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Trenton-Mercer Airport, seeking to avert tower shutdown, heads to court
By Ted Sherman/The Star-Ledger
on April 29, 2013 at 8:10 PM, updated April 29, 2013 at 8:15 PMEWING — A dogfight over FAA cutbacks has now reached the courts, with at least a dozen airports across the country filing suit to avert a shutdown of their control towers — Trenton-Mercer Airport in New Jersey the latest to join the legal fray.
Mercer County officials today said they have filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals to join with other small airports to force the Federal Aviation Administration to keep their towers open.
“Quite frankly, I’m mad,” said Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes. “We’re being punished for the sequester.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation has come under heavy criticism for the sweeping cutbacks made after the FAA had $637 million automatically slashed from its budget, as part of the federal sequester cuts mandated by Congress. Those cuts included a shutdown of control tower operations at 149 airports with fewer than 150,000 landings and departures each year, as well as the more recent furloughs of FAA controllers nationwide.
The furloughs were suddenly reversed over the weekend, in the wake of a week of flight delays that angered thousands of travelers and led to quick legislation aimed at putting flight controllers back on the job.
The FAA had earlier temporarily delayed the tower shutdowns, but has yet to back down on plans to implement those in mid-June. Most airports in the United States actually operate without control towers. Instead of following the instructions of a controller, pilots at uncontrolled airports follow standard arrival and departure patterns and announce their intentions over a common frequency.
Trenton-Mercer, near Princeton, and Essex County Airport, 13 miles northwest of Newark Liberty International Airport, are currently both slated to lose their towers, under FAA proposals. However, members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation have been lobbying to keep the towers open, arguing that both airports operate under the most congested skies in the country.
The Essex County tower is not under an immediate threat of closure because it is staffed by FAA employees who are under contract, and it could remain open for as long as a year.
But Trenton-Mercer Airport’s tower is operated under contract by a private company, and its future is more uncertain.
Mercer County officials, eyeing the legislation over the weekend that reversed the furloughs, are still hopeful that they can avoid the ax.
“I have felt all along that the FAA would eventually figure out a way to fund these things — especially if part of a broader solution,” said Hughes. But the county executive said Mercer took the added step of going to court to protect its interests.
He said if the FAA were to come back and settle the case, Mercer needed to be part of that decision. Mercer is home to Frontier Airlines.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month by airports in Washington, Florida, Illinois, Texas and California, citing the impact to safety. In its court filing, Mercer County noted that the local controller is the first line of communication for a pilot needing assistance. “Coordination of emergency response cannot be done by a remote tower controller, unable to visualize events as they happen,” the county noted, adding that without an operational control tower, Trenton-Mercer Airport cannot be designated as an alternate airport for air traffic flying in and out of Philadelphia.
At the same time, the county warned of system-wide delays if Trenton-Mercer’s air traffic control tower is closed.
“Should our contract tower close, even temporarily, there would be severe operational impacts to the system,” said the county.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown declined comment. “We don’t comment on pending litigation or pending legislation,” she said.