"Minneapolis airport officials to study a third delay on completion of new runway"

Thursday, September 4, 2003

Airport officials to study a third delay on completion of new runway
By Dan Wascoe Jr.
The Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune


For the second time this year, officials will study whether to further
postpone the twice-delayed completion of the new north-south runway at
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The 8,000-foot runway, which parallels Cedar Avenue on the west side of the
airport, originally was to be finished this year, but a decline in airline
business and a slump in revenues have led the Metropolitan Airports
Commission to slow its pace of work on the project. Paving has continued
this summer, and the current scheduled completion is late 2005.

Commission officials said that a decision is not imminent but that
continuing pressures on the agency's operating and construction budgets and
persistent lobbying by Northwest Airlines raised the issue Wednesday before
the commission's Planning and Environment Committee. 

Committee Chairwoman Coral Houle said that she was not inclined to favor
further delay but that the agency's staff would study the costs and benefits
of delaying completion a third time. Key factors will include the cost of
fuel burned by planes waiting to land or take off and the costs that
airlines face to pay for the project.

Northwest has said it favors completing the runway. But Kathleen Nelson,
Northwest's liaison to the commission, said the airline wants to study the
issue during budget discussions this fall.

The runway, which eventually will redirect many flights over Eagan,
Burnsville and other southern suburbs, has been estimated to cost about $515
million, while related projects would boost the total to $750 million. It is
a natural target this year because it would account for about $130 million
of the commission's projected $300 million construction budget for 2004. 

Nigel Finney, a deputy executive director of the commission, said takeoffs
and landings continue to rebound from the slump that accompanied the 2001
recession and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Even so, he said, the most
important issue is "Where will we be two years from now?" The worst
situation, he said, would be to have an economic and airline recovery that
triggers large increases in takeoffs and landings but not enough airport
capacity to avoid costly delays.

The commission is awaiting updated forecasts of airport activity that could
influence not only the runway's completion but the degree of noise
insulation in houses affected by jet noise from the new runway. 

Commission members also learned Wednesday that the agency staff is proposing
a 4.67 percent increase in its airport operations budget to $183 million in
revenues and a 5.19 percent increase in spending to $181 million. As usual,
those figures will be analyzed by the airlines and interest groups before
the commission votes on the budgets in December.


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