"Millions spent on money-losing Wash. Airports"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sunday, April 15, 2007 

Millions spent on money-losing Wash. airports
By CURT WOODWARD
The Associated Press


TACOMA, Wash. -- Reeling from years of financial losses and zoning
headaches, city officials here have been searching for a private operator to
take the Tacoma Narrows Airport off their hands.

In the meantime, the Federal Aviation Administration has kicked in more than
$7 million to help the small airport to keep its 5,000-foot runway, in hopes
of attracting more corporate jet traffic. And the bill is sure to increase.

It's part of the billions of dollars in airline ticket taxes and fees that
the government distributes to small airports all over the country.

Critics call the grants a huge public subsidy with too little oversight, and
Congress is deciding whether to curtail the money.

Others, including the operators of some small airports, say the grants can
be the only way to keep needed facilities operating at capacity.

"Basically, if we didn't get this FAA grant, it's a matter of time before
the airport goes away," said Mike Slevin, the Tacoma city facilities manager
who helps oversee Tacoma Narrows.

Passengers pay up to six separate taxes and fees on a single airline ticket,
adding up to more than $104 billion since 1997, an Associated Press review
found.

That money pays for the federal government's Airport Improvement Program,
the main source of federal money for small airports and airstrips.

The program has distributed $7.1 billion to airports of all sizes since
2005, the AP found - including about $2.2 billion for small airports with
little or no passenger service.

At Tacoma Narrows, the major AIP program is a tunnel to route a road under
the airport's safety buffer zone.

Without the tunnel, which is expected to eventually cost more than $14
million, the airstrip would have to be shortened by 1,000 feet, jeopardizing
corporate jet traffic, Slevin said.

The city has to come up with 5 percent of the project's cost. But the tunnel
couldn't be built without the grants, Slevin said.

"The city of Tacoma is not going to spend $14 million to build a tunnel in
Pierce County for an airport that loses money," Slevin said.

Grants have helped pay for runways, taxiways, lights and other improvements
at 20 other small airports across the state in recent years, including:

-Pierce County's Thun Field, a small general aviation airport near Puyallup,
which got more than $2.4 million in AIP grants in the 2006 budget year.

-Skagit Regional Airport, near Burlington, which also got about $2.4 million
in federal grants in 2006.

-Jefferson County International, a single-runway airport at Port Townsend on
the Olympic Peninsula, which was granted nearly $1.7 million in 2005.

Despite seven-figure federal grants, general aviation airports often lose
money because they have few sources of income, officials said.

Tacoma Narrows, for example, owes the city about $3 million and has run a
two-year deficit of more than $500,000, Slevin said.

Others fare better by leasing out land in their buffer zones for light
industry or storage. But turning a profit is extremely rare, said Michael
Esher, administrator of Pierce County's Thun Field near Puyallup.

Slevin said he can understand criticism of multimillion-dollar payments for
small airports.

But he and other small airport officials say the FAA is reluctant to shut
down such airfields, which can take business flights squeezed out of larger
airports and provide a base for search-and-rescue operations.

Small airports with flight schools based in their hangars also serve as a
farm system for the pilots who eventually fly large commercial jetliners,
said Thun Field's Esher, a former business development director at Kansas
City International Airport.

"Those guys are not going to get trained up at Sea-Tac or anything like
that, so to me it's an absolutely critical role," he said.

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