Four community airports in Arizona plan to challenge an FAA order to close their air traffic control towers. The airports are targeted in the federal budget-cutting program known as “Sequestration.”
189 smaller airports nationwide received letters from the FAA this week that announced they must close their towers by early April.
Phoenix-Goodyear and Glendale’s municipal airports are on the list. So are Tucson’s Ryan Field and the Laughlin-Bullhead airport. Laughlin-Bullhead airport director David Gaines said passenger and pilot safety would be jeopardized if the towers stop operations: “The context and makeup of the air traffic at this airport justifies that safety is paramount and has to be considered. Its risky business when you start moving a lot of types of airplanes in the same airport traffic area."
Gaines said his airport tower directs more than 20-thousand flights a year including helicopters, charter flights and a few military aircraft. He said pilots could still takeoff and land at the smaller airports without ground control, but he added the chance for collisions significantly increases.