Airport officials: Control tower short on staff

The Cape Girardeau Regional Airport’s control tower remains understaffed as the workload has increased, tower chief Larry Davis said.

The tower once operated with four controllers. But after the fourth controller retired in August 2009, the city has budgeted for only three controllers since then, reducing the number of hours of tower operation, airport manager Bruce Loy said.

Cape Girardeau’s tower is manned 10 hours a day, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. The tower operates with three controllers. But when a controller is on vacation or out for medical reasons or family emergencies, the tower only has two operators to handle air traffic control.

The result is in many cases, “someone is working alone,” Davis said.

In times of heavy air traffic, it can be difficult for one person to handle the workload, he said.

Scott Roberts communicates with a pilot Thursday from the local-controller position in the control tower at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.Fred Lynch

There are times a controller is so busy, he has to wait to go to the bathroom, Davis said.

Two air-traffic controllers on duty at the same time allows one controller to concentrate on aircraft that are taking off while the other controller communicates with pilots in the air, he said.

“When we had four controllers, we always had overlapping shifts,” Davis said.

Federal Aviation Administration rules prohibit air-traffic controllers from working more than 10 hours a day.

According to Davis, aviation traffic at the airport increased nearly 65 percent in September and is up 44 percent for the year. Those numbers reflected only aviation traffic during times the tower was manned, airport officials said.

Through the first nine months of this year, recorded aviation traffic totaled 23,549, compared to 17,654 a year ago, Loy said. Flight training, a better economy and lower fuel prices account for the traffic increase, he said.

Davis said an airport tower ideally should have a minimum staffing of four controllers including the tower chief.

Davis, Loy and airport board members view it as a safety issue.

“It’s a lot like being a firefighter,” Davis said, explaining fire-department staffing is determined by how many firefighters are needed for public safety. The same holds true for air-traffic control, he said.

Towers should not be staffed on the basis of times when there is minimal air traffic, but when there is heavy traffic, Davis said.

Loy said air-traffic controllers have a public-safety role.

“I am of the opinion it is like fire and police,” he said.

Deputy city manager Molly Hood said Loy has lobbied for city officials to increase the airport budget so a fourth air-traffic controller can be hired.

But so far, that request has not been included in budget plans.

Hood said the city doesn’t receive any federal funding for operation of the tower.

The city receives $167,000 annually from the state of Missouri to help fund tower operations, Loy said.

The Federal Aviation Administration used to fund the tower operation but stopped doing so in 1995 as part of a cost-cutting move.

Some cities contract out their airport-tower operations.

Airport board member and former Cape Girardeau airport manager Mark Seesing said it is more costly to hire an outside company to staff the tower than have the city operate it.

Seesing and Loy said adding another controller could cost $60,000 to $65,000 in salary and benefits.

Seesing said the federal government doesn’t require the Cape Girardeau airport and others like it to operate air-traffic control towers.

If Cape Girardeau didn’t have a control tower, planes still could land here, Seesing said.

The current commuter airline as well as other private and business planes land and take off from the airport at various times of the day, including hours when the tower is not operating, he said.

But he said as a pilot, “I want to keep it.” He said it is an added safety tool and particularly useful for those who are learning to fly.

However, Seesing said the tower needs to be adequately staffed to operate properly.

“If we are going to have it, it has to be manned,” he said.

Airport board chairman Robert Cork said the current staffing arrangement “leaves us pretty vulnerable.”

Cork said the airport board continues to study the issue but has not made any recommendation to the city council.

Board members have asked Davis to provide information from other airports about staffing and the amount of air traffic handled at those facilities, Cork said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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