Aug. 30--The Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport is not closing now or in the future, its executive director said Wednesday, dismissing a study that suggested looming budget cuts will hurt smaller airports.
"The airport is not in any jeopardy of closing," Executive Director Ken Spirito told the Daily Press.
Spirito was responding to comments made Monday by Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News. Speaking at a public roundtable event in Norfolk, Scott cited a study from the Center for American Progress that analyzed the potential harm to the Federal Aviation Administration from automatic, across-the-board budget cuts set to take effect in January.
The cuts, which will happen through a process called sequestration, have been roundly criticized as an inefficient way to reduce federal spending. Meant to slash about $1.2 trillion over the next decade, it would hit defense and non-defense spending equally. Most attention in Hampton Roads has focused on the defense side because the economy depends on military spending and defense-related businesses.
The study predicted that as many as 106 smaller airports could be affected by sequestration because the FAA would not have enough air traffic controllers to staff every airport in the country. If that would happen, the study said, the government would look to keep larger airports open and either close or curtail operations at small airports.
The study said both Newport News/Williamsburg and Roanoke could be forced to close due to a lack of air traffic controllers.
Spirito dismissed the analysis as a speculative think-tank study that described unlikely scenarios, such as entire states left without airports. He chided Scott for bringing up the report at a public meeting, and said speculative studies are being used "as ammunition to scare the public on sequestration."
Scott stuck by his comments, calling the study by the center's Scott Lilly "an accurate assessment of a possible outcome if sequestration is not avoided."
"The American Association of Airport Executives has even confirmed that Scott Lilly's analysis is a possibility if the sequester is not cancelled," Scott said. "Just as the defense cuts would have a devastating impact on Hampton Roads, so would the non-defense cuts -- not only to the FAA but to all aspects of the federal government."
Copyright 2012 - Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
