- May 9, 2024
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The Ormond Beach Municipal Airport will be among the 149 control towers closed during a four-week phased closure.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
Ormond Beach will appeal the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to close the control tower at the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport.
The decision to close the tower was announced March 22, and included the closure of 149 federal contract towers, as part of the agency’s sequestration implementation plan, according to an FAA release.
Mayor Ed Kelley said he isn’t optimistic the appeal will result in a change of fortune, and he still believes there were other viable options.
“I just think that it’s wrong," Kelley said. “I don't like the federal government picking and choosing things like this.”
After 189 potential closures were announced in early March, City Commissioners Troy Kent and Bill Partington, who were already scheduled to make a trip to Washington, D.C., met with Sen. Bill Nelson, Rep. Ron DeSantis and a member of Sen. Marco Rubio’s staff to lobby support for the Ormond Beach airport.
Both commissioners were encouraged by their discussions with the representatives in Congress and said they felt they were able to communicate the city’s concerns.
“We heard from communities across the country about the importance of their towers and these were very tough decisions,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. “Unfortunately we are faced with a series of difficult choices that we have to make to reach the required cuts under sequestration.”
Since the city’s airport tower reports less than 150,000 operations per year, and didn’t meet the criteria for being in the national interest, it will be included in the four-week phased closure beginning April 7, according to the agency’s release.
Kelley said the safety concern at the airport is a result of the high number of student pilots using the facility through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and other flight schools based out of the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport.
City Manager Joyce Shanahan, in a letter to the FAA, dated March 13, voiced the city’s concern and estimated 80% of the airport's traffic came from student pilots, which she said was similar to other neighboring airports, in a region densely populated with training aircraft.
Airport Manager Steven Lichliter referred inquiries on the airport's closure to City Attorney Randy Hayes, who could not be reached for comment.
