The Federal Aviation Administration is considering closing Richmond International Airport’s air traffic control tower during overnight hours, prompting concerns from airport officials, airlines and politicians that operations and safety at the airport could be affected.
The FAA proposal calls for closing the control tower at Richmond International from midnight to 5 a.m., according to a plan presented on Oct. 1 to airport officials and what the FAA described as other stakeholders.
The FAA said it is evaluating midnight shift staffing in air traffic facilities nationwide in response to an audit of airport facility operating hours by the federal Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General.
The plan would be to shift air traffic control operations at Richmond International Airport during that time period to the FAA’s Potomac Consolidated Terminal RADAR Approach Control, which is known as TRACON, in Fauquier County.
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Richmond airport officials are opposed to closing the airport’s tower during the overnight hours, as are many other key stakeholders, such as passenger airlines and cargo flight operators who expect flexibility in the hours when they can depart and arrive, said Troy Bell, the airport’s spokesperson. Air traffic controllers also are opposed to the change, he said.
“Most of our flights are typically scheduled to arrive before midnight,” Bell said. However, delays can alter a flight’s arrival time, he said.
“Regardless of the schedule, the reality is we will have passenger flights that come in after midnight,” Bell said.
“We have departures that leave the airport scheduled to go right after 5 a.m.,” Bell said, noting as an example that one flight is scheduled to leave the airport at 5:05 a.m. eight times in the first 13 days of December. That would be five minutes after the planned reopening time for the control tower under the FAA proposal.
“It is not unusual to see flights scheduled for 5:30 a.m. or earlier,” Bell said.
The FAA’s proposal comes at a time when airlines have had to cancel or delay hundreds of flights across the country in recent months, partly because of inclement weather and operational meltdowns that have been exacerbated by the lack of available pilots and flight attendants.
The FAA said it is “considering stakeholder input and has not made any decisions about operating hours.”
However, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine wrote a letter to the FAA director Stephen M. Dickson urging the agency to take into account safety issues and advocating that the airport control tower be kept operating around the clock.
“We understand that the FAA’s proposal has been met with strong opposition from the Richmond Airport, passenger airlines, cargo carriers, the fixed base operators, the air traffic controllers at the airport, and other stakeholders,” Kaine and Warner said in the letter.
“The FAA’s analysis should take into account the critical need for the Control Tower to be open at a busy commercial service airport like Richmond International Airport,” the letter said. “For example, airlines often have flights that are scheduled to arrive before midnight but are delayed and land later. The Richmond Airport is also an alternate site when airlines must divert flights from landing at other airports due to weather conditions. The Control Tower also plays an important role in coordinating early morning flights.”
Bell said no airlines that serve Richmond International have said they would reduce service as a result of the possible change.
However, “you start taking away scheduled flexibility and it creates a risk that could happen,” he said.