The Press Enterprise: Airport control tower gets temporary reprieve
The closure of 149 airport control towers nationwide due to federal budget cuts has been delayed by two months, which means the tower at the Riverside Municipal Airport won’t close Sunday, April 7, as expected.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced the delay Friday. The towers that were to be closed are at smaller airports and are staffed through contracts funded by the FAA. The new closure date is June 15, according to an FAA news release.
FAA officials chose to delay to give them time to “resolve multiple legal challenges” to the closures and to make safety-related changes to airspace rules, the news release said.
Riverside airport director Mark Ripley has said that the loss of air traffic control won’t shut the airport down or interfere with the annual air show, but it does raise safety concerns. The 2013 air show is on Saturday.
“The first thing that came to my mind was relief,” Ripley said Friday of the FAA’s decision. “I’m hopeful that the funding issue can be resolved by the new deadline of June 15.”
Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, said in a written statement that the delay was “a step in the right direction.” He has lobbied to keep Riverside’s tower open.
“The close proximity of military air operations, flight training activities, and commercial flights increases the likelihood that air space (in Riverside) will be shared and poses a serious safety hazard,” Takano said.
“My hope is that by June 15, the FAA will reconsider closing the Riverside air traffic control tower and determine the risk too great to our community.”
The tower closures are part of a $637 million budget cut to the FAA under sequestration, a government-wide policy intended to reduce the federal budget.