Glacier International tower may close on May 5

The Flathead Municipal Airport Authority that owns and operates Glacier Park International Airport has asked a federal court to reverse the Federal Aviation Administration’s recent decision to close Glacier’s air-traffic control tower because of sequestration budget cuts.

The local authority, along with the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority in Hailey, Idaho, filed a lawsuit Friday in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, petitioning the court to review the FAA’s decision to withdraw the money necessary to operate the local control tower. Attorneys have asked the FAA to postpone closing the local tower until the court can review that decision. 

Even if the tower is closed, planes still will be able to take off and land. Glacier Park International tower is open from 8 a.m. to midnight, so the airport already operates with uncontrolled air space outside of that time frame.

The FAA decided to close air-traffic control towers at 149 small and midsize airports in response to congressionally mandated sequestration and a need for the FAA to cut $637 million from its $16 billion budget.

But, rather than make an across-the-board cut throughout the entire agency budget as some federal agencies have done, the FAA chose to cut air-traffic services at some airports entirely and furlough personnel at towers across the country.

Glacier Park International’s tower is on the list of closures and is scheduled to shut down May 5. 

“The FAA did not consider any local site-specific operational realities or the impact on nationwide air traffic operations,” Glacier Airport Director Cindi Martin said.   

The lawsuit argues that having a working tower at the local airport provides an added layer of safety and confidence on a year-round basis that is important to preserve.  

“Given the amount of commercial and private aircraft traffic in the nation’s skies, we are unwilling to accept any backtracking on safety,” Martin said.

Aircraft are tracked by the Salt Lake City airport radar system until they enter Glacier Park’s five-mile airspace. When the tower closes, pilots will use visual flight rules as they did in pre-tower days, Martin said. 

The lawsuit filed by the Flathead and Friedman authorities is one of a number of similar suits filed by airports across the country that face control tower closures.