Director: Federal Cuts Won't Cause Columbia Airport to Close

The Columbia Metropolitan Airport will remain open even if Congress cuts $1.35 million from the Federal Avaiation Administration, Columbia Airport Executive Director Dan Mann said Monday.

A Washington think tank, the Center for American Progress, predicted last week that more than 100 airports across the nation would close if the scheduled spending cuts aren't reversed before the beginning of the year. The Columbia airport and the Florence Regional Airport were on the list.

“Reports that FAA budget cuts would cause mass furloughs at select airports and that Columbia Metropolitan Airport would close are based on pure speculation and farfetched assumptions,” Mann said.

Although the Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for the Columbia airport control tower, the airport does have alternatives for operating air traffic control, he said.

The cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration are just part of $1.2 trillion in federal cuts, according to a report from WACH Fox. Congressional Republican leaders and President Barack Obama agreed to the cuts — to be spread out over a decade — last summer.