Mon, Nov 01, 2004
Airlines Furious Over Prospect Of Losing Midway
If the Bush administration has its way, the airport on the
island of Midway will soon be shut down for good. That will leave a
lot of the twin-engine commercial aircraft operators that fly the
Pacific with few alternatives and the airlines are hopping mad.
Midway,where American forces made a valiant stand against the
Japanese during World War II, has been a vital emergency landing
field for decades since. Airlines complain bitterly that shutting
down the airport there would force most twin-engine aircraft flying
between Asia and North America to change routes. That would mean
much longer flights. Pilots would have to hug coastlines to stay
within guidelines for one-engine flights over water.
"It seems like the government has just lost sight of the
importance of Midway," Gene Cameron, manager of flight dispatching
at United Airlines told the New York Times.
A navy base until 1993, Midway's operations after
demilitarization were funded by a private company that conducted
eco-tours. That didn't pan out so well. The Department of the
Interior has been operating the airport since. Two years ago,
Interior turned the operation over to the Department of
Transportation. But DOT doesn't want to be saddled with the
obligation of maintaining and staffing the facility. DOT has paid
Interior about $3.5 million over the past few years just to keep
the operation running. Now, transportation officials say enough is
enough -- they're unwilling to pay anymore.
Friday, DOT officials said they would plunk down about $300,000
dollars more to keep the airport open until November 20th. In the
meantime, DOT will meet with airlines and with Boeing, which helped
foot the bill for Midway in the mid-1990s.
While airlines and government agencies bicker over the true cost
of running the airport and possible alternatives should it indeed
be closed, pilots are fuming.
"I'm really ripped about this ridiculous loss of safety," said
ALPA President Duane Woerth in an interview with the Times. "This
is an inherently governmental function. They keep trying to
outsource this inherently governmental responsibility."
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