CAA: GA News, "Residents Object to Closure of Fort Wayne, Ind., General-Aviation Airport"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Residents Object to Closure of Fort Wayne, Ind., General-Aviation
Airport
The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.


It was a small part of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority's
$20.1 million 2003 budget. But the $1.2 million earmarked to relocate
Smith Field air traffic drew the most public comment at the authority's
budget meeting Monday. 

The budget passed despite objections from residents who said the $1.2
million would be better spent keeping open Smith Field. The board had
voted in June to close the general aviation airport on the north side of
town next year. 

The board followed up Monday with a vote to notify the Federal Aviation
Administration of plans to close Smith Field and to oppose efforts to
protect it through historic preservation measures. 

The $1.2 million earmarked for the transition includes $250,000 for
demolition, $100,000 to develop a site for general aviation T-hangars at
Fort Wayne International Airport and $900,000 to build the hangars. 

The authority might consider Fort Wayne International's northwest
development quadrant for the site, said Skip Miller, executive director.


Mercury Air Center, which leases hangar space at the airport, has
expressed willingness to relocate its local offices to the site, Miller
said. 

With four T-hangars each large enough to accommodate 10 small planes,
Fort Wayne International could offer space to most of those now based at
Smith Field.

But David DeWald, a member of Smith AirField forEver (SAFE), a local
group that wants to keep Smith Field open, said rent for space in the
new hangars would be so high "there are not going to (be) 40 people from
Smith Field."

Tenants at the smaller airport pay $80 per month, compared with $180 per
month and higher at Fort Wayne International. 

Of the aircraft owners using Smith Field, "I would say 90 percent ...
will move any place but here (Fort Wayne International), and some will
just quit flying," DeWald said. 

Costs associated with Smith Field's traffic relocation and a rent
deferral program for Kitty Hawk's air cargo hub combined with a
nationwide air travel downturn to make the authority's 2003 budget its
first in years with a negative cash flow. 

The airport authority expects to spend $3.1 million more than it takes
in next year. It will cover the shortfall with $2 million from a $3
million reserve fund set up to cover the hub's debt payments, and with
$1.1 million from the authority's cash balance. The cash balance
typically ranges between $4 million and $5 million. 

Kitty Hawk, which employs about 300 at its Fort Wayne hub, expects to
emerge from bankruptcy Saturday. To help the company get back on its
feet, the authority agreed in January to allow Kitty Hawk to defer $2.1
million in lease payments for 18 months, if a bankruptcy court would
accept its reorganization plan. Kitty Hawk efforts to emerge from
bankruptcy have been complicated by a nationwide recession and by a
downturn in air traffic after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

The factors also reduced passenger boardings at Fort Wayne International
15 percent in 2001 to 307,255 from 360,010 the previous year, which in
turn reduced the airport's boarding fees. 

The airport has forecast 305,000 boardings for 2002 and 310,000 for
2003.


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