In a still-developing story, The Standard-Examiner breaks the worst possible news for Ogden-Hinkley Airport boosters, as it announces the highly-disappointing information that despite the desperate efforts of Ogden Airport officials and GOP Congressman-for-Life Rob Bishop to gain a reprieve, federal funding for the airport's main control tower is about to get the budget sequestration ax.
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| Ogden-Hinkley Control Tower |
“I assumed they would just close all of them. So I was prepared for the worst, but it’s still tough to take. We don’t really know what’s going to happen now,” said the thoroughly distraught Airport Manager Royal Eccles.
"The airport will remain open, but pilots will be responsible for their own safety by talking to each other, instead of the tower. The federal funding paid for contracted air traffic controllers," according to this morning's S-E story.
This of course appears "on its face" to be a severe blow to Ogden-Hinkley commercial operations, insmuch as "[a]irlines (like Allegiant Air) have yet to say whether they will continue offering service to airports that lose tower staff."
So, will commercial carriers like Allegiant continue operations at Ogden-Hinkley in the absence of a functioning air traffic control operation, we ask? Weirdly enough, some regional carriers don't seem to have necessarily ruled out that contingency at all, if we're to believe at least one Oregon-based news source, speaking of similar control tower closures in the Pacific Northwest:
According to an airport industry association, control towers at 14 small to medium sized airports around the Northwest will close on April 1 in response to automatic federal budget cuts: Four in Idaho and five each in Oregon and Washington. But regional airlines intend to keep flying to those cities they now serve.Read that astonishing full story below. Seeing is believing, right?
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| Wing and a Prayer Arrival |
Needless to say, we'll remain poised at the keyboard awaiting any further news on this story which might meander our way.
Take it away for now however, O Gentle Ones.
1 comment:
Another potential impact of sequestration to commercial traffic flying in and out of Ogden-Hinkley and military traffic at Hill AFB would be the furlough of FAA controllers at Salt Lake ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center) and Salt Lake TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control), whose airspace overlies Ogden. Furloughs could especially affect Salt Lake TRACON, a 'hard-to-staff' facility that has - for the last 20 years anyway - been reliant on employee overtime in order to meet minimum staffing on many shifts.
If traffic is light, the TRACON sector that covers Ogden and Hill AFB can be combined with another sector that feeds arrivals into Salt Lake City. If there is heavy demand and not enough personnel on hand to split the Ogden/Hill sector, delays are likely inevitable.
These furloughs are FAA wide so the pain is going to be felt throughout the country by all who fly commercially, though it's nothing compared to the pain of those employees of the 149 contract towers across the nation that, like Ogden, are now facing unemployment.
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