Tiny Airports Get Big Cut of Stimulus Cash

Small, Rural Airports Get Big Payouts While Safety Violations at Major National Airports Get Little Attention

(CBS)  If you want to know your federal stimulus package dollars are already having an impact, you might want to look up. The small planes you spot could be bound for one of the hundreds of tiny airports that have landed big money from the government, as CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.

In upstate New York, there's a tiny airport owned by the Williamson Flying Club, a private social club for local pilots.

Club President Joe Ebert is pleased to show off their brand new $400,000 runway, paid for by your tax dollars.

It's all new, he says, and it's all part of $1.1 billion in stimulus money handed out to more than 300 airports around the nation.

"We were looking for projects that airports in areas around the country desperately needed to be done for safety and security concerns," said Department of Transportation press secretary Sasha Johnson.

Yet some of the projects hardly seem urgent. And taxpayers may be surprised to find "that airports they never heard of in communities they will never visit are getting some of the maximum stimulus grants," says Michael Grabell of the non-profit journalism group ProPublica.

In fact, more than $350 million is being spent on little-used airports or ones catering to recreational flyers, corporate jets and remote communities.

That's because Congress' stimulus rules don't give priority to the most congested airports or biggest safety problems.

Consider that Los Angeles International doesn't have the money to install critical taxiway warning lights. And a third of the nation's largest airports - 11 of the 30 biggest, handling over one-fourth of the nation's passenger traffic - have substandard safety areas for when planes veer off the runway.

Yet tiny Purdue University Airport got $800,000 to help keep animals off the runway. That's even though they've reported just one incident: a plane ran over a skunk in 1996.

In Alaska, $15 million dollars went to build a bigger, better airport for the town of Ouizinkie - population just 165. That's roughly $90,000 dollars per resident.

The stimulus funds were granted by the FAA, under the Department of Transportation.

Asked why the costs at small airports shouldn't be borne by the people benefiting from them, Johnson said, "The community can't raise that kind of money. Rural airports deserve to be safe and kept up as much as other airports do."

She also points out small airports are used by rescue aircraft and cargo haulers, and the stimulus projects create jobs.

But nobody would tell us how many unemployed workers, if any, were hired to pave the Flying Club's runway. The whole job took just five days.

On the bright side, all airports that get stimulus funds are open to the public. So if you ever feel like flying to a little airport, there's one in upstate New York that's happy to spread out the welcome mat on their brand new runway.


See additional reporting on this subject from Propublica.org

[payasyougo]

It's convenient how the author of this article elected not to include airport projects such as the John Murtha airport outside PA which has received $200 million for the airport "that has virtually no passengers".

As if this were only a republican spending issue.

[MrUsername2U]

Please stop this type of stupid yellow journalism. We need better reporting not CBS hyped headlines or disingenuous stories.

The stimulus money should be used to build/rebuild our old infrastructure. The reason the USA has been a great country is many (40+) years ago leaders realized that building airports, freeways, etc provided easier movement of goods and services...and our commerce prospered. $15Million to build an airport in a rural area is a VERY effective use of funds thereby initially creating some construction jobs and then the airport keeps giving back to the community by providing a safe, efficient access route to the rest of the world.

[myryan]

This has to be the worst piece of alleged journalism I've ever read! Small airports are huge economic generators for small communities, not playgrounds for the rich.

[TVENG]

The other comments point out benefits of General Aviation that have been overlooked by this article. The only question I have at this point is, why are these airports not worth the money for some safety improvements?

[lalomac]

Wow, was this written for HS newspaper or what?
I feel so sorry for this country.

[sooodisappointed]

Maybe you guys should take a little trip to Ouzinkie, Alaska.. see what the present airport is like, Fly over on a little plane and see for yourself what is like and how it benefits the small rural community then rethink story. When that ouzinkie airport project get under way it will provide jobs and keep workers from being layed off.

[OOWBMan]

Ignorance is rampant in reporting now. They don't seek knowledge as that would ruin the story.

[poorpilot123]

I'm "poor" pilot, paying off mutiple Salliemae loans from fullfilling a life long dream to fly and hopefully make a career out of it. All or most my flying is via small GA airports. YOU ARE SOOOO Wrong and mislead!!!!

I'm forwarding this biased bunch of crap to Fox News and Bill O'reilly in hopes that they fillet your mis-guided unresearch reporting Sharyl Attkisson! REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO DAN RATHER FOR NOT FULLY SUBSTANTIATING HIS REPORTS! YOU'RE NEXT! TAKE THE BUS NEXT TIME YOU HAVE TO GO SOMEWHERE SINCE YOU SEEM TO HATE GA!

[Skyhawkflr]

If anyone thinks that general aviation is just a rich man's sport, or that these "stimulus" dollars are wasted on a few people they are really mistaken. I can assure you that GA is not a rich man's sport, our local airport did not get any of the stimulus funds, though we would have liked to. The pilot population at our airport comes from all walks of life, retirees, business owners, students, and farmers. The largest employers in our county use this airport to come check on their operations. Two of those employers have recently created hundreds of jobs by moving production here, one company moving its entire production here from Mexico. The airport provides access in emergency situations as well. Life saving medical flights and cargo relief flights pass through local airports. Few news corporations had reported how general aviation helped after Hurricane Katrina, while FEMA was still trying to find their car keys and a dog sitter.
As for aviation being a rich man's sport think again. If your family can afford a couple of snowmobiles, you can afford an airplane and you can use that year round. I make less than $18,000 a year managing an airport and I can still afford to go fly for fun once in a while.
Business aircraft save time and can actually help a company make money. Local business use their aircraft to make sales calls, visit possible clients or bring clients here. They can use their aircraft to make several visits in one day and still come back to their own operation and their home at the end of the day.
I would like to see reporters try to fly on the airlines to cover all their stories, especially for "breaking news". We certainly don't need a news helicopter (that probably operates from a GA airport!) following Michael Jackson's body from the hospital to the morg. We don't need a President that has to fly a 747, a cargo plane, and helicopters to St. Louis to throw a baseball. We also didn't need the President to fly all that equipment to Michigan as well, just to tell us its all going to be okay.

[jreekree]

The above posts just about cover all the facts. NO ONE can deny that general aviation contributes greatly to the economic engine of the world.
Also I believe that NO ONE can deny the CBS news never lets the facts of a story get in the way of reporting.
This is about as one sided as it gets, but what do you expect from a News organization that is so blatantly one sided politically.

[mlwinnig]

And oh, but the way... the whole idea behind stimulus money was to "pull the trigger" on viable projects, well under way, which could be built quickly, so as to get the money flowing into the economy.

Generally this is the exact opposite of "pork barrel" spending. Most of these projects are part of an extensive multi-year Master Plan, which have been extensively "vetted" along the way. To blindly assume these are a waste of taxpayer money doesn't even make sense on the surface... much less once you actually look into the facts!

Can you say RETRACTION???

[mlwinnig]

EXTREMELY BIASED REPORT!!!

You people really need to get a clue! Let's see now... do your people ALWAYS fly on scheduled commercial airliners? Where are your news choppers (and those of your affiliates primarily based)??? Guess you own and maintain your own airports, helipads, etc., right?

EVEN YOU GET TO USE THESE FACILITIES, while you continue to drive nails into the collective General Aviation coffin!

What you SHOULD be doing is telling Americans all that General Aviation does for America. How about showing "GA Serves America" info spots for free? Seems like the least you can do after such a blatant and one-sided attack on one of the few viable industries in the country in which we still hold a prominent position in the world economy.

[AReiheld]

Would some CBS fact checker-- or don't they have any?-- like to tell the viewers about all the federal transportation systems connecting that Alaskan town the reporterette sneered at, with the wider world? How about all the taxpayer-funded highways, railways, and seaports serving the town?

It took me all of three minutes on Google Earth to learn that, like most of Alaska's population centers, including some of its major cities, Ouzinke has only a few local roads, one of which extends a short distance out of town- all the way to the airport. There IS a tiny harbor on the large island, frozen in for much of the year, no doubt. Ouzinke's isolated residents depend on that little airport to get mail, groceries, medical services, and most other supplies. Of course, it's better propaganda to imply that Ouzinke's airport is a ridiculous waste of money, without pointing out that it's the only way to and from the island. Maybe our earnest little ditz would prefer to sentence the people of Ouzinke to starvation for not having the good sense to live in Manhattan.

CBS could, it it wanted a real eye-opener of a story, find out what General Aviation means to the people of Alaska. But that wouldn't fit the format, would it?

[AReiheld]

What an appallingly poorly-done story. I wish I could say I'm shocked, but this foolishness is totally predictable: consider the source. It is typical left-wing class-warfare, ignoring facts and making up statistics in order to incite the downtrodden masses against 'rich' private pilots. Accurate reporting, competent investigation, and above all, fairness aren't what we've come to expect of Dan Rather's employer.

Let me help you with my rich fat-cat picture: My husband and I are retired, and have owned our 30-year-old single-engine airplane for many years. We live in a remote town of 5000 in the smallest county in North Carolina. When I fill all four seats of my little bird, the trip costs me half what a regular coach air fare each would cost for all of us, and we don't have to drive nearly two hours to a commercial terminal. From my little airport here in town, the entire eastern half of the United States is a one-tank half-day trip for us.

In purchasing fuel and services here, I support several dozen people who work at the little airport- the mechanics, the line personnel, the housekeeper and grass mower, the manager, the softdrink guy, the fuel wholesaler, and others. The direct profits from the fuel and services I purchase go to my town's meager coffers to help support municipal needs that have nothing to do with the airport. When I purchase fuel and services at the other end of my journey, I support all the people who work at that airport, plus the car rental people, the hotelier and restaurateurs, the shops, businesses and the like at my destination. And for every gallon of aviation fuel, I pay taxes to repave airports, even ones I'll never land at, and for many non-aviation uses as well.

Furthermore, I'm a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight, and spend my own time and money to fly people who need to reach medical care far from their own homes. My reward is two-fold. I get satisfaction from helping those who desperately need a lift, and even better, I'm able to share this privilege unique in all the world, the freedom of our American skies, with them. I wish CBS could do a story on Angel Flight, the pilots who give so much, the patients who need so much... shall I hold my breath?

How about a CBS story on the roles we fat-cat rural pilots, some of us mere hobbyists, and some of us, worse yet, corporate business aircraft owners, play- again, at our own expense-, not only in medical transport, but in crucial ecological research, in search and rescue, in transport during times of national emergency? How about a story on the community outreach that happens at most little airports, when schoolchildren come to visit us, where they learn (from us 'rich' volunteers) that they need to study science and math, so that they, too, might someday reach for their own bit of sky? Where do you think our next generation of commercial pilots are going to come from, anyway? Get a clue-- they all have to learn to fly somewhere, and it isn't going to be at O'Hare or JFK!

Right. Waiting for the FAIR stories.....(cue crickets...)

Our little rural regional runway was recently repaved with tax money (mostly paid by GA fuel taxes, actually.) It's there not only for me and my 'rich' family, but for package delivery aircraft several times a day, for the ER doctor who commutes from another state, for the agricultural spray operations, for the historic aircraft that are restored here, for the many military aircraft that practice approaches here so as not to get in the way of scheduled carriers at big airports, as a base for fire control operations, and much more. The runway, the instrument approaches, the little terminal building, and other facilities are there for the visitors who fly in to spend money in our beautiful historic town, and for the businessmen who fly in to check on their many developments and investments in our area. Sure, they could fly commercial and drive two hours here, but for many people, time is money. To fly commercial would waste a day they could spend better doing what they do for a living. But never let truth get in the way of political grandstanding propaganda, eh?


Oh, one more thing: Did it ever occur to you that those repaving jobs at 'small' airports that your reporter was so worked up over were to SAVE existing runways from deteriorating, becoming dangerous stretches of crumbled, weed-choked asphalt of no use to anybody? Conservation! That's a good thing.

CBS, once again, you've proved you can't be trusted to tell even an approximation of the truth. You tell a story that fits your preconceived political agenda, and expect your gullible viewers to believe it, no matter how ludicrous. Shame on every CBS employee involved. How do y'all sleep at night, putting this sort of nonsense on the air? Going to redeem your sorry reputation with 'the rest of the story?' You betcha.

[brcase]

Just a bit about the facts. The 5 airplane club at my local airport represents nearly 100 pilots. The article does not say how may pilots the club they are talking about actually represents. The article also makes it sound like there are only 5 airplanes at this airport. In fact a little bit of checking on the Web shows that there are at least 74 airplanes based at this public airport. This does not account for all the aircraft that travel though this airport, which of course is the whole point of having an airport.

[nwolfie5]

Excuse me darling, but uhm, these airports are what sustain this country. Without these, YOU wouldn't be getting your food and other very important things, because these airports take them to you. They are the ones located by farms, which in turn allows them to be flown to plants near larger airports. To think that these would be taken away, you would be taking away an every day activity for thousands of people.

I am amazed that CBS News would even think of broadcasting a story like this, that effectively is biting the hand that feeds them. CBS News has been using General Aviation (G/A)for it's news gathering operation for over 50 years. It was through the use of G/A that CBS News was able to break the story about Acid Rain. CBS News used G/A to follow the presidential primaries for years when the fastest way to transmit video was by carrying it from rural areas to their stations by helicopter. Without the G/A airports, there would have not been any place from which the helicopter could operate.
CBS News uses G/A facilities all over the country for their news gathering, traffic reporting and crew placements. General Aviation facilities are the backbone of the transportation system that you use to keep your viewers informed.
With this one story, you are bad mouthing the very system that you require to present current information to your listeners.
This one story casts doubt into your ability to fairly and honestly present any news to the public since you have an inside view of the workings of G/A through your daily use of the system.
I know of CBS News's use of G/A since I leased a helicopter to them for over 10 years.
Shame on you CBS News.

[aviationgeek84]

What a terrible, terrible news story. General aviation supports many functions throughout this country every single day and every single hour.

Research something for once. Try it out - you might like it.

[BHoge]

Shame those involved in this horribly slanted report. Most small municipal airports in this country receive little or no money from the government, local or federal. They are for the most part totally dependent on sales from fuel, maintenance, flight lessons and charter services located on the field. (all of which are taxed except for flight lessons)In other words, small airports are self sufficient small businesses and in these tough economic times make it difficult if not impossible to fund even the smallest of airport repairs and upgrades. Also the majority of the traffic in and out of these airports are not the ultra rich CEO's with private jets, but small piston powered planes used to provide much needed air services to areas that are no where near a city with regular scheduled airline service. This stimulus money creates jobs and improves airport safety and infrastructure for small communities with low tax revenue If CBS wants to do a story on the government wasting our money, how about doing a story on the billions of tax dollars being wasted on large corporations who can afford the private jets rather than the small airports they are supposedly using.

[POGOP38]

Ask United or any of the others, how much fuel taxes they pay per gallon.Yet we the public provide all the services.