Sen. Hagan Tries to Prevent 5 Tower Closures in North Carolina

U.S. Senator Kay Hagan yesterday sent a bipartisan letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration asking Secretary LaHood and Administrator Huerta to use authority provided by recently passed legislation to avoid the planned closure of 149 contract towers. The bill, which Hagan cosponsored, was designed to give Secretary LaHood the flexibility to end both the furloughs for 47,000 FAA employees and the closure of 149 contract towers.

“While ending furloughs for tens of thousands of FAA personnel is a common sense decision due to the impact that flight delays had on the traveling public, we are equally concerned about the status of the contract tower program,” Hagan and her colleagues wrote in the letter to Secretary LaHood and Administrator Huerta. “The contract tower program is a vital public safety and economic development asset for dozens of communities – many of them rural – in every corner of the country.”

To read the entire letter to the President, please click here.

“We passed bipartisan legislation in the Senate because these contract towers provide critical services to many North Carolina communities,” said Hagan. “Keeping these towers open will save North Carolina jobs and will help to ensure that our air transportation system remains safe and efficient.”

Five towers in North Carolina are slated to be closed, including those at Concord, Hickory, Winston-Salem, New Bern and Kinston airports. These municipalities depend on the contract tower program for commercial and general aviation services, jobs and support for the military and a variety of air ambulance services. The intent of the legislation passed by Congress was to both prevent furloughs and contract tower closures. It provided authority for the Department of Transportation to use up to $253 million in existing FAA funding to avoid the proposed furloughs and tower closures.