"Luxury jets vie for runways: 'Hummers' of the air create conflicts at small U.S. airports"

Monday, August 25, 2003

Luxury jets vie for runways 'Hummers' of the air create conflicts at small
U.S. airports
By Laura Parker
USA TODAY


HAILEY, Idaho -- The airport in this mountain town is so small that when
terrorism alerts restrict cars to 300 feet from the terminal, the entire
parking lot has to be closed.

Friedman Memorial Airport is a busy gateway to the Sun Valley ski resort
that is a magnet for the rich and famous, but only small commercial and
private aircraft are allowed to land. Heavier jets, such as Boeing 737s, are
banned because they would damage the asphalt runway, local officials say.

That rule is what led to all the trouble.

Ronald Tutor, a California construction mogul, wants to fly his customized
Boeing 737 here when he visits his vacation home in Sun Valley. In a lawsuit
that has made Hailey's airport the focal point of a debate about the future
of small airports across the nation, Tutor is asking a federal court to lift
the ban that prevents his 170,000-pound jet from landing here. That's 75,000
pounds more than the runway is built to withstand.

Local officials say that if they are forced to accept Tutor's jet and
similar aircraft they fear would follow it here, they would have to pay
hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair the 6,602-foot runway and close
the airport for three months while the work was done.

Tutor's case, set for trial next year in Boise, is being watched by
government and airport officials from California to New York. It essentially
asks what obligation small, financially stretched airports have to some of
America's wealthiest people, and it comes at a time of tight budgets and
costly new security requirements.

Several general aviation airports -- those that primarily handle
non-commercial aircraft -- are being asked to accept Boeing 737 business
jets like Tutor's, which is nearly twice as heavy as the Bombardier and
Gulfstream jets that make up much of the traffic here.

Tutor's lawsuit focuses on the technicalities of asphalt strength and weight
restrictions, but he finds himself cast as the villain in a local drama that
is more about wealth, excess and a small town's desire to remain small.

''These are factual issues, but it's being made into an emotional one,''
Tutor says. ''I've had crank letters, phone calls, you name it. I'm the big,
bad rich guy.''

The dispute is rooted in the roaring 1990s, when multimillionaires flush
with cash began trading in their private jets for ones that were bigger,
more luxurious and capable of traveling hundreds of miles farther without
refueling.

>From 1996 to 2000, the business jet market quadrupled, industry analysts
say. Sales also were boosted by the rising popularity of time-share jets.
Leasing firms bought luxury jets and then rented them to corporations that
wanted to fly executives from point to point, but didn't want to own an
aircraft.

Just as increasingly large SUVs became popular on America's roads, business
jets became bigger and more extravagant. The Boeing business jet, a luxury
version of the 737 commercial workhorse, was introduced in 1996 and sells
for about $50 million. It can fly from Los Angeles to Paris without
stopping, and it has a full-sized shower, a bedroom with a queen-sized bed
and a range of comforts that smaller jets can't match.

Lee Monson, president of Boeing's business jet division, says his salesmen
expected to sell six or eight the first year. They sold 25. They now have
sold 82.

''This was the Hummer of the industry,'' says Richard Aboulafia, an aviation
analyst in Alexandria, Va.

Boeing jets not welcome

But Boeing jets often aren't welcome at small airports. Concrete runways
that can withstand heavy jets are far more expensive to build than the
asphalt strips that most general aviation airports have. Over time, landings
by such aircraft can break up an asphalt runway.

The airport in Stuart, Fla., just north of the wealthy island enclave of
Palm Beach, faced the issue two years ago. Willie Gary, a personal injury
lawyer and philanthropist, bought a luxurious 737 and wanted to bring it
home to Witham Field. After threatening to fight Stuart's 105,000-pound
weight limit ''all the way to the Supreme Court,'' he modified his jet so it
was 500 pounds under the limit.

In Cincinnati, Lunken Airport allows overweight aircraft to land a dozen
times a month to accommodate Boeing business jets and other large aircraft.
Last December, City Council members considered raising the airport's weight
limit from 70,000 pounds to 100,000 pounds. But residents objected, so the
council kept the existing limit and ordered a study of the issue.

Other airports make no exceptions. Denver's Centennial Airport -- the
second-busiest general aviation airport in the country, behind Teterboro
Airport in New York City's New Jersey suburbs -- strictly enforces its
75,000-pound limit.

Robert Olislagers, Centennial's director, turned away Boeing executives who
wanted to land a 737 there in 2001, when they flew to Denver to scout for
locations for their new headquarters. Boeing later moved to Chicago, saying
it wanted to be closer to more of its customers and to the East Coast. But
Olislagers briefly was famous in Denver because of his decision. He shrugs
it off. ''If your SUV doesn't fit in that compact parking space,'' he says,
''it should be parked somewhere else.''

Boeing, eager to market its luxury business jets, is pressing for Teterboro
to allow larger jets. Teterboro's weight limit is 100,000 pounds; local
officials have resisted efforts to expand its operations.

''We're not just talking about asphalt strength, which is clearly inadequate
to handle this oversized aircraft,'' says U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J. He
is on the House transportation appropriations panel and opposes efforts to
allow big jets at Teterboro. ''We're also talking about this massive
aircraft flying over the community and landing in the heart of it.''

In 1999, Boeing asked the Federal Aviation Administration to grant a waiver
that would allow 737 business jets to land at Teterboro. The FAA said no.
Boeing has asked the FAA to reconsider and also is negotiating with the
airport.

Communities can limit airport growth by restricting jet noise and weight.
The FAA provides $3 billion in grants to many of the nation's 3,000 airports
and requires airports that accept the grants to agree not to unjustly
discriminate against access to their facility, says David Bennett, who
oversees airport regulation for the FAA.

In July, the agency announced it is considering a plan that would allow
heavier aircraft to land on occasion at small airports, even if they exceed
weight restrictions. The proposal has drawn fire from Capitol Hill. Rothman
tacked an amendment onto a House bill that would ban the FAA from lifting
Teterboro's weight limits.

The Idaho dispute began in late 2001 when Tutor, chief executive officer of
Tutor-Saliba Corp., a multibillion-dollar public works construction company,
asked to land his new 737 at Hailey.

At the time, Tutor also owned a smaller Gulfstream, which he had used to
travel to Sun Valley. Hailey's airport manager, Rick Baird, told Tutor that
he was welcome in the Gulfstream but not in the 737.

For six months, lawyers for the men traded letters. Tutor offered to do a
study that presumably would show that the runway could withstand landings by
his jet. (Boeing did such a study, which it supplied to Tutor.) Baird
declined the offer.

Then Tutor threatened, through his lawyer, to fly his 737 in anyway,
carrying less fuel so it would land at a svelte 115,000 pounds. But Tutor
never did. His suit argues that because the Hailey airport accepts federal
funds, it can't unreasonably deny access to the airport. ''It's not their
personal airport,'' he says.

Where the stars are

Some residents were offended by Tutor's threat to land in defiance of the
ban. He was called a rich Californian, which in the Idaho mountains isn't a
compliment. In letters to the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper, readers
asked why his smaller jet wasn't good enough. ''A person as greedy and
selfish as you does not fit the warm, personable qualities we have in this
valley,'' one reader wrote. A resident of nearby Ketchum noted: ''I'm
surprised that Mr. Tutor's mother was able to give birth to him with a head
that big.''

Residents here have catered to and endured the whims of the wealthy and the
Hollywood crowd since 1936, when railroad tycoon Averell Harriman built the
resort.

There is a ski run named after Arnold Schwarzenegger, who flies in from Los
Angeles aboard a small jet. When Tom Hanks got into a legal spat with his
builder over work on his home here, no one objected when the local judge
sealed the court record as a courtesy.

Former Hollywood couple Bruce Willis and Demi Moore are still friendly, live
across the street from each other in Hailey and are admired locally for
their efforts to rejuvenate downtown businesses. What sets Tutor apart is
that his lawsuit threatens to reignite a long-simmering debate between
pro-tourism forces that want development and larger aircraft, and an
anti-growth crowd that wants to keep the small-town feel of the communities
near Sun Valley.

The pro-tourism forces have long wanted major airlines (with big jets) to
come to Hailey and make the area more accessible to tourists from the East.
But the airport, between the foothills of the Sawtooth Range and downtown
Hailey, has no room to expand.

Many residents worry that if Tutor is allowed to land his jet, the airport
will have to accept more 737s. They fear that could lead to big airlines
knocking on the door. The issue ''is way beyond Ronald Tutor,'' says Ruth
Lieder, a former mayor and airport official in Sun Valley. ''The owner of
Sun Valley (ski resort) also would like to bring in planes that are too
heavy . . . but he's not suing.''

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