Plane Conversations

CNN has a story on small airport funding for airline service and what they are doing to keep service in their communities.

Chartering a 757 for a joy ride and filling it up with people to make sure the airport meets that magic 10,000 annual passengers required for FAA funding? Offering free flights to students to go to D.C. for the day to meet the same goal of 10,000 annual passengers?

And when you get that 10,000^th passenger does it make sense to receive millions in funding for your airport when 9,999 passengers doesn’t get it? Something just doesn’t make sense about this.    

I am an advocate of the value of small airports and the money spent at small airports to provide adequate runways, instrument approaches and basic facilities. The two airports we use as bases in Middle Tennessee  are vibrant economic engines for the community. At the Smyrna / Rutherford County Airport there are hundreds of jobs at 30 different businesses. Additionally, we have a National Guard installation at the airport that employs many more aviators and support personnel. Comparing the airport featured in the video with our airport in Smyrna (which has no airline service) underlines the very basic differences.  In Smyrna, Tennessee, it is up to the airport to support itself without spending thousands of dollars to meet an arbitrary passenger count that makes our annual budget. 

I am a believer in the free market.  FAA funding doled out to airports for the purpose of maintaining commercial air service when the market doesn’t value it enough to support it, seems to be a waste of taxpayer money and a driver of market inefficiency.

Every year our company gets requests from airport directors to provide scheduled air service at their airports. We are not in the scheduled airline business anymore; so, I have to respectfully decline.   In fact, I’ve told everyone who works for me to beat me if I think about doing something stupid like that again.  I understand that every community wants scheduled air service for economic development - the perception is that airline service means access.  But, obviously, with an average of 18 passengers boarding each day out of Claksburg, the one does not necessarily follow the other.

So what is the answer for these small and medium market communities who are going to extremes to preserve or gain commercially nonviable scheduled air service?

Could it be that is is not all about whether you have traditional airline service in your community? Maybe these airports are chasing the wrong thing.

It looks like Congress may finally get back around to figuring out how to pass a bill that will fund the Next Generation Air Traffic System (NexGen). Hopefully, I will see this happen in my career, I still have 15 years left if all goes good.

It is frustrating to me that the lawmakers want to wrap up controversial provisions into a bill thats primary purpose is not controversial. Everyone in aviation agrees that the traffic control system needs to be modernized. It will save fuel and time in the air which is both green and more productive for our economy. It will also increase the margins of safety with better traffic management. Both general aviation and the airline industry support the development of NexGen.

So, what is the hold up?

Somehow congress can not seem to simplify things and get something done.

They have to add in provisions that we can’t all agree on so things get stalled and nothing happens. What can we not agree on?

• Who pays for it? GA versus Airlines
• Should we be auditing European Repair Stations? A Union Protectionist Issue
• Should we make it easier for FedEx employees to unionize? Another union issue. Big company against the union
• Passenger Rights? The People versus the Airlines
• Pilot Work Rules and the Oversight of the Airlines: Pilots versus the Airline Management and additional regulations 

In that list that I just mentioned, which of those issues, if any,has the first thing or, for that matter, anything at all to do with modernizing our air transportation system through the deployment of new technology? With the exception of who pays for it, none! And I will bet you that we can come to some solution on who pays for it.

Maybe I am simple-minded, but why can’t these guys in D.C. simplify this and pass a clean bill that funds what we all agree needs to happen and fight it out over the rest in separate bills? Is there some legislative rule against simplicity? If there is, then we need to change the rules.  Or maybe we just need to fire the rule-makers and vote in some new ones who understand how to get things done.