LITTLE ROCK — Six of the seven airports in Arkansas that use air traffic control towers to manage flight operations stand to lose their tower services or see cuts in the number of hours their towers operate, if federal spending cuts take place, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Texarkana Regional Airport and Northwest Arkansas airports in Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Rogers and Springdale are on the list of more than 100 airports nationwide that the federal agency said could see their towers close if automatic cuts known as “sequestration” go into effect Friday.
The state’s largest airport, Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field, is on a list that might have to eliminate its overnight shift in its air traffic control tower.
Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport at Highfill is the only other facility among the state’s 93 public airports that has an air traffic control tower and will not be affected by the cuts. It doesn’t have an overnight tower shift, said airport Director Kelly Johnson.
The towers at the seven airports collectively conducted 315,242 operations last year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The tower at Clinton National accounted for more than a third of those, or 116,826. The FAA defines tower operations as all aircraft tracked by the tower, as well as takeoffs and landings.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a joint letter with Michael Huerta, the administrator of the FAA, last week that proposed changes will be “finalized as to scope and details through collaborative discussions with our users and unions” before furloughs and tower shutdowns begin in April. The FAA is facing $600 million in cuts as part of sequestration, the budget mechanism set to slice $85 billion from across-the-board federal spending.
LaHood has proposed furloughing the “vast majority” of the FAA’s nearly 47,000 employees for one day per pay period until the end of the federal fiscal year Sept. 30. That is in addition to eliminating the midnight shifts at more than 60 towers across the nation and closing more than 100 control towers.
Airport professionals in Arkansas are divided over whether the furloughs and shutdowns will take place, and if they do whether they will pose a safety risk.
John Knight, the director of the state Department of Aeronautics, said eliminating the overnight shift would have little effect on safety because airports, even large ones, aren’t busy at night.
But outright elimination of air traffic control service will compromise safety, he said, although he doesn’t believe that midair collisions will start occurring. “The reason they have a tower is because they have the level of activity to justify a tower,” he said.
Other aviation professionals said that if tower service is cut, pilots would simply follow procedures that every aviator is supposed to use in such situations. FAA regulations require pilots at such airports to announce themselves on a common traffic advisory radio frequency, which allows communications among pilots. They use the frequency to coordinate their departures and arrivals, give position reports and acknowledge other aircraft in the airfield traffic pattern.
“It’s not a big deal,” said Johnson, whose Highfill airport has a couple of flights that land after the tower closes for the night.
All of the professionals said they haven’t seen anything official beyond the two lists that the Transportation Department posted on its website earlier this month.
Clinton National has several flights that depart early in the morning before the overnight control tower shift ends.
LaHood suggested that as airlines assess the impact of the furloughs, “they will change their schedules and cancel flights.”
“We have not received any definite plans from the FAA, but will work with the agency on any updated procedures so that aircraft may continue to arrive and depart during overnight hours if, in fact, an operational change occurs,” said Shane Carter, the spokesman for Clinton National.
Ray Boudreaux doesn’t believe the cuts will happen. He manages Fayetteville Executive Airport, also known as Drake Field. It logged more than 36,000 flight operations last year at its tower, which is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
“It’s something I’m not willing to worry about yet because I believe saner people will prevail,” he said.
The tower is operated on a contract basis. The FAA contracts with a private company to staff that tower, which is 100 percent funded by the FAA. Boudreaux wasn’t sure of the funding amount but said he knew it was an amount the city likely couldn’t cover if the cuts occur.
Rogers Municipal, Texarkana Regional and Springdale Regional airports also have contract-operated towers.
Springdale covers about 19 percent of its airport’s tower operations, or $6,304 per month, and the FAA kicks in the rest, about $33,700 a month, according to Wyman Morgan, administrative and financial services director for the city.
Many aviation operations require tower-controlled airports, Boudreaux said, which is why he has difficulty believing that the cuts will take place.
Such operations include the charter-aircraft companies that carry some of the University of Arkansas athletic teams to and from games, military aircraft that use the Drake Field airfield for practice, and the flight school there that prefers that a tower manage air traffic while its students are in the air. “There’s a lot of reasons why we need a tower,” he said.
The Fayetteville Executive and Fort Smith Regional airports have significant military-aircraft activity. Fort Smith is home to an Arkansas Air National Guard wing. In 2012, Fayetteville had 1,536 local military operations and Fort Smith had 4,816, according to FAA records.
At Texarkana Regional Airport, operations manager Russ Henderson said if its tower closes altogether, the airport likely will use the procedures it employs now when the tower is closed overnight. He was referring to FAA procedures that pilots follow when taking off and landing at airports that have no operating towers.
“After 10 p.m., our tower closes,” he said. “But our airport doesn’t close.”
Texarkana Regional Airport had nearly 30,000 flight operations last year. It also has four American Eagle flights operating daily between Texarkana and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, according to Henderson.
“Any good airport will plan for it,” he said of the potential for towers closing. “We hope we don’t have to do it. But we will be prepared.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/28/2013