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Port authority hopes to know Friday the fate of tower
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
Officials hope to know Friday the fate of the air-traffic control tower at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
Dan Dickten, airport director of aviation, said the decision on which towers would be closed or scaled back nationwide was expected Monday, but was pushed back because of the amount of input from the communities affected.
The tower is on two lists — one proposed to lose its midnight shift, and one proposed for closure. The lists were issued after the federal sequester took place this month requiring the Federal Aviation Administration to cut its budget.
The tower has 16 controllers and three management and support personnel, said board member James Floyd.
The members of the Western Reserve Port Authority, which runs the airport and met Wednesday, said they came away from a meeting with tower leadership believing that the elimination of the midnight shift would be the best scenario.
The airport averages half an aircraft per night from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., so losing that shift would be much less of a loss than losing staffing at the tower altogether, said board member Patrick Pellin.
“The employees agreed that [losing the midnight shift] is a way to save the tower,” board member Andre Visnapuu said.
If an aircraft were delayed past the 11 p.m. closing time or was coming early in the morning, staff could remain on duty or come in early on overtime to handle the work, Dickten said.
Pellin said the main benefit of having the tower operational is to provide an actual “eyes on” person to see aircraft on the runway.
That serves as a backup to personnel monitoring radar screens and provides an “added layer of safety” for air traffic, Pellin said.
Dickten said he’s been expecting the midnight shift at the tower to go away, but he has asked the FAA to remove the tower from a list of sites the agency has proposed closing altogether.
Dickten, in a letter to the FAA, stressed that the Youngstown- Warren Regional Airport is a joint commercial and military airport supporting the 910th Airlift Wing at the Air Force Reserve Station.
Board member Scott Lewis said one concern for the airport is how the airport’s leisure airline, Allegiant Air, and prospective airlines that could provide daily service would perceive the loss of the tower.
Dickten said discussions with two airlines considering daily service from Vienna have said air fares might be higher to fly from Vienna than from other regional airports, but fliers would save money on other airport costs, such as parking.
In other business, the port authority approved buying the former Airport Inn restaurant just north of the airport on state Route 193 from the Trumbull County Land Bank at a cost of $8,000.
Part of the requirement of the land bank is that the authority demolish the restaurant building, said Rose Ann DeLeon, executive director of the port. The authority has no specific plans for the half-acre property.