The air traffic control tower at Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg was among those closed in Florida as part of the sequester. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.)
By Steve Miller
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
The government giveth, then taketh away.
It’s an old tale played out once again with the recent announcement of supposedly sequester-induced closures of 149 air traffic control towers nationwide.
Of Florida’s 14 tower closures, four are at airports that received federal stimulus funds, including work for reconstructing and extending runways. According to records:
- The authority for Boca Raton Airport received two grants under the stimulus bill totaling $3.4 million. The funding was used to rebuild a runway.
- The city of Leesburg, which operates Leesburg International Airport, received $3.7 million to extend a runway at the airport.
- Northeast Florida Regional Airport in St. Augustine received $2.5 million to rehabilitate a taxiway, work that would “enhance the National Airspece System (sic)” according to the federal database.
- St. Petersburg’s Albert Whitted Airport received $1 million for some work on the tower. According to the federal database, the work included “construction of exterior walls completed. Tower cab frame assemble completed. Cab mounted on tower structure. Funding submitted for FAA equipment relocation/installation.”
Florida was the hardest hit by these closures, which were announced last week. The closures mean pilots will rely on communicating with each other during landings and takeoffs, maneuvers that are done every day at airports everywhere.
CNN reported that the tower at Whitted in St. Petersburg was built with stimulus funds, although plane watchers know that the tower has been there a long time.
In St. Augustine, the airport’s authority board voted to spend $51,550 to keep the tower open another month, and board executive director Ed Wuellner, tossed in some choice words for the fed’s decision to shutter its tower: “It’s a closely guarded secret. The FAA’s only criteria seemed to be national interest. They did not appear to consider air safety, the number of operations or the economic impacts that might have been felt by a community.”
Wuellner felt that the closures were politically geographic, coming down in mostly Republican districts. He’s got a point — only about 60 closings were in blue states, although red states tend to be more favorable to aviation, often in the Sun Belt.
Wueller and the board said if the tower is closed, the authority:
- May be forced to close runways.
- Could limit training at its two pilot training schools.
- Will do business with fewer corporate jets.
- Will end aerobatic flying.
- Will sell less aviation gasoline.
- Will lose the business of VIP aircraft going to The Players Championship in May.
Hard to tell if this is part of the gamesmanship that both sides of the sequester aisle have engaged in. Is the White House trying to make things tough as retribution for Republican obstinance? Are Republicans denying the impasse is resulting on some real-world harm?
Most of the airport towers closed in Florida do not run commercial flights, but rely on a combination of small planes and private, often corporate, jets.
You can go to the Wall Street Journal’s jet tracker to find out what kind of traffic and how much went in and out of U.S. airports between 2007 and 2011 with this database.