice but to hang in there. This fear is genuine as the majority of investors borrowed at exorbitant interest rate.
Airline business, generally, is unprofitable with uncertain return on investment. But it is even harder to maintain focus if an investor is unprotected from arbitrary, draconian, and selfish misuse of the guiding rules/legislation.
Aviation remains the most regulated of all our economic sectors. It is appropriate if safety is the surrounding issue of this intense over-regulation but when economic effects are added, aircraft operation in either private or commercial category becomes unbearable.
It's practically unjustifiable to exclude stakeholders (investors and workers) from the scheme of how aviation development/underdevelopment should be shaped.
Without the stakeholders, there will be no industry for the agencies to heavily feed on. This is the reason why a country like the United States recognizes the absolute importance of those who operate aircraft in all categories. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gives ample time for stakeholders' input in all intended policies.
Rule-making by the FAA
It comes as no surprise to anyone that the primary function of the FAA is to regulate civil aviation. In so doing, it proposes, promulgates, and enforces certain titles of the Code of Federal Regulations. A Federal Aviation Regulation is changed or originated when the FAA issues a document known as a Notice of Proposed Rule Making.
Everyone has had high school civics lessons regarding how the government is organized. The function of the legislative branch, namely Congress, is to pass laws; the job of the executive branch and its many agencies and administrations is to enforce those laws; and the function of the courts is to interpret and apply those mandates. The entire body of administrative law is a special area unto itself.
Administrative agencies often act as rule makers, rule enforcers, and, to a great degree, arbiters of conflicts that come about as a result of persons operating in spheres of activity controlled by those rules. The FAA is not an exception.
The law requires that when the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) is issued, the administrative agency must allow a particular period of time for comment upon that rule, unless certain emergency conditions exist. Therefore, when the FAA wants to either originate a new regulation or change an existing one, it issues the NPRM and allows the industry a reasonable period of time in which to comment.
Quite often, the comment period appears short, and various industry sources petition the FAA to extend that comment period, which is frequently accomplished. After the comment period closes, the agency is then supposed to consider the comments of the public and those to be affected by the rules proposed and deliberate and consider the same in its process of rule making. Quite frequently, a large outpouring of comment does in fact influence the FAA. Several proposed rules over the past few years have been abandoned or significantly modified after the consideration of public comments. When this process has run its course, the agency then issues its Final Notice of Rule Making, which sets forth the rule as it will be adopted, and gives an effective date for it.
There is absolutely no doubt that public comment is a most important stage of the rule-making process and is, frankly, the only one in which the average person to be affected by the rule has any real voice.
Although trade associations and other relevant groups frequently meet with representatives of the FAA to discuss upcoming rules, average people on the street have an opportunity to make their feelings known through the public comment process.
Nigeria must embrace this rational system or aviation industry will remain under developed, no matter how much lipstick we put on the pig.
Source: http://leadership.ng
Cafe business hours, flight times changing at Riverton Regional Airport (KRIW), Wyoming
The board says new Federal Aviation Administration rules have resulted in a pilot shortage in Riverton.
Passengers flying in and out of Riverton soon will see a few changes in flight schedules and business hours at the Airport Cafe, reported Riverton Regional Airport division manager Paul Griffin during a board meeting Friday.
Flight schedule changes will begin Sunday.
A majority of the changes are for Riverton departure flights. Most Saturday and Sunday flights will remain the same, and the airport will continue to conduct three incoming and outgoing flights per day. Most flight times will only change by a few minutes.
The Airport Cafe hours also are changing to 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday through Wednesday. The changes were made to reflect the business's busiest hours.
Fewer pilots
During the meeting, the airport board directed Griffin to draft a letter to Chuck Howell, the chief executive officer of Great Lakes Airlines, which operates at Riverton Regional Airport. The board said it wanted to address the pilot shortage in Riverton, which has been attributed to new Federal Aviation Administration pilot qualification standards.
"It's not just a Great Lakes issue, it's statewide, and there's no quick fix on the thing," Griffin said. "It's frustrating in our part, because they're calling us telling us their flights are canceled."
The new rule requires first officers or co-pilots to have 1,500 hours of flight time. Co-pilots previously were required to have only 250 hours. Great Lakes lost many of its pilots to bigger airlines after implementation of the new rule. Griffin said Great Lakes would hire pilots right out of flight school and train them, and when those pilots reached 1,500 hours, they usually moved on to other airlines.
"We have seen other carriers aggressively recruiting our qualified pilots, and attrition has been more than double the normal rate," Howell wrote in a letter to Great Lakes employees. "To further aggravate the situation, there are limited pilots looking for work that meet the new qualifications."
Howell said the board will inform the FAA of the effects the rule has on small communities and request an exemption.
Peranteaux said lawmakers may not have been fully aware of how the changes in flight hours would affect small communities and airlines.
"Fundamentally it needs to be dealt with on the legislative level," he said.
Board member Cindy Olson suggested that instead of re-stating that there's a problem, the letter should ask how the airport can assist Great Lakes to better the situation and provide other solutions.
"You know it is the industry, the industry is in a state that it's never been in before," she said.
Cancellation notices
Board member Dean Peranteaux said the lack of communication might be more of a problem than the canceled flights. If there's a delayed or canceled flight, he said the information is slow to reach passengers. By the time they find out, the remaining options -- such as renting a vehicle, rebooking a flight or making other arrangements -- costs much more. If notifications were more immediate, a lot of trouble and frustration could be avoided, Peranteaux said. He added that he has experienced that scenario and suggested adding that concern to the letter.
"You'd think that in this age of technology with fairly instant communication, a system can be implemented that can address that fairly easily, inexpensively," he said. "That's truly the mismanagement portion and it's truly detrimental to the smaller communities."
Landing log
Griffin also provided the board with a report showing the types of aircraft that land at the Riverton Regional Airport. Under the general aviation category were local aircraft, in-transit aircraft passing through the region, multi-engine aircraft or twin engine aircraft (which can include life flight and local aircraft), small corporate jets, and life flight and search and rescue helicopters.
From January to October, roughly 3,100 of those aircraft landed at the airport. Under the military category, only five military aircraft had been counted, all in January 2013.
Around the state
The Wyoming Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division also presented its set of statistics for commercial air service for the state.
As of September, roughly 858,000 passengers had passed through Wyoming's airports, roughly 43,000, or 5.3 percent, more than the same time in the previous year.
Laramie Regional Airport saw the greatest increase. Riverton Regional Airport had a 3 percent growth while airports in Worland, Rock Springs, Gillette and Cheyenne showed no gain. The Jackson Hole Airport had the most passengers, with a 6 percent increase in enplanements.
Story: http://dailyranger.com
Passengers flying in and out of Riverton soon will see a few changes in flight schedules and business hours at the Airport Cafe, reported Riverton Regional Airport division manager Paul Griffin during a board meeting Friday.
Flight schedule changes will begin Sunday.
A majority of the changes are for Riverton departure flights. Most Saturday and Sunday flights will remain the same, and the airport will continue to conduct three incoming and outgoing flights per day. Most flight times will only change by a few minutes.
The Airport Cafe hours also are changing to 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday through Wednesday. The changes were made to reflect the business's busiest hours.
Fewer pilots
During the meeting, the airport board directed Griffin to draft a letter to Chuck Howell, the chief executive officer of Great Lakes Airlines, which operates at Riverton Regional Airport. The board said it wanted to address the pilot shortage in Riverton, which has been attributed to new Federal Aviation Administration pilot qualification standards.
"It's not just a Great Lakes issue, it's statewide, and there's no quick fix on the thing," Griffin said. "It's frustrating in our part, because they're calling us telling us their flights are canceled."
The new rule requires first officers or co-pilots to have 1,500 hours of flight time. Co-pilots previously were required to have only 250 hours. Great Lakes lost many of its pilots to bigger airlines after implementation of the new rule. Griffin said Great Lakes would hire pilots right out of flight school and train them, and when those pilots reached 1,500 hours, they usually moved on to other airlines.
"We have seen other carriers aggressively recruiting our qualified pilots, and attrition has been more than double the normal rate," Howell wrote in a letter to Great Lakes employees. "To further aggravate the situation, there are limited pilots looking for work that meet the new qualifications."
Howell said the board will inform the FAA of the effects the rule has on small communities and request an exemption.
Peranteaux said lawmakers may not have been fully aware of how the changes in flight hours would affect small communities and airlines.
"Fundamentally it needs to be dealt with on the legislative level," he said.
Board member Cindy Olson suggested that instead of re-stating that there's a problem, the letter should ask how the airport can assist Great Lakes to better the situation and provide other solutions.
"You know it is the industry, the industry is in a state that it's never been in before," she said.
Cancellation notices
Board member Dean Peranteaux said the lack of communication might be more of a problem than the canceled flights. If there's a delayed or canceled flight, he said the information is slow to reach passengers. By the time they find out, the remaining options -- such as renting a vehicle, rebooking a flight or making other arrangements -- costs much more. If notifications were more immediate, a lot of trouble and frustration could be avoided, Peranteaux said. He added that he has experienced that scenario and suggested adding that concern to the letter.
"You'd think that in this age of technology with fairly instant communication, a system can be implemented that can address that fairly easily, inexpensively," he said. "That's truly the mismanagement portion and it's truly detrimental to the smaller communities."
Landing log
Griffin also provided the board with a report showing the types of aircraft that land at the Riverton Regional Airport. Under the general aviation category were local aircraft, in-transit aircraft passing through the region, multi-engine aircraft or twin engine aircraft (which can include life flight and local aircraft), small corporate jets, and life flight and search and rescue helicopters.
From January to October, roughly 3,100 of those aircraft landed at the airport. Under the military category, only five military aircraft had been counted, all in January 2013.
Around the state
The Wyoming Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division also presented its set of statistics for commercial air service for the state.
As of September, roughly 858,000 passengers had passed through Wyoming's airports, roughly 43,000, or 5.3 percent, more than the same time in the previous year.
Laramie Regional Airport saw the greatest increase. Riverton Regional Airport had a 3 percent growth while airports in Worland, Rock Springs, Gillette and Cheyenne showed no gain. The Jackson Hole Airport had the most passengers, with a 6 percent increase in enplanements.
Story: http://dailyranger.com
Federal Aviation Administration wants no more crops at Madison Municipal Airport (KMDS), South Dakota
If federal officials have their way, Madison's airport could lose a significant amount of its annual revenue and have additional operating expenses.
Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration want to reduce the risk to aircraft caused by wildlife by eliminating the city's practice of renting out land to agricultural producers to grow grain crops.
According to Morris Riggin, manager at Madison Municipal Airport, FAA officials have developed greater concerns about the threat from wildlife to aircraft landing and taking off from airstrips since the Flight 1549 accident in 2009.
Flight 1549, a passenger flight from New York City to Seattle, Wash., had its airliner damaged by multiple Canada geese minutes after the jet lifted off from LaGuardia Airport. The Airbus A320 airliner landed in the Hudson River and the passengers and crew were saved without fatalities and five reported injuries.
"The FAA doesn't want us to farm the land at the airport because it could be a waterfowl attractant," Riggin said.
The airport property currently includes about 155 crop acres located southwest, east and northwest of its paved runway. The fields were typically rented to local farmers and planted in recent years with corn and soybeans.
A post-accident investigation performed on Flight 1549 determined that bird remains were found in both turbine engines of the aircraft, causing engine failure. To reduce the threat from wildlife, the FAA proposed that the Madison airport should convert the cropland to grassland.
FAA officials also want Madison to eliminate the wetlands located within the airport's boundaries.
Madison officials received the latest communication from the FAA in early November.
"(The USDA's Fish & Wildlife Service) recommended that to reduce wildlife attractants on the airport, certain wetlands be removed, along with a change from crop production to warm seasonal grasses," said the letter from Laurie J. Suttmeier, an FAA manager in Bismarck, N.D.
Madison officials have pointed out to the FAA that the ag land rentals provided 91 percent of the rental revenue gained through the land rentals and hangar leases. The city airport currently takes in about $39,000 in ag land rent and $3,700 in hangar land rents annually.
The overall annual budget for the Madison airport totals about $103,000. Riggin said that the FAA could make exceptions for economic hardship.
"You take away 38 percent of anybody's budget and that's a hardship," he said.
In addition to losing revenue, if the city converts to grass, FAA rules state that the grass must remain between 6 to 12 inches in height. Riggin estimated that if the city needs to mow that amount of grass about three times each summer, the expense will amount to about $48,000.
By converting to grass, Riggin estimates that the city will need to increase its funding from the current $60,400 to about $147,500.
According to Riggin, city officials will propose that the FAA allow Madison to rent out the land for growing alfalfa, allowing the city to continue to receive ag revenue from the property. Riggin estimated that in converting to alfalfa, the city's revenue would probably decrease by about $3,000.
"I'd say that's a fairly good compromise," Riggin said.
The FAA letter also stated, "Please understand if the City continues to farm crops as intended, there will be a delay in completing the (environmental assessment) and thus in implementing your airport improvement project."
City officials want to construct a new parallel taxiway and enlarge the airport's apron during the next several years. The FAA currently provides 90 percent of the funding for that type of construction work. The Madison construction projects would receive about $3.6 million in federal funding.
The FAA's proposal to eliminate the wetlands in and around the city airport will need the approval of the USFWS.
The current budget sequester under way in the federal government further complicates FAA funding. The sequester's funding cuts have interrupted the FAA's financial support, and even larger budget cuts are threatened in the coming months.
Story: http://madisonet.com
Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration want to reduce the risk to aircraft caused by wildlife by eliminating the city's practice of renting out land to agricultural producers to grow grain crops.
According to Morris Riggin, manager at Madison Municipal Airport, FAA officials have developed greater concerns about the threat from wildlife to aircraft landing and taking off from airstrips since the Flight 1549 accident in 2009.
Flight 1549, a passenger flight from New York City to Seattle, Wash., had its airliner damaged by multiple Canada geese minutes after the jet lifted off from LaGuardia Airport. The Airbus A320 airliner landed in the Hudson River and the passengers and crew were saved without fatalities and five reported injuries.
"The FAA doesn't want us to farm the land at the airport because it could be a waterfowl attractant," Riggin said.
The airport property currently includes about 155 crop acres located southwest, east and northwest of its paved runway. The fields were typically rented to local farmers and planted in recent years with corn and soybeans.
A post-accident investigation performed on Flight 1549 determined that bird remains were found in both turbine engines of the aircraft, causing engine failure. To reduce the threat from wildlife, the FAA proposed that the Madison airport should convert the cropland to grassland.
FAA officials also want Madison to eliminate the wetlands located within the airport's boundaries.
Madison officials received the latest communication from the FAA in early November.
"(The USDA's Fish & Wildlife Service) recommended that to reduce wildlife attractants on the airport, certain wetlands be removed, along with a change from crop production to warm seasonal grasses," said the letter from Laurie J. Suttmeier, an FAA manager in Bismarck, N.D.
Madison officials have pointed out to the FAA that the ag land rentals provided 91 percent of the rental revenue gained through the land rentals and hangar leases. The city airport currently takes in about $39,000 in ag land rent and $3,700 in hangar land rents annually.
The overall annual budget for the Madison airport totals about $103,000. Riggin said that the FAA could make exceptions for economic hardship.
"You take away 38 percent of anybody's budget and that's a hardship," he said.
In addition to losing revenue, if the city converts to grass, FAA rules state that the grass must remain between 6 to 12 inches in height. Riggin estimated that if the city needs to mow that amount of grass about three times each summer, the expense will amount to about $48,000.
By converting to grass, Riggin estimates that the city will need to increase its funding from the current $60,400 to about $147,500.
According to Riggin, city officials will propose that the FAA allow Madison to rent out the land for growing alfalfa, allowing the city to continue to receive ag revenue from the property. Riggin estimated that in converting to alfalfa, the city's revenue would probably decrease by about $3,000.
"I'd say that's a fairly good compromise," Riggin said.
The FAA letter also stated, "Please understand if the City continues to farm crops as intended, there will be a delay in completing the (environmental assessment) and thus in implementing your airport improvement project."
City officials want to construct a new parallel taxiway and enlarge the airport's apron during the next several years. The FAA currently provides 90 percent of the funding for that type of construction work. The Madison construction projects would receive about $3.6 million in federal funding.
The FAA's proposal to eliminate the wetlands in and around the city airport will need the approval of the USFWS.
The current budget sequester under way in the federal government further complicates FAA funding. The sequester's funding cuts have interrupted the FAA's financial support, and even larger budget cuts are threatened in the coming months.
Story: http://madisonet.com
Mountain air service comes at an expense
By Lauren Glendenning - Vail Daily
This is the first part in a series about the challenges mountain resort airports face.
Read Saturday’s paper for the second part of this series which examines the physical restrictions at mountain resort airports.
EAGLE COUNTY — Mike Berland has nearly 9 million frequent flyer miles between United and American Airlines. When you fly that often, convenience is key.
Berland, of Westchester County, New York, has a condo in Vail and typically flies a winter nonstop flight to the Eagle County Regional Airport from either Newark, N.J., or John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, New York. The Eagle airport is only convenient, however, when there’s a nonstop service option, he said.
“You can’t count on a connection to Eagle,” Berland said. “When you’re a frequent flyer, you first think about what kind of airplane it is. Big planes are more reliable.”
Berland is one of countless mountain flyers with specific criteria for choosing when and where to fly. Criteria considered ranges from nonstop service to costs to weather concerns to the size of the aircraft. For some, a two-plus-hour drive to Denver over high mountain passes during a snowstorm is worth it if hundreds of dollars in fare savings are at stake.
Mountain resort airports with commercial air service have to fight hard for flight service so second-home owners like Berland and thousands of skiers can enjoy easy access each winter — they’re the flyers whose money supports local economies the most.
Most airports have to offer airlines what’s called a minimum revenue guarantee before the airlines will consider adding service to the market, making the negotiating process tricky when compared to major markets where airlines naturally want to be. Mountain airports also have limitations in terms of the type of aircraft that can land or take off, as well as wind concerns, high altitude air density, terrain obstacles and weight restrictions. It all equates to a variety of challenges that mountain airports constantly face. Throw in massive consolidation within the airline industry — American Airlines and U.S. Airways got the green light to merge from the Department of Justice this month, which means an industry that had 10 major U.S. airlines 12 years ago now has four that dominate the market — and a loss in available seats becomes another major concern as airports look to the future.
Minimum revenue guarantees
The EGE Air Alliance, a nonprofit group that raises money to support air service into the Eagle County Regional Airport, raised $400,000 earlier this year in order to bring in a summer flight from Houston. The amount was negotiated between United Airlines and the alliance, but if the flight would have made more than $400,000, the alliance would have paid nothing.
Given it was a new flight and the alliance got a late start with its fundraising and marketing efforts, the entire $400,000 was necessary, said Chris Romer, president and CEO of the Vail Valley Partnership, which oversees the alliance.
The negotiated minimum revenue guarantee takes into account everything from flight crew costs to landing fees, overhead and fuel. If United Airlines would have made $200,000 on the Houston flight, the alliance would have only had to cover the difference in order to meet the guarantee. The flight filled 62 percent of seats, however, and the industry standard is upwards of 80 percent. The alliance is optimistic next summer’s flights will sell more seats.
Nearly every mountain resort airport relies on minimum revenue guarantees in order to maintain or grow air service. In recent years, a trend seen across the region is a loss in available seats on commercial flights, with a few exceptions.
When flights turn out to be wildly successful, the guarantees are phased out. The EGE Air Alliance once subsidized a summer American Airlines flight from Dallas, for example, that is now thriving on its own.
Jackson, Wyo., has a mountain resort airport with broad-based community support. The Jackson Hole Air Improvement Resources board, or JH Air, which more or less operates like the EGE Air Alliance does in Eagle County, has been able to build a successful flight service program over the years to a point where less than 20 percent of the flights this coming winter are subsidized, said JH Air Chairman Mike Gierau. It took a lot of work to get to that point, though.
When Jackson Hole businesses started pledging money for flight service more than a decade ago — before JH Air’s existence — Gierau remembers hearing that business owners who contributed to the revenue guarantees would get their money back if the flights made enough money.
“We never got our money back,” Gierau, a restaurant owner, said.
He thinks he may have gotten roughly $5 back for every $100 contributed one year, but that was it. Gierau and a few other business owners would later get together with the Jackson Hole ski resort owners to organize a more formalized funding structure — they knew that minimum revenue guarantees were and always will be a crucial part of the air service equation there.
At the Yampa Valley Regional Airport, which services Steamboat Springs, the only flights that don’t have minimum revenue guarantees this winter are the commuter flights that connect in Denver, said Airport Manager David Ruppel, adding that one other United flight from Chicago is the only non-commuter route without a guarantee.
He remembers a time not so long ago — pre-economic downturn — when the airport and community weren’t paying the full amount of the guarantees because flights were more successful. The community paid the full revenue guarantees throughout the downturn, though, but Ruppel is optimistic about the future.
“We expect — as we see the economy improve and people come back to resorts, and as load factors improve — we won’t be paying full caps and we’ll probably have more money to put toward other flights,” he said.
Complex economics
Regional airports can’t always buy air service, though. Southwest Airlines doesn’t traditionally offer seasonal service, so the economics come down to a lot more than a simple revenue guarantee for that airline.
“We are courted and in conversation literally with dozens and dozens of communities every year. And in a world now where we’re combining with (AirTran Airways), we’re now getting hit up from all over the world,” said Brad Hawkins, spokesman for Southwest Airlines. “In order to have the economics work for a 737 — or several of them — to come in daily, year-round, the community has to be of a certain size.”
The seasonality of resort towns makes it impossible under that strategy to gain Southwest service. It’s a sad fact for the local residents in resort communities who would like more access to their local airports through lower fares. Local residents who commented on a Facebook poll about which airports they use collectively complained about the high fares at both the Eagle County Regional Airport and the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport.
“We’d love to see fares come down,” said Greg Phillips, aviation director at the Eagle County Airport. “Competition is one way to do that. ... One thing we have to be careful about is if you bring in a low cost carrier and all of a sudden they push down the price of flights, our good legacy carriers who stuck by us and have been with us all this time here — if you push the prices down to the point they’re not profitable anymore, then you win the battle, but you lose the war.”
If an airport brings in a competing flight and the market can’t support both flights, eventually one of the carriers will drop out, said Gabe Shalley, an EGE Air Alliance board member and the airline marketing manager for Vail Resorts. She spoke on behalf of her Air Alliance role for this story and not Vail Resorts.
Mountain airports are extremely vulnerable to air service decreases. When Frontier Airlines pulled out of Steamboat Springs in the 2011-12 winter it caused a 9 percent decrease in available seats. Frontier also pulled out of Aspen at the end of the 2011-12 ski season because the airline phased out the only airplanes in its fleet — the Bombardier Q400 — that were physically capable of flying into the Aspen airport, which delivered a big hit to Aspen’s available seats that year — a loss of more than 20 percent of available seats.
“That created some market forces that had some undesirable outcomes,” said Bill Tomcich, the president of Stay Aspen Snowmass and the community representative who builds relationships with the airlines alongside Aspen Airport Director Jim Elwood. “One of the reasons Delta decided to pull out in 2010 was because of stiff competition from Frontier and they weren’t happy with it.”
The Aspen/Pitkin County Airport does things a little differently with its airline relationships. They try to avoid revenue guarantee deals whenever possible, Tomcich said.
“We’ve always allowed the free market to determine the appropriate level of service here,” he said.
The free market in Aspen also works a little differently. The posh resort town attracts guests with high discretionary incomes that support higher fares, which equals revenue for airlines. But that doesn’t mean Aspen can just sit back and let the market determine everything.
“No airline will come into any resort destination without some sort of economic incentive package — that’s just the reality of working with airlines today,” Tomcich said. “Our job is to come up with a fair incentive package (such as marketing or waiving airport fees) that helps saw the needle in favor of launching aircraft into our airport versus somewhere else, but also create a foundation for them to succeed here.”
Read Saturday’s paper for the second part of this series which examines the physical restrictions at mountain resort airports.
Story and Photos: http://www.vaildaily.com
This is the first part in a series about the challenges mountain resort airports face.
Read Saturday’s paper for the second part of this series which examines the physical restrictions at mountain resort airports.
EAGLE COUNTY — Mike Berland has nearly 9 million frequent flyer miles between United and American Airlines. When you fly that often, convenience is key.
Berland, of Westchester County, New York, has a condo in Vail and typically flies a winter nonstop flight to the Eagle County Regional Airport from either Newark, N.J., or John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, New York. The Eagle airport is only convenient, however, when there’s a nonstop service option, he said.
“You can’t count on a connection to Eagle,” Berland said. “When you’re a frequent flyer, you first think about what kind of airplane it is. Big planes are more reliable.”
Berland is one of countless mountain flyers with specific criteria for choosing when and where to fly. Criteria considered ranges from nonstop service to costs to weather concerns to the size of the aircraft. For some, a two-plus-hour drive to Denver over high mountain passes during a snowstorm is worth it if hundreds of dollars in fare savings are at stake.
Mountain resort airports with commercial air service have to fight hard for flight service so second-home owners like Berland and thousands of skiers can enjoy easy access each winter — they’re the flyers whose money supports local economies the most.
Most airports have to offer airlines what’s called a minimum revenue guarantee before the airlines will consider adding service to the market, making the negotiating process tricky when compared to major markets where airlines naturally want to be. Mountain airports also have limitations in terms of the type of aircraft that can land or take off, as well as wind concerns, high altitude air density, terrain obstacles and weight restrictions. It all equates to a variety of challenges that mountain airports constantly face. Throw in massive consolidation within the airline industry — American Airlines and U.S. Airways got the green light to merge from the Department of Justice this month, which means an industry that had 10 major U.S. airlines 12 years ago now has four that dominate the market — and a loss in available seats becomes another major concern as airports look to the future.
Minimum revenue guarantees
The EGE Air Alliance, a nonprofit group that raises money to support air service into the Eagle County Regional Airport, raised $400,000 earlier this year in order to bring in a summer flight from Houston. The amount was negotiated between United Airlines and the alliance, but if the flight would have made more than $400,000, the alliance would have paid nothing.
Given it was a new flight and the alliance got a late start with its fundraising and marketing efforts, the entire $400,000 was necessary, said Chris Romer, president and CEO of the Vail Valley Partnership, which oversees the alliance.
The negotiated minimum revenue guarantee takes into account everything from flight crew costs to landing fees, overhead and fuel. If United Airlines would have made $200,000 on the Houston flight, the alliance would have only had to cover the difference in order to meet the guarantee. The flight filled 62 percent of seats, however, and the industry standard is upwards of 80 percent. The alliance is optimistic next summer’s flights will sell more seats.
Nearly every mountain resort airport relies on minimum revenue guarantees in order to maintain or grow air service. In recent years, a trend seen across the region is a loss in available seats on commercial flights, with a few exceptions.
When flights turn out to be wildly successful, the guarantees are phased out. The EGE Air Alliance once subsidized a summer American Airlines flight from Dallas, for example, that is now thriving on its own.
Jackson, Wyo., has a mountain resort airport with broad-based community support. The Jackson Hole Air Improvement Resources board, or JH Air, which more or less operates like the EGE Air Alliance does in Eagle County, has been able to build a successful flight service program over the years to a point where less than 20 percent of the flights this coming winter are subsidized, said JH Air Chairman Mike Gierau. It took a lot of work to get to that point, though.
When Jackson Hole businesses started pledging money for flight service more than a decade ago — before JH Air’s existence — Gierau remembers hearing that business owners who contributed to the revenue guarantees would get their money back if the flights made enough money.
“We never got our money back,” Gierau, a restaurant owner, said.
He thinks he may have gotten roughly $5 back for every $100 contributed one year, but that was it. Gierau and a few other business owners would later get together with the Jackson Hole ski resort owners to organize a more formalized funding structure — they knew that minimum revenue guarantees were and always will be a crucial part of the air service equation there.
At the Yampa Valley Regional Airport, which services Steamboat Springs, the only flights that don’t have minimum revenue guarantees this winter are the commuter flights that connect in Denver, said Airport Manager David Ruppel, adding that one other United flight from Chicago is the only non-commuter route without a guarantee.
He remembers a time not so long ago — pre-economic downturn — when the airport and community weren’t paying the full amount of the guarantees because flights were more successful. The community paid the full revenue guarantees throughout the downturn, though, but Ruppel is optimistic about the future.
“We expect — as we see the economy improve and people come back to resorts, and as load factors improve — we won’t be paying full caps and we’ll probably have more money to put toward other flights,” he said.
Complex economics
Regional airports can’t always buy air service, though. Southwest Airlines doesn’t traditionally offer seasonal service, so the economics come down to a lot more than a simple revenue guarantee for that airline.
“We are courted and in conversation literally with dozens and dozens of communities every year. And in a world now where we’re combining with (AirTran Airways), we’re now getting hit up from all over the world,” said Brad Hawkins, spokesman for Southwest Airlines. “In order to have the economics work for a 737 — or several of them — to come in daily, year-round, the community has to be of a certain size.”
The seasonality of resort towns makes it impossible under that strategy to gain Southwest service. It’s a sad fact for the local residents in resort communities who would like more access to their local airports through lower fares. Local residents who commented on a Facebook poll about which airports they use collectively complained about the high fares at both the Eagle County Regional Airport and the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport.
“We’d love to see fares come down,” said Greg Phillips, aviation director at the Eagle County Airport. “Competition is one way to do that. ... One thing we have to be careful about is if you bring in a low cost carrier and all of a sudden they push down the price of flights, our good legacy carriers who stuck by us and have been with us all this time here — if you push the prices down to the point they’re not profitable anymore, then you win the battle, but you lose the war.”
If an airport brings in a competing flight and the market can’t support both flights, eventually one of the carriers will drop out, said Gabe Shalley, an EGE Air Alliance board member and the airline marketing manager for Vail Resorts. She spoke on behalf of her Air Alliance role for this story and not Vail Resorts.
Mountain airports are extremely vulnerable to air service decreases. When Frontier Airlines pulled out of Steamboat Springs in the 2011-12 winter it caused a 9 percent decrease in available seats. Frontier also pulled out of Aspen at the end of the 2011-12 ski season because the airline phased out the only airplanes in its fleet — the Bombardier Q400 — that were physically capable of flying into the Aspen airport, which delivered a big hit to Aspen’s available seats that year — a loss of more than 20 percent of available seats.
“That created some market forces that had some undesirable outcomes,” said Bill Tomcich, the president of Stay Aspen Snowmass and the community representative who builds relationships with the airlines alongside Aspen Airport Director Jim Elwood. “One of the reasons Delta decided to pull out in 2010 was because of stiff competition from Frontier and they weren’t happy with it.”
The Aspen/Pitkin County Airport does things a little differently with its airline relationships. They try to avoid revenue guarantee deals whenever possible, Tomcich said.
“We’ve always allowed the free market to determine the appropriate level of service here,” he said.
The free market in Aspen also works a little differently. The posh resort town attracts guests with high discretionary incomes that support higher fares, which equals revenue for airlines. But that doesn’t mean Aspen can just sit back and let the market determine everything.
“No airline will come into any resort destination without some sort of economic incentive package — that’s just the reality of working with airlines today,” Tomcich said. “Our job is to come up with a fair incentive package (such as marketing or waiving airport fees) that helps saw the needle in favor of launching aircraft into our airport versus somewhere else, but also create a foundation for them to succeed here.”
Read Saturday’s paper for the second part of this series which examines the physical restrictions at mountain resort airports.
Story and Photos: http://www.vaildaily.com
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Dick Trail: The state of aviation
You may have noticed in the media that the airlines may be experiencing a pilot shortage. Could be, and it was predictable.
Recently the FAA changed the rules to make the traveling public "safer." Never mind that travel by commercial air has been the safest mode of travel in the history of mankind. The rule change came partially from the investigation following the crash of a Colgan Airways airplane arriving into Cleveland. The loss of life was unfortunate and sad.
The Colgan pilot in command had a spotty record, having flunked several check rides. In each case, he received remedial training and was put back on the line. Union rules. The copilot, the airlines call them FO's for First Officer, was really inexperienced and was not assertive in making corrections to the captain.
The weather was bad with snow and accumulating airframe icing but was perfectly flyable for a good pilot crew.
It may be Monday-morning quarterbacking but In my experience as a KC-135 Tanker Squadron Commander, I would have managed my crews a little better.
I flew regularly with my flight crews and evaluated my crew members. I paired weak pilots with strong copilots.
Weak and or inexperienced copilots I paired with strong pilots to mentor them and get them up to my standards. Copilots that didn't improve went to non-flying jobs.
Read more here: http://www.mccookgazette.com
Recently the FAA changed the rules to make the traveling public "safer." Never mind that travel by commercial air has been the safest mode of travel in the history of mankind. The rule change came partially from the investigation following the crash of a Colgan Airways airplane arriving into Cleveland. The loss of life was unfortunate and sad.
The Colgan pilot in command had a spotty record, having flunked several check rides. In each case, he received remedial training and was put back on the line. Union rules. The copilot, the airlines call them FO's for First Officer, was really inexperienced and was not assertive in making corrections to the captain.
The weather was bad with snow and accumulating airframe icing but was perfectly flyable for a good pilot crew.
It may be Monday-morning quarterbacking but In my experience as a KC-135 Tanker Squadron Commander, I would have managed my crews a little better.
I flew regularly with my flight crews and evaluated my crew members. I paired weak pilots with strong copilots.
Weak and or inexperienced copilots I paired with strong pilots to mentor them and get them up to my standards. Copilots that didn't improve went to non-flying jobs.
Read more here: http://www.mccookgazette.com
Monday, November 25, 2013
A forum tonight on noise from low-flying jets
The Town-Village Aircraft Safety Noise Abatement Committee plans to host a meeting Monday to discuss concerns over low-flying planes and ways to control jet noise in communities near Kennedy and LaGuardia airports.
The meeting is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. at the Village of Lawrence Yacht and Country Club, at 101 Causeway in Lawrence. Representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have been invited to attend.
Earlier this month, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo directed the Port Authority to study aircraft noise over Long Island and hold public hearings about the issue. Cuomo ordered the work after vetoing a bill Nov. 13 that called for the study but needed approval from New Jersey lawmakers.
Residents have also voiced concerns on a Kennedy Airport runway expansion plan that calls for the threshold -- the touchdown point -- on runway 4L/22R to be extended, by 728 feet, to meet new federal requirements for a “runway safety area.”
Noise reduction advocates have also asked the Federal Aviation Administration to exempt Kennedy and LaGuardia airports from a proposed rule that would allow the agency to change flight procedures without conducting environmental impact studies.
New procedures from implementing the NextGen satellite-based air traffic control system could mean increased noise from landings and takeoffs, and from more aircraft flying at lower altitudes, advocates have said. For more information, call TVASNAC at 516-489-5000 ext. 3562.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://www.newsday.com
The meeting is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. at the Village of Lawrence Yacht and Country Club, at 101 Causeway in Lawrence. Representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have been invited to attend.
Earlier this month, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo directed the Port Authority to study aircraft noise over Long Island and hold public hearings about the issue. Cuomo ordered the work after vetoing a bill Nov. 13 that called for the study but needed approval from New Jersey lawmakers.
Residents have also voiced concerns on a Kennedy Airport runway expansion plan that calls for the threshold -- the touchdown point -- on runway 4L/22R to be extended, by 728 feet, to meet new federal requirements for a “runway safety area.”
Noise reduction advocates have also asked the Federal Aviation Administration to exempt Kennedy and LaGuardia airports from a proposed rule that would allow the agency to change flight procedures without conducting environmental impact studies.
New procedures from implementing the NextGen satellite-based air traffic control system could mean increased noise from landings and takeoffs, and from more aircraft flying at lower altitudes, advocates have said. For more information, call TVASNAC at 516-489-5000 ext. 3562.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://www.newsday.com
Saturday, November 23, 2013
‘No embargo on 787 deliveries’
Director-General of Civil Aviation Arun Mishra said on Saturday there is no question of the country placing a year’s embargo on the delivery of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, especially since the aircraft was essential to the profitability of Air India. Mishra was responding to reports of India’s retaliation to the threat of a downgrade by the Federal Aviation Administration of the country’s air safety rankings.
“That’s absurd. There is no question of that. It is a contract between Air India and Boeing; how can the government intervene? In any case, the Federal Aviation Administration is an independent authority of the US government and this is a technical evaluation, it has nothing to do with commercial or diplomatic relations,” he said. Mishra added, “Practically speaking, the sales of Air India hang on the Dreamliner. All their plans for revival are on the Dreamliner. There is no question of cancellations.”
Though the FAA raised 33 points after its safety audit, the DGCA said FAA’s main requirement is expected to be met by December 11 with the hiring of 20 new flight operations inspectors on market salaries, taking the total to 65.
Source: http://www.financialexpress.com
“That’s absurd. There is no question of that. It is a contract between Air India and Boeing; how can the government intervene? In any case, the Federal Aviation Administration is an independent authority of the US government and this is a technical evaluation, it has nothing to do with commercial or diplomatic relations,” he said. Mishra added, “Practically speaking, the sales of Air India hang on the Dreamliner. All their plans for revival are on the Dreamliner. There is no question of cancellations.”
Though the FAA raised 33 points after its safety audit, the DGCA said FAA’s main requirement is expected to be met by December 11 with the hiring of 20 new flight operations inspectors on market salaries, taking the total to 65.
Source: http://www.financialexpress.com
Friday, November 22, 2013
Mountain resort airports, Part 2: Tough challenges at Colorado’s high altitude runways
The is the second in a series
on mountain resort airports. Read the Nov. 23 print edition for the final installment, which examines the various funding models at resort airports, as well as future flight-service challenges.
Linda Erickson lives in Edwards and always uses Denver International Airport. She’s a frequent business traveler but typically can’t justify using the Eagle County Regional Airport.
“I can take (a Colorado Mountain
Express van) to Denver and get to my destination in half the time I
would spend flying all over the place making multiple connections,” she
said. “Flights out of Eagle are outrageously priced. My preference would
certainly be to fly out of Eagle if those two points could be
resolved.”
Unfortunately for Erickson and many other
frequent mountain travelers, the reasons for her frustrations can’t be
easily resolved. Mountain airports are configured around many obstacles,
including mountainous terrain and complex high-altitude flying
conditions.
Mountain airports face
challenging weather patterns, including temperature, precipitation,
humidity and wind. According to the 2010 Colorado Mountain Airport
Study, even moderate temperatures in the summer can cause high density
altitude, which decreases aircraft lift and engine performance. Airports
are already constrained because of mountainous terrain, so a decrease
in engine performance is a serious problem, according to the report.
‘Complete Chaos’
Aviation consultant Kent Myers could talk about the technical restrictions at mountain airports for hours, maybe even days.
When airplanes depart they have to be able to perform to a Federal Aviation Administration standard known as an engine-out maneuver, he said. It’s a technique pilots need to know in case of an engine failure. Doing such a maneuver over any obstacle — especially mountains — is not wise.
“When the front wheel lifts off, if you blow the engine at that time, you have to turn around and land with one engine,” Myers said. “Because of obstructions of Red Table Mountain (near the Eagle County airport), you can’t do that maneuver, but you can do it in Aspen.”
The result is that Aspen can have a regional jet fly outbound with a limited weight restriction, but the Eagle County airport needs a more powerful, larger gauge aircraft, Myers said.
In Aspen, space is also limited. There’s one runway, just like at the Eagle County airport, but in Aspen there’s a 95-foot wingspan restriction. That limits the type of aircraft Aspen can accommodate.
“The restrictions on the wingspan here and restrictions on max gross landing weight — you’ll never see a (Boeing) 757 or an Airbus here,” said Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass and the community representative who deals with the airlines.
There is a demand for use by larger wingspan aircraft, but that would require relocation of the parallel taxiway and aprons, reducing aircraft parking by as much as half, according to the Colorado Mountain Airport Study Update technical report in 2010.
Shenna Johnston, of Glenwood Springs, knows how all the high altitude science affects her. She tries to fly out of the Aspen airport when she can because she said she can often find cheaper flights there than out of Eagle County. But that choice often has its consequences.
“Aspen is tricky during the winter months because if there’s a snow storm, that shuts down the airport. You have no choice but to drive to Denver in hopes of scoring a standby flight. It’s complete chaos,” she said. “I’ve done the drive to Denver with 2 feet of snow on Vail Pass and 18-wheelers jack-knifed all over the pass.”
For some travelers, it’s simple math. If a flight into the Eagle County Airport is within $150 of the fare into Denver, Debbie Blount chooses Eagle.
“I watch the fares regularly and try to book when I see the price drop,” she said. “Unfortunately during shoulder seasons neither American or Delta are offering service. I would love to see a player such as AirTran/Southwest try service into EGE, even if it was just seasonally so we could have a little competition and see some more reasonable pricing.”
A Southwest spokesman said the airline won’t play in seasonal markets, so that option is out — at least for now. It doesn’t mean the EGE Air Alliance and other groups won’t continue to court the airline, though.
Less seats
The Boeing 757 has been a workhorse for the Eagle County Airport, but most airlines are grounding them because they’re older planes and aren’t very fuel-efficient. The planes are being replaced with Airbus 319s — great for fuel efficiency, but there’s roughly 60 less seats than on a 757.
“The most current negative impact on the Eagle Airport, as well as other resort communities, is the 757 retirement,” Myers said. “The available seats are shrinking not because it’s anybody’s fault, it’s because of what’s happening with the aircraft. Does it mean we should serve Chicago twice a day? That’s a pretty big leap.”
The Airbus that can fly into the Eagle County Airport still has about 50 more seats than the largest commercial aircraft flying into Aspen, though. Phillips said the airport estimates that roughly 20 percent of Eagle County Airport winter traffic is heading to Aspen. Aspen/Pitkin County Airport Aviation Director Jim Elwood thinks the number is more like 10 percent.
“(Aspen is) bringing 66-passenger planes in. A backup plan for someone might be to come here (if seats to Aspen are sold out),” EGE Air Alliance board member Gabe Shalley said.
Aspen and Eagle both serve many of the same destination markets, but Eagle can fly in longer-distance flights because it can accommodate larger aircraft. Aspen’s farthest market this winter is Atlanta, while Eagle will have nonstop service from farther markets such as Miami, Newark, New York City and Toronto. The Toronto flight, which clears customs in Canada before departure and then again in Canada upon return, will be the only direct international flight this winter into a Colorado mountain resort airport.
In addition to changes in fleets, the airline industry’s consolidation to just four dominant domestic carriers — which account for more than 80 percent of the total market — is causing a need for smaller airports to recreate relationships with airlines, said Yampa Valley Airport Manager David Ruppel. Air service at resort airports is all about relationships with the airlines, he said.
“When those connections change, it just makes it that much more challenging to get the best deal,” he said.
The importance of being able to strike the right deals with airlines can’t be understated. The Aspen/Pitkin County Airport generates $841.1 million in economic output each year, and the Eagle County Regional Airport generates $635.9 million, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation’s 2013 Economic Impact Study for Colorado Airports.
You can debate the methodology, Aspen Aviation Director Jim Elwood said, but either way it’s an interesting analysis that says a lot about the economic importance of airports.
Aspen and Eagle are the top economic generators behind Denver International Airport and Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, respectively, of commercial service airports in the state. That performance would be impossible without economic incentives or revenue guarantees for air service, which are made possible through relationships between resort airports and the airlines.
“The airport is like a utility for people, like turning the lights on. You go to the airport and the planes are there,” Eagle County Regional Airport Aviation Director Greg Phillips said. “It’s getting to the point where it’s not like that anymore. You’ve got to be responsive, you’ve got to be actively working to promote and build air service, particularly in smaller communities like this where we don’t have large native populations.”
Story and Photos: http://www.summitdaily.com
This is the first in a series on the challenges mountain resort airports face: Mountain resort airports hit turbulence in attempts to grow number of flights, seats
Linda Erickson lives in Edwards and always uses Denver International Airport. She’s a frequent business traveler but typically can’t justify using the Eagle County Regional Airport.
Aviation consultant Kent Myers could talk about the technical restrictions at mountain airports for hours, maybe even days.
When airplanes depart they have to be able to perform to a Federal Aviation Administration standard known as an engine-out maneuver, he said. It’s a technique pilots need to know in case of an engine failure. Doing such a maneuver over any obstacle — especially mountains — is not wise.
“When the front wheel lifts off, if you blow the engine at that time, you have to turn around and land with one engine,” Myers said. “Because of obstructions of Red Table Mountain (near the Eagle County airport), you can’t do that maneuver, but you can do it in Aspen.”
The result is that Aspen can have a regional jet fly outbound with a limited weight restriction, but the Eagle County airport needs a more powerful, larger gauge aircraft, Myers said.
In Aspen, space is also limited. There’s one runway, just like at the Eagle County airport, but in Aspen there’s a 95-foot wingspan restriction. That limits the type of aircraft Aspen can accommodate.
“The restrictions on the wingspan here and restrictions on max gross landing weight — you’ll never see a (Boeing) 757 or an Airbus here,” said Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass and the community representative who deals with the airlines.
There is a demand for use by larger wingspan aircraft, but that would require relocation of the parallel taxiway and aprons, reducing aircraft parking by as much as half, according to the Colorado Mountain Airport Study Update technical report in 2010.
Shenna Johnston, of Glenwood Springs, knows how all the high altitude science affects her. She tries to fly out of the Aspen airport when she can because she said she can often find cheaper flights there than out of Eagle County. But that choice often has its consequences.
“Aspen is tricky during the winter months because if there’s a snow storm, that shuts down the airport. You have no choice but to drive to Denver in hopes of scoring a standby flight. It’s complete chaos,” she said. “I’ve done the drive to Denver with 2 feet of snow on Vail Pass and 18-wheelers jack-knifed all over the pass.”
For some travelers, it’s simple math. If a flight into the Eagle County Airport is within $150 of the fare into Denver, Debbie Blount chooses Eagle.
“I watch the fares regularly and try to book when I see the price drop,” she said. “Unfortunately during shoulder seasons neither American or Delta are offering service. I would love to see a player such as AirTran/Southwest try service into EGE, even if it was just seasonally so we could have a little competition and see some more reasonable pricing.”
A Southwest spokesman said the airline won’t play in seasonal markets, so that option is out — at least for now. It doesn’t mean the EGE Air Alliance and other groups won’t continue to court the airline, though.
Less seats
The Boeing 757 has been a workhorse for the Eagle County Airport, but most airlines are grounding them because they’re older planes and aren’t very fuel-efficient. The planes are being replaced with Airbus 319s — great for fuel efficiency, but there’s roughly 60 less seats than on a 757.
“The most current negative impact on the Eagle Airport, as well as other resort communities, is the 757 retirement,” Myers said. “The available seats are shrinking not because it’s anybody’s fault, it’s because of what’s happening with the aircraft. Does it mean we should serve Chicago twice a day? That’s a pretty big leap.”
The Airbus that can fly into the Eagle County Airport still has about 50 more seats than the largest commercial aircraft flying into Aspen, though. Phillips said the airport estimates that roughly 20 percent of Eagle County Airport winter traffic is heading to Aspen. Aspen/Pitkin County Airport Aviation Director Jim Elwood thinks the number is more like 10 percent.
“(Aspen is) bringing 66-passenger planes in. A backup plan for someone might be to come here (if seats to Aspen are sold out),” EGE Air Alliance board member Gabe Shalley said.
Aspen and Eagle both serve many of the same destination markets, but Eagle can fly in longer-distance flights because it can accommodate larger aircraft. Aspen’s farthest market this winter is Atlanta, while Eagle will have nonstop service from farther markets such as Miami, Newark, New York City and Toronto. The Toronto flight, which clears customs in Canada before departure and then again in Canada upon return, will be the only direct international flight this winter into a Colorado mountain resort airport.
In addition to changes in fleets, the airline industry’s consolidation to just four dominant domestic carriers — which account for more than 80 percent of the total market — is causing a need for smaller airports to recreate relationships with airlines, said Yampa Valley Airport Manager David Ruppel. Air service at resort airports is all about relationships with the airlines, he said.
“When those connections change, it just makes it that much more challenging to get the best deal,” he said.
The importance of being able to strike the right deals with airlines can’t be understated. The Aspen/Pitkin County Airport generates $841.1 million in economic output each year, and the Eagle County Regional Airport generates $635.9 million, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation’s 2013 Economic Impact Study for Colorado Airports.
You can debate the methodology, Aspen Aviation Director Jim Elwood said, but either way it’s an interesting analysis that says a lot about the economic importance of airports.
Aspen and Eagle are the top economic generators behind Denver International Airport and Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, respectively, of commercial service airports in the state. That performance would be impossible without economic incentives or revenue guarantees for air service, which are made possible through relationships between resort airports and the airlines.
“The airport is like a utility for people, like turning the lights on. You go to the airport and the planes are there,” Eagle County Regional Airport Aviation Director Greg Phillips said. “It’s getting to the point where it’s not like that anymore. You’ve got to be responsive, you’ve got to be actively working to promote and build air service, particularly in smaller communities like this where we don’t have large native populations.”
Story and Photos: http://www.summitdaily.com
This is the first in a series on the challenges mountain resort airports face: Mountain resort airports hit turbulence in attempts to grow number of flights, seats
Thursday, November 21, 2013
End Of An Era: Monmouth Executive Airport (KBLM) Sold - Banner planes may be a casualty of the sale of the airport that Ed Brown built
The Monmouth Executive Airport -- for 75 years run by Ed Brown and, later, his family -- has been sold, airport officials said Thursday.
The airport has been bought by an investment group named Wall Aviation LLC, a group that has been in negotiations to buy the 645-acre airport on Route 34 for more than a dozen years, according to Richard A. Asper, chairman of Florida-based Aviation Professionals Group, a consulting company hired to shepherd Wall Aviation through the sale.
Portions of the sale were complete months ago, while some contingencies – such as a signoff from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Township of Wall – have been completed in recent days, Asper said.
The sale price is not being disclosed, Asper said.
Changes at the airport will be immediate, Asper said.
“This airport is going to join the 21st Century,’’ Asper said. “This is an airport that deserves to be first class.’’
To that end, the airport’s service station, or FBO, will be taken over by a new company – AvFuel -- effective Friday, Asper said.
The airport will beef up its safety measures, including closing off airstrips to airport tenants, and its infrastructure will be maintained and upgraded, Asper said.
“There’s going to be a completely different airport environment, not just paint and new signs,’’ Asper said. “It’s really the whole concept and notion of how to run a first-class airport, not like a hobby airport.”
Those changes may put out some of the airport’s current tenants, however.
Asper said those tenants who run “hybrid’’ businesses at Monmouth Executive, such as the Jersey Shore Skydiving or the planes flying advertising banners in the summer, may not mesh with the new vision of the airport.
“It’s very difficult to convince the pilot of a $30 million airplane to land here when he’s got to look out for people falling out of the sky,’’ Asper said.
The airport has a large number of other tenants, many of which have nothing to do with aviation, including a bank branch, a custom motorcycle shop and a two used tire sales businesses, among others.
Asper said all the tenants, who rent their space on a monthly basis, will be talked to in the coming weeks about the new vision for the airport.
“I’m hoping they’ll be all reasonable folks and anxious to ride with the tide,’’ he said.
The banner planes, nearly ubiquitous with summer at the Jersey Shore, are a business Asper said the new company likes, but he added that the fit with the airport is not exact.
“They don’t need a 7,000-foot airstrip to be in the banner business,’’ he said. “They will be ebbing out and we hope to help them relocate to an airport that is more conducive.”
Asper said Wall Aviation did not expect an increase in air traffic, but instead a change to the kind of traffic. He said he expected more corporate and private jets, which fly less frequently than banner planes and are quieter.
"If anything you'll find that the airport is going to be quieter than it has been in the past,'' he said.
Asper said Wall Aviation has been trying to buy the airport from the Brown family, and Ed Brown specifically prior to his death in 2006, for a dozen years.
Haggling over the price with Ed Brown was the first barrier, Asper said, followed by Brown’s decision to offer the airport to Monmouth County for $1 million more than the negotiated price the two sides agreed to, and finally negotiations over the cleanup of a superfund site on the airport property and more than $2 million in back taxes owed to Wall Township clogged the works, Asper said.
About 30 years ago, the airport had a tenant that manufactured computer circuit boards. Monitor Devicies/Intercircuits Inc., dumped waste water from the manufacturing process directly into the ground, contaminating about a 2-acrea area.
Once found out by the EPA, the company went under and the airport was left holding the bag for the cost of the cleanup. Brown, not known for backing down from anything, fought the EPA.
The airport eventually agreed to pay $20 million to clean up the site. Only about $500,000 of that has been paid, however. Wall Aviation will be held responsible for the remainder, according to the EPA.
Physical cleanup of the site has been completed by the EPA, but the agency will monitor the site for the next five years.
While battling over the cleanup, Brown also did not pay property taxes to Wall Township and the airport owed the town upwards of $2 million.
The township and Wall Aviation have agreed to a monthly payment plan with installments of $75,000. All money will be paid to the town by January, 2015.
Ed Brown, a supermarket cashier, started what was then Allaire Airport in 1938 when he borrowed a World War I tank from the borough of Belmar and rigged it to grade the 7,300-foot runway. He later added a 3,307-foot cross-runway.
Brown, who frequently tangled with township officials, did work on the airport himself, sometimes without the proper permits.
In the 1980s, he built a drive-in, fly-in movie theater where pilots could fly in and taxi to a parking spot behind rows of cars to watch a movie.
He built a bowling alley and converted one side of it to a nightclub. He had a golf driving range and once built an amusement park at the airport with a mini-railroad, ferris wheel and carousel.
Ed Brown died in 2006. The airport has been run by his step son, Jack Taylor, since that time.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://wall.patch.com
The airport has been bought by an investment group named Wall Aviation LLC, a group that has been in negotiations to buy the 645-acre airport on Route 34 for more than a dozen years, according to Richard A. Asper, chairman of Florida-based Aviation Professionals Group, a consulting company hired to shepherd Wall Aviation through the sale.
Portions of the sale were complete months ago, while some contingencies – such as a signoff from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Township of Wall – have been completed in recent days, Asper said.
The sale price is not being disclosed, Asper said.
Changes at the airport will be immediate, Asper said.
“This airport is going to join the 21st Century,’’ Asper said. “This is an airport that deserves to be first class.’’
To that end, the airport’s service station, or FBO, will be taken over by a new company – AvFuel -- effective Friday, Asper said.
The airport will beef up its safety measures, including closing off airstrips to airport tenants, and its infrastructure will be maintained and upgraded, Asper said.
“There’s going to be a completely different airport environment, not just paint and new signs,’’ Asper said. “It’s really the whole concept and notion of how to run a first-class airport, not like a hobby airport.”
Those changes may put out some of the airport’s current tenants, however.
Asper said those tenants who run “hybrid’’ businesses at Monmouth Executive, such as the Jersey Shore Skydiving or the planes flying advertising banners in the summer, may not mesh with the new vision of the airport.
“It’s very difficult to convince the pilot of a $30 million airplane to land here when he’s got to look out for people falling out of the sky,’’ Asper said.
The airport has a large number of other tenants, many of which have nothing to do with aviation, including a bank branch, a custom motorcycle shop and a two used tire sales businesses, among others.
Asper said all the tenants, who rent their space on a monthly basis, will be talked to in the coming weeks about the new vision for the airport.
“I’m hoping they’ll be all reasonable folks and anxious to ride with the tide,’’ he said.
The banner planes, nearly ubiquitous with summer at the Jersey Shore, are a business Asper said the new company likes, but he added that the fit with the airport is not exact.
“They don’t need a 7,000-foot airstrip to be in the banner business,’’ he said. “They will be ebbing out and we hope to help them relocate to an airport that is more conducive.”
Asper said Wall Aviation did not expect an increase in air traffic, but instead a change to the kind of traffic. He said he expected more corporate and private jets, which fly less frequently than banner planes and are quieter.
"If anything you'll find that the airport is going to be quieter than it has been in the past,'' he said.
Asper said Wall Aviation has been trying to buy the airport from the Brown family, and Ed Brown specifically prior to his death in 2006, for a dozen years.
Haggling over the price with Ed Brown was the first barrier, Asper said, followed by Brown’s decision to offer the airport to Monmouth County for $1 million more than the negotiated price the two sides agreed to, and finally negotiations over the cleanup of a superfund site on the airport property and more than $2 million in back taxes owed to Wall Township clogged the works, Asper said.
About 30 years ago, the airport had a tenant that manufactured computer circuit boards. Monitor Devicies/Intercircuits Inc., dumped waste water from the manufacturing process directly into the ground, contaminating about a 2-acrea area.
Once found out by the EPA, the company went under and the airport was left holding the bag for the cost of the cleanup. Brown, not known for backing down from anything, fought the EPA.
The airport eventually agreed to pay $20 million to clean up the site. Only about $500,000 of that has been paid, however. Wall Aviation will be held responsible for the remainder, according to the EPA.
Physical cleanup of the site has been completed by the EPA, but the agency will monitor the site for the next five years.
While battling over the cleanup, Brown also did not pay property taxes to Wall Township and the airport owed the town upwards of $2 million.
The township and Wall Aviation have agreed to a monthly payment plan with installments of $75,000. All money will be paid to the town by January, 2015.
Ed Brown, a supermarket cashier, started what was then Allaire Airport in 1938 when he borrowed a World War I tank from the borough of Belmar and rigged it to grade the 7,300-foot runway. He later added a 3,307-foot cross-runway.
Brown, who frequently tangled with township officials, did work on the airport himself, sometimes without the proper permits.
In the 1980s, he built a drive-in, fly-in movie theater where pilots could fly in and taxi to a parking spot behind rows of cars to watch a movie.
He built a bowling alley and converted one side of it to a nightclub. He had a golf driving range and once built an amusement park at the airport with a mini-railroad, ferris wheel and carousel.
Ed Brown died in 2006. The airport has been run by his step son, Jack Taylor, since that time.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://wall.patch.com
Federal charges issued against operator of Hiatt Airport (N97) - Thomasville, North Carolina
The operator of the Hiatt Airport in Thomasville is facing federal charges, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Paul Douglas Tharp, 53, of Greensboro, was arrested Wednesday on a federal criminal indictment charging him with lying to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about his qualifications as mechanic and a pilot and for flying an airplane without the proper pilot's license, Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, has announced.
Efforts by The Dispatch to reach a spokesperson with Hiatt Airport were unsuccessful Thursday night.
The five-count criminal indictment was unsealed Wednesday after the arrest of Tharp by law enforcement in Winston-Salem. Kathryn A. Jones, U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General (DOT-OIG) regional Special Agent-In-Charge, joined Tompkins in making the announcement.
The criminal indictment, according to the release, makes the following allegations:
"From in or around 2011, Tharp was hired by Warriors and Warbirds, a group based in Monroe to repair and refinish a multi-engine Curtiss Wright C-46F (C-46F) airplane that the group had purchased from an aviation museum in Midland, Texas. The Warriors and Warbirds group planned to feature the C-46F airplane at the museum located at the Charlotte-Monroe Executive Airport. Tharp, at the time, was certified to fly only single-engine aircraft. Tharp did not have a multi-engine pilot license and did not hold an FAA Mechanic Certificate with an Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) rating. The Warriors and Warbirds hired Tharp to repair and fly their aircraft, after Tharp told a group representative that he was an A&P mechanic and could get the C-46F in good condition, and that he was licensed to operate a multi-engine plane like the C-46F.
As part of his services to the group, Tharp regularly traveled to Texas where he performed maintenance on the C-46F, knowing he was not certified to do so. In addition to providing mechanic services, on several occasions Tharp acted as second in command during flights, even though he lacked the proper authorization to fly this type of airplane. On or about June 4, 2011, Tharp, acting again as second in command pilot, and other persons traveled via the C-46F from Monroe to an air show in Reading, Penn. Because the airplane still needed additional mechanical work to improve its airworthiness, the FAA required a special ferry permit before the plane could be flown back to Monroe. On or about June 5, 2011, an FAA inspector asked Tharp if someone had inspected the airplane's condition to determine if the C-46F was safe for the return flight from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and Tharp falsely represented he was an A&P mechanic who could make that determination. When the FAA inspector asked Tharp about his A&P certificate, Tharp lied and told the inspector that he had forgotten his A&P certificate in a rush to prepare the C-46F for the flight to Pennsylvania. Tharp then gave the FAA inspector the A&P certificate number of another A&P certificate holder who Tharp knew. This person did not give permission to Tharp to use his certificate number, and he became upset when he learned about Tharp's unauthorized use of his number.
Based upon Tharp's false representation about his status as an A&P mechanic and his unauthorized use of another person's certificate number, the FAA inspector issued a special ferry permit that allowed the C-46F and its passengers to fly from Pennsylvania back to Monroe. Tharp again acted as second in command of the multi-engine C-46F even though he should not have been flying this airplane.
After Tharp completed the return trip to North Carolina, the FAA inspector who issued the special ferry permit checked on the certificate number Tharp had provided and learned that Tharp had lied about having an A&P certificate. The FAA opened an investigation and when Tharp received a letter from the FAA inquiring whether he was an A&P mechanic and whether he had a pilot's certificate that allowed him to fly a multi-engine airplane like the C-46F, Tharp sent a reply letter to the FAA falsely stating, "I have been putting a time line of when I received my multi engine rating," despite knowing he had never had this rating. "
"Tharp knowingly and repeatedly lied about his qualifications to his clients and the FAA and in the process put lives at risk. Tharp's lack of proper certification as a pilot and a mechanic is a serious safety hazard and now Tharp must face the legal consequences of these dangerous lies," said Tompkins.
At sentencing Tharp faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the two criminal counts of making false statements to the FAA, and a maximum of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the three counts of flying without proper authorization.
Tompkins credited the special agents of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General for the investigation leading to Tharp's indictment. Assistant United States Attorney Kenneth M. Smith of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte is prosecuting the case.
Source: http://www.the-dispatch.com
Paul Douglas Tharp, 53, of Greensboro, was arrested Wednesday on a federal criminal indictment charging him with lying to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about his qualifications as mechanic and a pilot and for flying an airplane without the proper pilot's license, Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, has announced.
Efforts by The Dispatch to reach a spokesperson with Hiatt Airport were unsuccessful Thursday night.
The five-count criminal indictment was unsealed Wednesday after the arrest of Tharp by law enforcement in Winston-Salem. Kathryn A. Jones, U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General (DOT-OIG) regional Special Agent-In-Charge, joined Tompkins in making the announcement.
The criminal indictment, according to the release, makes the following allegations:
"From in or around 2011, Tharp was hired by Warriors and Warbirds, a group based in Monroe to repair and refinish a multi-engine Curtiss Wright C-46F (C-46F) airplane that the group had purchased from an aviation museum in Midland, Texas. The Warriors and Warbirds group planned to feature the C-46F airplane at the museum located at the Charlotte-Monroe Executive Airport. Tharp, at the time, was certified to fly only single-engine aircraft. Tharp did not have a multi-engine pilot license and did not hold an FAA Mechanic Certificate with an Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) rating. The Warriors and Warbirds hired Tharp to repair and fly their aircraft, after Tharp told a group representative that he was an A&P mechanic and could get the C-46F in good condition, and that he was licensed to operate a multi-engine plane like the C-46F.
As part of his services to the group, Tharp regularly traveled to Texas where he performed maintenance on the C-46F, knowing he was not certified to do so. In addition to providing mechanic services, on several occasions Tharp acted as second in command during flights, even though he lacked the proper authorization to fly this type of airplane. On or about June 4, 2011, Tharp, acting again as second in command pilot, and other persons traveled via the C-46F from Monroe to an air show in Reading, Penn. Because the airplane still needed additional mechanical work to improve its airworthiness, the FAA required a special ferry permit before the plane could be flown back to Monroe. On or about June 5, 2011, an FAA inspector asked Tharp if someone had inspected the airplane's condition to determine if the C-46F was safe for the return flight from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and Tharp falsely represented he was an A&P mechanic who could make that determination. When the FAA inspector asked Tharp about his A&P certificate, Tharp lied and told the inspector that he had forgotten his A&P certificate in a rush to prepare the C-46F for the flight to Pennsylvania. Tharp then gave the FAA inspector the A&P certificate number of another A&P certificate holder who Tharp knew. This person did not give permission to Tharp to use his certificate number, and he became upset when he learned about Tharp's unauthorized use of his number.
Based upon Tharp's false representation about his status as an A&P mechanic and his unauthorized use of another person's certificate number, the FAA inspector issued a special ferry permit that allowed the C-46F and its passengers to fly from Pennsylvania back to Monroe. Tharp again acted as second in command of the multi-engine C-46F even though he should not have been flying this airplane.
After Tharp completed the return trip to North Carolina, the FAA inspector who issued the special ferry permit checked on the certificate number Tharp had provided and learned that Tharp had lied about having an A&P certificate. The FAA opened an investigation and when Tharp received a letter from the FAA inquiring whether he was an A&P mechanic and whether he had a pilot's certificate that allowed him to fly a multi-engine airplane like the C-46F, Tharp sent a reply letter to the FAA falsely stating, "I have been putting a time line of when I received my multi engine rating," despite knowing he had never had this rating. "
"Tharp knowingly and repeatedly lied about his qualifications to his clients and the FAA and in the process put lives at risk. Tharp's lack of proper certification as a pilot and a mechanic is a serious safety hazard and now Tharp must face the legal consequences of these dangerous lies," said Tompkins.
At sentencing Tharp faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the two criminal counts of making false statements to the FAA, and a maximum of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the three counts of flying without proper authorization.
Tompkins credited the special agents of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General for the investigation leading to Tharp's indictment. Assistant United States Attorney Kenneth M. Smith of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte is prosecuting the case.
Source: http://www.the-dispatch.com
Drift In Magnetic North Spurs Runway Updates At John Wayne Airport (KSNA) - Santa Ana, California
SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — John Wayne Airport is set to become the first airport in Southern California to re-number its runways in response to Earth’s changing magnetic field.
Orange County Register reporter Mary-Ann Milbourn told KNX 1070′s Chris Sedens and Diane Thompson workers at John Wayne will re-number the airport’s two runways and update about two dozen directional signs to adjust for a periodic shift in magnetic north, the point at the top of the Earth that determines compass headings.
“It moves around, and right now, it’s moving about 40 miles a year towards Russia,” Milbourn said. “As it moves, if you have a stationary object like a runway that hasn’t been changed, eventually it’s headings will not line up with the magnetic north.”
Runway numbers and letters are determined from an airplane’s approach direction and measured clockwise from the magnetic north, according to the FAA.
While several airports around the world have taken similar measures in recent years – including most recently at Tampa International Airport in 2011 – John Wayne is the first in the region to do so.
Officials at Long Beach Airport and San Diego International did not have any current plans to renumber their runways, according to Milbourn.
The runways at John Wayne will not be closed during the transition, which an FAA spokesman told Milbourn is a measure all airports are advised to complete when the magnetic heading shifts more than 5 degrees from any existing runway markings.
Passengers, however, should have no concerns whatsoever about the re-numbering, according to Milbourn.
“All the airport authorities…work months and years in advance to make sure that all these things are done, all of the schedules, all of the manuals and charts are updated,” Milbourn said. “It will basically be more or less like flipping a switch.”
The re-numbering process is scheduled to completed by July 24, 2014, according to Milbourn.
Story and Audio: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com
Orange County Register reporter Mary-Ann Milbourn told KNX 1070′s Chris Sedens and Diane Thompson workers at John Wayne will re-number the airport’s two runways and update about two dozen directional signs to adjust for a periodic shift in magnetic north, the point at the top of the Earth that determines compass headings.
“It moves around, and right now, it’s moving about 40 miles a year towards Russia,” Milbourn said. “As it moves, if you have a stationary object like a runway that hasn’t been changed, eventually it’s headings will not line up with the magnetic north.”
Runway numbers and letters are determined from an airplane’s approach direction and measured clockwise from the magnetic north, according to the FAA.
While several airports around the world have taken similar measures in recent years – including most recently at Tampa International Airport in 2011 – John Wayne is the first in the region to do so.
Officials at Long Beach Airport and San Diego International did not have any current plans to renumber their runways, according to Milbourn.
The runways at John Wayne will not be closed during the transition, which an FAA spokesman told Milbourn is a measure all airports are advised to complete when the magnetic heading shifts more than 5 degrees from any existing runway markings.
Passengers, however, should have no concerns whatsoever about the re-numbering, according to Milbourn.
“All the airport authorities…work months and years in advance to make sure that all these things are done, all of the schedules, all of the manuals and charts are updated,” Milbourn said. “It will basically be more or less like flipping a switch.”
The re-numbering process is scheduled to completed by July 24, 2014, according to Milbourn.
Story and Audio: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com
Saturday, November 09, 2013
San Francisco International Airport (KSFO) Construction to Shut Down More Runways
Two runways at San Francisco International Airport will be closed next summer for the final phase of a construction project, airport officials said today.
Runways 1L and 1R will be reconfigured to create longer thresholds in case an airplane overshoots the runway as part of a federally mandated Runway Safety Area construction project, airport spokesman Doug Yakel said in a statement.
In addition, a new Engineered Material Arresting System will be installed that can safely catch a plane's landing gear if it overshoots.
Landing lights, navigation systems and other equipment will also be relocated as part of the project, Yakel said. Construction will start May 17, 2014, and last through September 2014. Work will be conducted day and night, seven days a week in order to complete the project quickly and minimize disruptions.
The airport will exclusively use its two main runways, Runways 28L and 28R, during the closures.
Travelers may experience minor delays during peak periods in good weather, and should expect more serious delays on bad weather days, similar to what the airports sees on winter days, Yakel said.
"We have been working with the FAA and the airlines for the past several years to develop a plan to adjust schedules and capacity in advance of the temporary closure in order to minimize the impact to our customers during construction," Yakel said in a statement. "Closing both runways at the same time is the safest and fastest option," Yakel said.
The airport previously closed a major runway in February this year as part of the same safety improvement project.
Source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com
Runways 1L and 1R will be reconfigured to create longer thresholds in case an airplane overshoots the runway as part of a federally mandated Runway Safety Area construction project, airport spokesman Doug Yakel said in a statement.
In addition, a new Engineered Material Arresting System will be installed that can safely catch a plane's landing gear if it overshoots.
Landing lights, navigation systems and other equipment will also be relocated as part of the project, Yakel said. Construction will start May 17, 2014, and last through September 2014. Work will be conducted day and night, seven days a week in order to complete the project quickly and minimize disruptions.
The airport will exclusively use its two main runways, Runways 28L and 28R, during the closures.
Travelers may experience minor delays during peak periods in good weather, and should expect more serious delays on bad weather days, similar to what the airports sees on winter days, Yakel said.
"We have been working with the FAA and the airlines for the past several years to develop a plan to adjust schedules and capacity in advance of the temporary closure in order to minimize the impact to our customers during construction," Yakel said in a statement. "Closing both runways at the same time is the safest and fastest option," Yakel said.
The airport previously closed a major runway in February this year as part of the same safety improvement project.
Source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com
Readington, New Jersey: Committee sets closed-door meeting to discuss Solberg Airport (N51) family land
Family-owned-and-operated Solberg Airport in Readington Township was founded in 1941 by Thor Solberg. It covers 102 acres and is surrounded by another 625 acres owned by the Solberg Family.
READINGTON TWP. — The mayor and Township Committee plan to meet behind closed doors to discuss Solberg Airport family land on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 8 a.m. at the Municipal Building.
If they take any action, that would happen in open session.
The township on Nov. 7 learned that it lost another round in the continuing court battle with Solberg Airport. Findings of an awaited Superior Court judge's decision came the day after about 500 people attended a hearing on the issue.
Barring further amendments, the case is set to go to trial in March, Solberg representatives said.
Judge Yolanda Ciccone denied the township's second amended complaint, in which the township wanted to change its lawsuit to allow Readington to buy the 102 acres used for airport operations — and then operate it as a public airport — rather that purchase the development rights only.
Ciccone further lifted a stay on a suit filed by the Solbergs in 2006 against the then-members of the Township Committee, saying that Readington officials have failed to comply with state law and zone for an airport safety zone and re-zone of the existing airport to a conforming use.
Stay with NJ.com for more on this issue.
Friday, November 08, 2013
Airport authority requests Northampton County subsidize Braden Airpark (N43) in 2014
The Lehigh-Northampton
Airport Authority has asked Northampton County to subsidize Braden
Airpark next year as the authority struggles to keep its finances in
order.
In a letter addressed to Northampton County Council President John Cusick, Charles Everett, executive director of the authority, said the Forks Township facility has never been profitable. The trend is not expected to change next year with a projected loss of $250,751 in 2014. The figure does not include needed capital improvement projects, which could climb up to $2.2 million, he wrote.
"Please let us know if Northampton County can provide financial assistance to the authority," Everett writes in the letter, dated today.
The authority has openly discussed selling the Forks Township facility for months as it tries to pay off the remaining $16 million from a court order from a lost lawsuit. The authority is seeking $3.5 million for the property, according to the Save Braden Initiative Group, a grass-roots organization working to keep the site as a general aviation airstrip.
The authority is prepared to sell 253 acres in Allen Township for $9.6 million to lessen the upcoming court payments.
The letter does not request a specific amount of funding. Councilman Robert Werner said he, Everett and LNAA Board Chairman Tony Iannelli met earlier in the week and found potential ways to cut projected costs at the airstrip.
"I'm not going to sit here and say Northampton County is going to subsidize everything," Werner told the authority officials during an economic development committee meeting tonight.
Among the savings Werner listed were bringing in a fixed-base operator to replace the departed Moyer Aviation, refurbishing the terminal at the airpark instead of razing it and getting software to operate fuel pumps after hours. Werner said the airpark has the cheapest fuel in the area, and the software will allow helicopter pilots more opportunities to bring their business there.
"We need to come back with a tighter plan that we can live with," Iannelli agreed.
Councilwoman Peg Ferraro questioned what the county would get in return for aiding the authority, which has butted heads with the council in recent months. The council has vocally opposed the potential sale of the airpark and criticized the authority over the management of its facilities.
"It would require some sort of ... oversight to ensure this mess doesn't happen again," Ferraro said, suggesting the county form an advisory committee to overlook the authority.
Everett and Iannelli agreed something could be negotiated if the county agreed to provide financial assistance. Iannelli also made it clear the authority has received the message.
"We hear today that you want this airpark to remain open. These people want this airpark to remain open," he said, gesturing to members of the Save Braden group in attendance.
Councilman Tom Dietrich provided the lone open dissent to the request. He questioned why the county would invest in an organization that has mismanaged the airpark and created its own financial struggles.
"Maybe we should not be subsidizing bad mistakes," he said.
In response to Dietrich's questioning, Everett said the authority has not asked Lehigh County commissioners for a 2014 subsidy.
Source: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com
In a letter addressed to Northampton County Council President John Cusick, Charles Everett, executive director of the authority, said the Forks Township facility has never been profitable. The trend is not expected to change next year with a projected loss of $250,751 in 2014. The figure does not include needed capital improvement projects, which could climb up to $2.2 million, he wrote.
"Please let us know if Northampton County can provide financial assistance to the authority," Everett writes in the letter, dated today.
The authority has openly discussed selling the Forks Township facility for months as it tries to pay off the remaining $16 million from a court order from a lost lawsuit. The authority is seeking $3.5 million for the property, according to the Save Braden Initiative Group, a grass-roots organization working to keep the site as a general aviation airstrip.
The authority is prepared to sell 253 acres in Allen Township for $9.6 million to lessen the upcoming court payments.
The letter does not request a specific amount of funding. Councilman Robert Werner said he, Everett and LNAA Board Chairman Tony Iannelli met earlier in the week and found potential ways to cut projected costs at the airstrip.
"I'm not going to sit here and say Northampton County is going to subsidize everything," Werner told the authority officials during an economic development committee meeting tonight.
Among the savings Werner listed were bringing in a fixed-base operator to replace the departed Moyer Aviation, refurbishing the terminal at the airpark instead of razing it and getting software to operate fuel pumps after hours. Werner said the airpark has the cheapest fuel in the area, and the software will allow helicopter pilots more opportunities to bring their business there.
"We need to come back with a tighter plan that we can live with," Iannelli agreed.
Councilwoman Peg Ferraro questioned what the county would get in return for aiding the authority, which has butted heads with the council in recent months. The council has vocally opposed the potential sale of the airpark and criticized the authority over the management of its facilities.
"It would require some sort of ... oversight to ensure this mess doesn't happen again," Ferraro said, suggesting the county form an advisory committee to overlook the authority.
Everett and Iannelli agreed something could be negotiated if the county agreed to provide financial assistance. Iannelli also made it clear the authority has received the message.
"We hear today that you want this airpark to remain open. These people want this airpark to remain open," he said, gesturing to members of the Save Braden group in attendance.
Councilman Tom Dietrich provided the lone open dissent to the request. He questioned why the county would invest in an organization that has mismanaged the airpark and created its own financial struggles.
"Maybe we should not be subsidizing bad mistakes," he said.
In response to Dietrich's questioning, Everett said the authority has not asked Lehigh County commissioners for a 2014 subsidy.
Source: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com
Thursday, November 07, 2013
Danbury Municipal (KDXR), Connecticut: U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty on fact finding mission at airport
U.S. Rep. Elizabeth
Esty speaks with Danbury Control Tower Manager Dan May, center, and
Oxford Control Tower Manager Benjamin Baker inside the control tower at
the Danbury Municipal Airport in Danbury, Conn. on Thursday, Nov. 7,
2013. Rep. Esty visited the facilities to assess the funding of the
control tower, which costs about $600,000 per year to operate.
Photo: Tyler Sizemore
DANBURY -- U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty stressed the importance of local airports and their impact on the surrounding economy Thursday during a visit to the Danbury Municipal Airport. She vowed to do what she can to keep local airports open.
Esty, who was recently appointed to a congressional subcommittee on aviation, said she hopes to keep the funding for the towers in place as budget talks loom on the horizon. The congresswoman visited the tower at Danbury Airport, she said, to gather information to use in the fight to retain the funding.
"It's foolish when we want to rebuild our economy to cut some of these core areas that spur economic growth," Esty said.
Earlier this year, officials with the Federal Aviation Administration threatened to close 149 towers, including the one located in Danbury, as a result of the federal sequestration.
While not always easily quantifiable, Michael Safranek, the airport's assistant administrator, stressed that the facility and others like it serve as economic engines for the region. A recent study completed at the Oxford Airport, which has less traffic than Danbury Airport, showed it helps to create tens of millions in economic activity for the surrounding area.
Safranek noted that Danbury is the second busiest airport in the state after Bradley. Danbury has more than 70,000 flights from the facility each year. Tower manager Dan May stressed the safety factor of keeping the towers open.
Safranek said that while planes will fly whether or not the tower is operating, the situation is much like an intersection with a broken traffic light.
"Cars are still going to use the intersection, but it would be a lot safer if the traffic light worked," he said.
May added that control towers like Danbury's, which are operated privately under a contract with the federal government rather than FAA-controlled towers, are far less expensive because of higher salaries and staffing requirements in the federally operated towers. May said the federal government could save as much as $300 million annually if all towers in the country were privately operated.
Esty said she hopes to find bipartisan support to keep funding in place for contract towers.
"This is an issue that should receive bipartisan support," she said. "And I am looking for ways we can accomplish that."
Story and Photo Gallery: http://www.newstimes.com
Tweed-New Haven Airport (KHVN), Connecticut: Construction under way to rebuild driveways, parking lots
The construction site for the new Tweed New Haven Regional Airport parking lot is seen Thursday.
Peter Hvizdak — NEW HAVEN Register
NEW HAVEN -- Tweed New Haven Regional Airport has begun work to rebuild the airport’s driveways, parking lots and taxi pick-up area as part of a $1.31 million project funded by the state and federal governments.
The work will include parking spaces closer to the airport terminal, a new walkway from the parking lot to the terminal and better drainage and lighting, said Tim Larson, executive director of the Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority.
It also will simplify the currently tangled, “pretzel” vehicle circulation pattern entering and exiting the airport, he said.
“The pretzel that we had” will now be “a circular configuration with a drop-off area,” Larson said. “We make it a lot more convenient for passengers and it improves the flow of traffic through the airport.”
In the new design, “effectively, we’ve consolidated the metered lot and the short-term lot into one 90-space parking lot,” he said.
The project, being done by Waters Construction Co. Inc. of Bridgeport, is expected to be complete by spring 2014, airport officials said.
It is funded with about $400,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration, with the balance coming from the state Department of Economic and Community Development, Larson said.
“We’re excited about it,” Larson said. “It’s been a long time that this has been looked at.”
Tweed is administered by the Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority and managed by Avports, a private company hired by the authority.
The authority hired Dewberry Engineers Inc., which has a branch office in New Haven, as its engineering consultant. Dewberry’s design simplifies the current access drive “pretzel” to a one-way ring road, Larson said.
Parking fares will be unified with the installation of all-new fare collection equipment.
While the work is going on, the airport will continue normal passenger operations, Larson said. “We put a fence line and a pedestrian walkway along the eastern side of the construction area ... so that pedestrians wouldn’t be walking through the construction area,” Larson said.
The airport’s terminal drop-off area, handicapped parking and access to the taxi queue and rental car lot also will be maintained throughout the work.
When the work is done, pedestrians will have a more direct route to the terminal from the parking areas via a slightly raised walkway, Larson said.
Source: http://www.nhregister.com
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
Strange craft over Horry County, South Carolina, were part of military exercise, Federal Aviation Administration says
It wasn't swamp gas trapped in a thermal pocket that refracted the light from Venus, nor were they mere weather balloons.
But the origin of three strange, apparently triangular-shaped aircraft several witnesses and this newspaper spotted flying over Horry County on Tuesday remains a mystery.
A spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the craft were part of a military exercise, but couldn't identify the aircraft or their place of origin.
“We don’t ever get into that,” said FAA spokesman Jim Peters. “We don’t speak for the military. The only thing that I can tell you was that our air traffic control was working with the aircraft. It was military aircraft that was doing some training.”
From a vantage point off McCormick Road in Forestbrook, the Carolina Forest Chronicle observed three craft flying in formation from south to north.
There was no sound as the diamond-shaped objects drifted slowly across the night sky at about 7 p.m. Navigation lights scintillated from their hulls like exploding firecrackers.
Staff Sgt. William O’Brien, spokesman for Charleston Air Force Base, said the craft didn’t come from there. He said the base doesn’t perform military exercises in or around Horry County.
“We do not fly aircraft in your area, so it couldn’t have been one of ours,” O’Brien said. “It would not be anything that we fly because that’s not where we fly.”
Robert Sexton, a spokesman with Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, said he had no information about any military craft flying over Horry County.
Sexton said, however, that Apache helicopters do exhibit behavior similar to the craft spotted Tuesday, such as rapidly flashing navigation lights and stealthy sound.
“Army Apache helicopters make very little noise,” Sexton said. “That’s one of the stealthy features they have. Their rotors are extremely quiet.”
A spokesman for Fort Jackson in Columbia couldn’t be reached as of this posting.
Read more about this story in the Nov. 14 edition of the Carolina Forest Chronicle.
But the origin of three strange, apparently triangular-shaped aircraft several witnesses and this newspaper spotted flying over Horry County on Tuesday remains a mystery.
A spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the craft were part of a military exercise, but couldn't identify the aircraft or their place of origin.
“We don’t ever get into that,” said FAA spokesman Jim Peters. “We don’t speak for the military. The only thing that I can tell you was that our air traffic control was working with the aircraft. It was military aircraft that was doing some training.”
From a vantage point off McCormick Road in Forestbrook, the Carolina Forest Chronicle observed three craft flying in formation from south to north.
There was no sound as the diamond-shaped objects drifted slowly across the night sky at about 7 p.m. Navigation lights scintillated from their hulls like exploding firecrackers.
Staff Sgt. William O’Brien, spokesman for Charleston Air Force Base, said the craft didn’t come from there. He said the base doesn’t perform military exercises in or around Horry County.
“We do not fly aircraft in your area, so it couldn’t have been one of ours,” O’Brien said. “It would not be anything that we fly because that’s not where we fly.”
Robert Sexton, a spokesman with Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, said he had no information about any military craft flying over Horry County.
Sexton said, however, that Apache helicopters do exhibit behavior similar to the craft spotted Tuesday, such as rapidly flashing navigation lights and stealthy sound.
“Army Apache helicopters make very little noise,” Sexton said. “That’s one of the stealthy features they have. Their rotors are extremely quiet.”
A spokesman for Fort Jackson in Columbia couldn’t be reached as of this posting.
Read more about this story in the Nov. 14 edition of the Carolina Forest Chronicle.
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
California Pacific Airlines suspends operations after Federal Aviation Administration puts off decision until 2014
Ted Vallas, founder of California Pacific Airlines
The commercial airline that plans to fly out of Carlsbad’s McClellan-Palomar Airport is seeing another big delay.
The Federal Aviation Administration has informed California Pacific Airlines that it will not be able to review its latest application to fly until at least next year.
The delay is so lengthy that California Pacific has furloughed all employees and suspended operations until it hears back from the federal agency, Chief Executive John Selvaggio said Tuesday, adding that he has returned to his Florida home. It’s the latest setback for California Pacific, first proposed in 2010 by owner Ted Vallas of Rancho Santa Fe.
The airline plans to provide commercial service to such regional destinations as San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Phoenix and eventually Cabo San Lucas. A 72-seat Embraer regional jet landed to fanfare in summer 2012 but has been idled during a series of disputes with the federal agency.
The airline has seen its application rejected, and then consideration of its reapplication delayed due to sequestration, the $1.2 trillion of across-the-board federal budget cuts over 10 years that began in March. The FAA eventually denied that application, before the airline resubmitted it for a third time in September.
Last week, the FAA sent a letter to Selvaggio, informing him of the latest holdup.
“The recent government shutdown, along with personnel changes and other resource losses within FAA Flight Standards has unfortunately resulted in further delay of the California Pacific Airlines air carrier certification,” says the letter from Keith Ballenger, assistant division manager for the FAA’s Western Pacific region. “The FAA will review our staffing situation in early 2014 to determine whether we can resume the California Pacific Airlines certification project. We will certainly inform you immediately if we can start certification work for CP Air any sooner.”
Airline management had repeatedly expressed confidence that California Pacific would begin service by the end of 2013.
The Embraer jet was ultimately sent back to the manufacturer, so the airline didn’t have to continue paying $200,000 per month in rent. California Pacific had raised at least $11 million from investors.
Attempts to reach Vallas at his office were unsuccessful.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://www.utsandiego.com
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