The sequestration plan is hitting home again, this time at Lynchburg Regional Airport.
It's one of 149 regional airports across the nation forced to close its control tower in an effort to cut federal spending.
Friday brought bad news for smaller airports all over the country but leaders at Lynchburg Regional Airport are confident the control tower's closing won't be too disruptive.
"In the short term it's not going to have any affect whatsoever. There are standard procedures, interim procedures that are used when an airport no longer has an operating air traffic control tower," said General David Young with Liberty University School Of Aeronautics
So what are those procedures? One major back up support plan is to use resources from nearby Roanoke Regional Airport.
"We will continue to have all the services of the Roanoke approach control. Roanoke Regional Airport provides the controllers to man the approach control services," said Mark Courtney, Lynchburg Regional Airport Director.
Good news for the commercial, private and business aircraft that use this airport. But the closing is bad news for Liberty University's Aeronautic Program which uses the airport as its base
"It will affect us. It's a little early to tell exactly how but we have been planning for it. It will force us to look at other ways of training our students," Young added.
Courtney says passengers can expect delays after the closure, but this will not affect the airport's stringent safety guidelines and procedures. The hope is to urge federal lawmakers to step up.
"We are looking for help from Congress, we are looking for help from our congressional delegation for a legislative solution to keep our tower open long-term, that's critical, it's critical to this community," Courtney said.
But just when that help will come is a question that may not be answered anytime soon.
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The Federal Aviation will close the control tower at Lynchburg Regional Airport and 148 other federal contract towers on April 7, it announced Friday.
The FAA will also close its tower at the airport in Lewisburg, WV. The tower at Lynchburg Regional Airport is the only tower in Virginia that will close.
As many as five people could lose their jobs at Lynchburg Regional Airport. Planes will still be able to land and take off from Lynchburg, but they'll be monitored from a control tower in Roanoke. That already happens during the late night and early morning hours, when Lynchburg's control tower isn't staffed.
Some Lynchburg flights could experience delays from the control tower closure, but airport officials previously told WDBJ7 that those disruptions would be minimal.
The FAA says it has to close the towers because it has to meet required automatic spending cuts, also known as sequestration. The FAA also says that it will keep open 24 towers that had previously been proposed to close, and another 16 towers under a shared cost program.
Click here to see a list of the towers that are closing.
Here is the news release from the FAA:
Today, the Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reached the decision that 149 federal contract towers will close beginning April 7 as part of the agency’s sequestration implementation plan. The agency has made the decision to keep 24 federal contract towers open that had been previously proposed for closure because doing so would have a negative impact on the national interest.
An additional 16 federal contract towers under the “cost share” program will remain open because Congressional statute sets aside funds every fiscal year for these towers. These cost-share program funds are subject to sequestration but the required 5 percent cut will not result in tower closures.
“We heard from communities across the country about the importance of their towers and these were very tough decisions,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “Unfortunately we are faced with a series of difficult choices that we have to make to reach the required cuts under sequestration.”
“We will work with the airports and the operators to ensure the procedures are in place to maintain the high level of safety at non-towered airports,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.
In early March, FAA proposed to close 189 contract air traffic control towers as part of its plan to meet the $637 million in cuts required under budget sequestration and announced that it would consider keeping open any of these towers if doing so would be in the national interest.
The national interest considerations included: (1) significant threats to national security as determined by the FAA in consultation with the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security; (2) significant, adverse economic impact that is beyond the impact on a local community; (3) significant impact on multi-state transportation, communication or banking/financial networks; and (4) the extent to which an airport currently served by a contract tower is a critical diversionary airport to a large hub.
In addition to reviewing materials submitted on behalf of towers on the potential closure list, DOT consulted with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and conducted operational assessments of each potential tower closure on the national air transportation system.
Some communities will elect to participate in FAA’s non-federal tower program and assume the cost of continued, on-site air traffic control services at their airport (see Advisory Circular AC 90-93A.) The FAA is committed to facilitating this transition.
The FAA will begin a four-week phased closure of the 149 federal contract towers beginning on April 7.
