FAA to Close 149 U.S. Airport Towers After Budget Cuts

[CG6468]

Talk about thoughtless tripe..........Wait until the injury and death lawsuits begin.

FAA to Close 149 U.S. Airport Towers After Budget Cuts

By Alan Levin - Mar 22, 2013 11:00 PM CT.

The U.S. will close 149 air-traffic control towers run by contractors at small- and mid-sized airports beginning on April 7 as a result of automatic budget cuts at government agencies.

The Federal Aviation Administration spared 24 towers on its original list of 173 subject to closing, it said in an e-mail yesterday. All the towers being shut down are run by private companies, not the government as at larger facilities.

The shutdowns will be phased in over four weeks. About 750 to 1,100 controllers and supervisors may lose their jobs, said Spencer Dickerson, executive director of the Alexandria, Virginia-based Contract Tower Association.

“Unfortunately we are faced with a series of difficult choices that we have to make to reach the required cuts under sequestration,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in an e-mailed statement.

Airports losing their towers averaged 54,000 flights in 2011, the most recent year for which FAA data are available. Four had fewer than 20,000 landings and takeoffs, according to agency data.

The airports losing their towers have mostly general- aviation traffic, with smaller amounts of charter and military flights. Of the group, 13 averaged at least one airline arrival and departure per day in 2011, according to the FAA.

Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington, Illinois, had the most airline flights of those airports with 4,835, according to the data. Pinnacle Airlines Corp. (PNCLQ) operates flights there under contract to Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL)

Closing Impact

Florida is set to lose 14 towers, the most of any state. They include facilities at Naples Municipal, Boca Raton and Ocala International airports. Texas will lose 13 and California 11.

Among the towers being spared are ones at airports in San Carlos, California; Jacksonville, Florida, and Meridian, Mississippi. The FAA spared the 24 facilities because airport operators convinced the agency that closing them “would have a negative impact on the national interest,” according to the agency statement.

Planes, including airliners, can continue to fly to airports without functioning towers. Most of the roughly 5,000 U.S. public airports don’t have towers. Instead of being guided by controllers, pilots radio each other to coordinate landings and takeoffs, according to FAA procedures.

Thanks again you useless king of the world.

[JohnnyReb]

Where's that article about air traffic being down 27% and the FAA's budget being up 41%?

Why not just park AF #1 and #2 for awhile, that ought to cover the cost of keeping them open quite nicely.

Modified to add.....How's a Jihadist expected to get a good size plane off the ground if someone is watching.

[Wineslob]

Tell me again, Obama, how 40,000,000,000 out of 16,000,000,000,000 "forces" you to shut this down?

 

[DLR Pyro]

and yet with all these tales of woe from obama about the sequester, he still managed to send his daughters off on a nice tropical spring break vacation courtesy of you and me.

[CG6468]

and yet with all these tales of woe from obama about the sequester, he still managed to send his daughters off on a nice tropical spring break vacation courtesy of you and me.

You haven't learned to NOT question such things, because he's so special.