CAA: GA News, "Georgia's Daniel Field looks to get back down to business"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wednesday, September 26, 2001

Daniel Field looks to get back down to business 
By Vicky Eckenrode 
The Augusta (GA) Chronicle


Although a general aviation airport in Georgia reported that some of the
suspected hijackers practiced flying there, Daniel Field officials said
they have not faced similar threats.

Instead, their concerns remain on recovering from the slowdown affecting
the aviation business in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

On Monday, Chrissy Ross, a dispatcher at Advanced Aviation in Gwinnett
County, told reporters that two of the men said to be hijacker pilots in
the attacks rented a small plane at the flight school seven months ago.

''They went up with an instructor so they could rent an airplane,'' Ms.
Ross said Tuesday. ''(Then) they came once and rented it, and we never
heard or saw anything from them again.''

Ms. Ross said it was not until she saw the men's names in news reports
of the attack that she realized they were the same men who had been at
the airport, located 20 minutes outside of Atlanta.

Steve Gay, the owner of Augusta Aviation, which manages the airport's
general aviation services, said he has not had similar suspicions to
report to authorities.

''There are flight schools across the country that survive on foreign
students,'' he said. ''We are not one of those.''

He said security has tightened at the airport, which often enjoyed more
freedom than commercial airports such as Augusta Regional.

Owners of the 100 private planes based at Daniel Field could often drive
their cars to an aircraft to load it, and the large ramp area where
planes are parked is an open lot where just about anyone could walk.

All that will likely change, Mr. Gay said.

''The freedom we've enjoyed at small airports like (Daniel Field), I
believe, will be to some degree compromised in time,'' he said.

Business is returning in spurts after the Federal Aviation
Administration shut down general aviation traffic for several days in
the wake of the attack.

It has been a slow return, Airport Manager Buster Boshears said.

In August, there were about 1,600 operations - take-offs and landings -
at Daniel Field. Mr. Boshears said he expects a third or a fourth of
that figure for September.

''There's been a dramatic decrease in (Mr. Gay's) activity,'' Mr.
Boshears said. ''He does flight training; he does charter flying; he
rents airplanes; he sells fuel. If people are not doing any of that,
then he's not doing any business.''

Mr. Gay said that since the FAA relaxed the ban on flight training and
cargo flights, business has rebounded slightly, but he added that the
past two weeks have had a significant impact on the company's revenue.

He said he hopes the increase of charter flights from passengers wary of
commercial travel will offset the other dips in services.

''I believe those folks will begin to utilize their airplanes just as
they did before,'' Mr. Gay said. ''Folks are still kind of reeling from
this whole thing, and I believe that they will come back very quickly -
that's what we hope anyway.''

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