Here We Go Again!
|
Posted
by Benet Wilson at
11/3/2009 11:55 AM CST
|
Lake Cumberland Regional AirportUSA Today published a story in yesterday's edition again going after small airports. This time, reporter Thomas Frank targeted $1.1 billion in congressional earmarks since 2001 under the Airport Improvement Program that went to small airports.
The story included CloudMade maps showing exactly where the earmarks went. It cites as an example Kentucky's Lake Cumberland Regional Airport, which received a $3.5 million earmark from Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., in 2004 to build a passenger terminal when the airport had no passenger flights
But Craig Fuller, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association comes out swinging in a Nov. 2 letter to the editor. "At no point in either article does USA Today explain how much more the FAA spends at airports with airline service than at general aviation airports," he wrote. He then offered a link from the FAA’s own spreadsheets to present the whole story.
In FY 2008, the FAA spent $3.47 billion on the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) with just over $3 billion of that going directly to airports, wrote Fuller. "From those funds, $2.26 billion—65 percent—went to 398 airports with airline service. The remaining 1,121 airports—73 percent of those receiving funds—shared $782 million. That means each airline airport received, on average, $5.68 million to each general aviation airport’s $698,000," he noted.
NBAA President Ed Bolen, wrote his own letter, where he noted the nation’s integrated system of public-use airports is specifically designed to ensure that Americans—including those living in communities that are unable to attract or retain commercial airline service—have at least some access to the air transportation system.
"Maintaining this access is critical for wide range of flights including those related to homeland security and law enforcement operations, mail delivery, organ-donor transport, medical evacuations, disaster and emergency relief, business, fire fighting, and other general aviation operations," Bolen wrote. "These missions are not only important to the viability of the communities they serve, they also generate jobs—over 1.2 million jobs in the United States."
Fuller ended by noting, "it’s a complex issue that USA Today's readers are savvy enough to understand—if only they are given all the facts."
|
|
