Southern Illinois Congressman Bill Enyart met with SIU aviation officials and the FAA Tuesday to discuss efforts to try and restore funding for the southern Illinois Airport’s control tower.
The control tower at the Southern Illinois Airport is one of more than 100-towers scheduled to close in April as a result of federal sequestration. The airport is home to SIU’s flight training program and is one of the busiest runways in the country. Enyart has written to FAA officials, asking them to reconsider the closure. Enyart says keeping the control tower open would require the FAA to re-prioritize its budget.
The agency announced Friday that it will begin closing 149 air traffic facilities starting April 7th . Others affected in Illinois are St. Louis Regional Airport in East Alton, Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington-Normal, Decatur Airport, and Waukegan Regional Airport near Chicago. The control tower at the Williamson County Regional Airport is on the closure list for September.
All of the affected airports will remain open. Under long-established procedures, pilots will be left to coordinate takeoffs and landings among themselves over a shared radio frequency without help from controllers. The FAA is being forced to trim $637 million for the rest of the fiscal year under the federal cuts known as sequestration.
