FAA Says It Never Studied Closing Burke Lakefront Airport, Despite Moreno Claims
CLEVELAND — The Federal Aviation Administration says it has not conducted any study on closing Burke Lakefront Airport, despite U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno telling reporters the agency spent months examining the issue before concluding the airport should stay open.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has said the agency opposes shutting down Burke. But that opposition rests on a general policy against closing airports nationwide, not on any Burke-specific analysis, according to the FAA.
Asked to provide the FAA analysis Moreno has cited, a spokesperson for the senator referred a reporter to the FAA. The FAA’s press office responded with this statement:
“The FAA has not received a formal request to close Burke Lakefront Airport. As Administrator Bedford pointed out, the FAA’s policy is to strengthen the national airports system not to close airports.”
An FAA spokesperson said FAA doesn’t study the impact of closing particular airports without a formal request to close that airport, so it hasn’t conducted a study of closing Burke.
Moreno first referenced a study following an Aug. 14 tour of an air traffic control facility in Oberlin with Bedford. “From my perspective … there is no scenario in which Burke Lakefront Airport would be closed, given the study and time that the FAA has spent analyzing this,” Moreno, a Westlake Republican, said in comments to WEWS News 5 Cleveland.
A few days later, Moreno gave a more specific timeline in an interview with the Statehouse News Bureau. He said he consulted the FAA, air traffic controllers’ unions and “people who really look at the future” on the question of closing Burke.
“The mayor came to us and said, ‘Hey, we want you to consider it,’” Moreno said. “We considered it. I think 14 months of investigation is a pretty thorough investigation. It is absolutely 100% not going to happen.”
When asked to clarify Moreno’s statements, his spokesperson said in an email: “The 14 months comment was in reference to ongoing conversations between relevant parties here.”
Bedford cited nationwide airspace demand rather than a Burke-specific review in comments to WEWS.
“We don’t have enough airspace capacity for the future as it is,” he said. “The FAA is against closing airports across the country. We need to talk about how do we open new facilities, not how do we close existing, valuable real estate. So, I will tell you, the FAA is not in favor of closing Burke field.”
Cleveland has three options for closing Burke. It can wait until 2039, when federal and state grant obligations expire, and close the airport without needing approval from the FAA or Congress. It can seek an FAA waiver, which would require repaying roughly $9.4 million in outstanding grants and proving the closure benefits aviation overall. Or Congress could pass legislation authorizing the closure directly, bypassing FAA discretion.
Mayor Justin Bibb had been pursuing the congressional route. In an October letter, Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne asked Moreno, U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to support legislation closing Burke.
That path now appears blocked, since Moreno’s opposition leaves it without a path forward. Moreno told News 5 “it would be patently absurd for a politician to override the experts at the FAA, to say we know better than you do.”
A statement from Husted’s spokesperson said he believes any change to Burke Lakefront should go through the traditional process so the FAA can properly assess any plans for the property’s future.
“To gain his support, he will need to see the reuse plan and a realistic strategy for financing it,” the spokesperson said. “He also believes any change should gain side consensus from the greater Cleveland community before any plan is pursued.”
Only Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, has backed closure.
Cleveland commissioned two studies of a Burke closure, released in September 2024. One, by CHA Consulting, laid out the legal and financial mechanics of closing the airport, including the $9.4 million in grant repayments and the 2036 and 2039 expiration dates for federal and state obligations. The other, by Econsult Solutions, found that closing Burke and redeveloping the site for mixed use would generate about $92 million a year in economic activity, compared with $77 million if the airport stays as is. Neither study recommended a course of action.
The city, in a statement from Bibb’s office, acknowledged it those studies while noting there had been no formal request to the FAA.
“Although there hasn’t been a formal filing, the city did present initial redevelopment concepts along with findings of an economic analysis in great detail to FAA officials and our federal delegation,” the statement said. “That analysis was conducted by an independent consultant and revealed redeveloping Burke could generate over $600 million in one-time economic impact and more than $2.5 million in annual tax revenue — which is more than five times its current contribution.”
A coalition of pilots, aircraft owners and Burke tenants calling itself the Lakefront Airport Preservation Partnership organized against the closure push after Bibb’s letter to Congress, arguing the city has undermined the airport’s finances rather than supported them.
Moreno said the debate is over.
“The conversation was open,” he told News 5. “And in my mind, this conversation is now closed.”
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