Atlantic City airport tower spared in FAA closures
Last Updated on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 06:22 pm Written by Laura Stetser Friday, March 22, 2013 03:42 pm
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – While the Federal Aviation Administration began to implement its sequestration plan by ordering the closing 149 federal contract air traffic control towers starting April 7, the Atlantic City Air Traffic Control Tower will remain open.
The list of closures released Friday, March 22 included one New Jersey closure among the 149 locations – the tower at Trenton Mercer Airport in Ewing Township.
While the FAA spared the Atlantic City tower in the cost-cutting measure, overnight shifts and furloughs are still possible for hundreds of employees, as earlier reported.
According to an FAA news release, 24 towers that had been previously slated for closure are being kept open because closing them would have had a “negative impact” on the national interest, and an additional 16 towers will remain open because congressional statute sets aside funds every fiscal year for those towers.
“We heard from communities across the country about the importance of their towers, and these were very tough decisions,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in the statement. “Unfortunately we are faced with a series of difficult choices that we have to make to reach the required cuts under sequestration.”
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said the agency will work with the airports and the operators “to ensure the procedures are in place to maintain the high level of safety at non-towered airports.”
In early March, the FAA proposed closing 189 contract air traffic control towers as part of its plan to meet the $637 million in cuts required under budget sequestration and announced that it would consider keeping open any of these towers if doing so would be in the national interest.
National interest considerations included: significant threats to national security as determined by the FAA in consultation with the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security; significant, adverse economic impact that is beyond the impact on a local community; significant impact on multistate transportation, communication or banking and financial networks; and the extent to which an airport currently served by a contract tower is a critical diversionary airport to a large hub.
In addition to reviewing materials submitted on behalf of towers on the potential closure list, DOT consulted with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security and conducted operational assessments of each potential tower closure on the national air transportation system.
Some communities will elect to participate in FAA’s nonfederal tower program and assume the cost of continued on-site air traffic control services at their airport. The FAA said it is committed to facilitating this transition.
The FAA will begin a four-week phased closure of the 149 towers April 7.
Read more:
Lobiondo weighs in on FAA closure plan
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