By Margie Plunkett
The proposed closure of the air traffic control tower at the Boca Raton airport — one of 149 set to be closed nationwide because of sequestration — has been the hot topic in aviation. Local sentiment mirrors that of Lauren Crocker, chief operating officer of South Trac Air Charter: “It really stinks.”
Airport, city and county authorities have been working the political channels, preparing arguments and rustling up comment against closing the tower, airport Manager Ken A. Day reported at the regular Airport Authority meeting March 20, but the facility remained on the final closing list released by the FAA on March 22. The towers on the list, which was reduced from an initial 189 proposed closures to meet $637 million in federal cuts, are expected to be phased out over four weeks beginning April 7.
Safety and the economy are potential victims of taking the tower out of operation, Boca Raton authorities claim. The threat has generated discussions about how to keep it open with private funds, including such options as picking up the $650,000 annual tab through the Airport Authority budget and assessing fees on aircraft using the airport.
After the announcement of the final tower closures, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a press release, “We 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.”
The FAA also said that some communities will elect to participate in FAA’s non-federal tower program and assume the cost of continued, on-site air traffic control services at their airports. The FAA is committed to facilitating this transition, the release said.
Boca Raton pilot Jack Fox, who has an airplane and hanger at the airport, has been flying in and out of the airfield for 25 years and flew there safely before there was a tower.
“While it is better to have tower with South Florida¹s highly congested air corridors,” Fox said that not having one “would not have much of an impact on light aircraft pilots.” On the other hand, the insurance companies of corporate aircraft often prohibit them from flying into airports without towers, he said. “Some safety margins will be given up” without a tower.
Closure of Boca Raton Airport’s control tower “is not only a safety issue, but also a development issue,” council member Susan Haynie said at the city’s March 12 meeting, where council, like the Airport Authority, passed a resolution disapproving the tower closure. “If we’re an uncontrolled airport, a lot of corporate jets would not fly in.”
Because closing the tower would remove a layer of safety for aircraft flying in and out of the Boca Raton airfield, city and airport officials fear corporate jets as well as companies like Kirland will no longer use the airport.
If corporations gravitate to cities with airport facilities to guide their craft in on landing, Boca Raton could lose corporate headquarters, jobs and tax revenue, they said during March council and Airport Authority meetings.
In the case of South Trac Air Charter, a division of Kirland Aviation, the company is in the process of certification to operate private charters out of Boca Raton Airport, where it is planning to offer services to groups including Caribbean resorts, corporations and college sports teams.
A closed tower would prohibit Kirland — as well as other corporate jets — from flying into Boca Raton, Crocker said. The company has four British Aerospace Jetstream 41 jets — very large former commercial craft that carry up to 29 passengers, Crocker said. “We would rely on the instruments and the tower to come in,” Crocker said.
Kirland, which is forging ahead with its plan, has been stymied by sequestration in other ways. Kirland and its crew must work directly with the FAA to achieve certification. There have been “enormous delays” as FAA employees must take furlough days off, can’t work overtime and can’t travel on weekends, Crocker said. “We just have to wait it out.”
The charter airline’s initial anticipated May 1 startup date looks a lot more like mid-June now, she said, adding that with every day the airline isn’t operating, more money is lost.
During the Airport Authority’s March 7 emergency meeting, Airport Manager Day noted additional consequence of tower closure: “The Authority would see decrease in fuel purchases and aircraft operations.” It would lose revenue, because it receives a percentage of fuel sales.
Since the tower’s inception, jet fuel delivery in gallons has increased 51 percent, Day said.
The Airport Authority has invested more than $2.4 million in tower improvements in the last 13 years, Day said, adding that if the authority wants to take over the entire tower operation, it would cost $650,000 annually.
“It would have potential impact on the authority’s future and on operating and capital improvement programs,” he said.
In making arguments to the federal regulators, Day said he must show how keeping the tower open would affect the national interest. If it were not, Day said, why has the federal government supplied $11.2 million to operate the tower?
In public comment at the emergency meeting, Vincent Costa, executive director of the Boca Raton Pilots Association, estimated the livelihood of many families would be impacted by the closing, with 150 people making a direct living off the control tower. He also noted that probably 30 percent of the 1,365 registered aircraft in Palm Beach County are corporate.
Costa suggested implementing a user fee for aircraft coming into the airport, calling it a small price to pay for safety.
He suggested a sliding fee for aircraft that would not hurt the general aviation pilot, ranging from $50 fee for corporate jets to $5 for a light single-engine plane and that would raise more than $650,000 to operate the tower.
“A reasonable user fee would not significantly add to the cost of these corporate turbine aircraft,” Costa said. “A $50 fee to that charter coming in from New York does not create a situation where that executive will not land at the airport. Most likely, it would bring in aircraft from airports that have lost their control tower.”
The fee is negligible compared to what it costs to operate an aircraft.
Some of the corporate turbine aircraft burn 40 times the price of a $6 gallon of fuel just to take off, he said, and others cost at least $100 an hour to operate.
“There’s a tremendous safety issue landing and taking off. … That is why we are reluctant to give up the tower,” Costa said. “If we have an accident, it’s going to take place close to the airport, it might fall into the shopping center … not the Everglades. When you’re coming close to the airport, that’s where you need to be advised — within 5 miles of the field.”
David Bizantis, who is tower chief and operates the control tower with four others, thanked the Airport Authority for its efforts to keep the tower open. The controllers not only actively avert air traffic incidents, but are also the first to respond when there is a situation.
“The tower is the first set of eyes that’s going to see it. We’re the first to notify fire-rescue,” Bizantis said. Closing the tower “could delay the response to someone who needs help right now.”
Bizantis recounted a recent emergency in which a departing aircraft returned to the airport with an engine out, which had initially been reported as an engine fire. “Without a control tower, there would be no way to coordinate for the emergency equipment to be standing by when he returned,” he said.
“It’s difficult to quantify every day the things that we do to avoid a catastrophe,” Bizantis said. “We don’t report the things that didn’t happen.
“On a daily basis,” he said, “we give a friendly reminder to check your gear down, because it’s not. It happens — quite often. That’s what we do. That’s our job. Aviation safety is of a vital national interest.”
The path forward
• If no resolution is found, the tower will close on May 5, during the third round of airport tower closings.
• City and community leaders met recently with U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch and U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel to discuss the impact the closure will on the local economy as well as safety.
• The Boca Raton Airport Authority is continuing to explore the possibility of self-funding tower operations and determining whether other options are available.
• Lobbying efforts are continuing in Washington in an attempt to restore federal financing for tower operations.
• The Boca Raton Airport Authority is developing operational plans in preparation for the tower’s closing.
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