Airport SMAACdown
from staff reports
The South Metro Airport Action Council (SMAAC)
Board of Directors today submitted a resolution to MAC calling for
a safety-first expansion moratorium at MSP. In early May, two Northwest
Airlines (NWA) planes collided near MSP’s Lindbergh terminal,
but the accident did not rate a mention in MAC’s “2020
Plan” study or the environmental assessment of terminal expansion
projects through the year 2015 just drafted by MAC.
The Board, in an action started by SMAAC
Members at their annual meeting, demanded that MAC consider
the accident report being prepared by the National Transportation
Safety Board before undertaking projects likely to increase ground
traffic at either terminal.
SMAAC says MSP is already one of the busiest
hub airports, due to adding NWA gates at the Lindbergh Terminal
in 2003; NWA since increased hub activities at MSP from a 70-plane
block to about 100 planes meeting at MSP twice daily. MSP has only
two runways available at peak hours and uses them at or over standard
rates. The new Runway 17-35 will come online next year, and NWA
and FAA, if not MAC, seem intent on increasing the operational rate
further, according to SMAAC. The Board warned that “The
chance of a loss-of-life accident may have been increased by an
order of magnitude due to operations at the planned (2010)
rates. Add to this faster gate turn-around, increased air traffic
controller and crew fatigue, maintenance cost-cutting, and other
contemporary concerns. How many collisions are acceptable in order
to have a busier hub airport?”
The consequences of more gates and higher rates
of runway use is more airliners flying closer together, more airliners
and service vehicles moving faster and more often around the airport,
and more congestion on the ground and in the sky. The proposed Lindbergh
Terminal take-over for a larger NWA Sky-Team hub will add ground
traffic and further limit maneuvering room, according to SMAAC.
The SMAAC Board says that air travel is not just
as safe as it was years ago, although it is quite safe compared
to some other modes of transportation. “The public will feel
safer traveling by air when as safe as possible is the rule at MSP;
when Congress doesn’t mess with safety or any other aviation
laws at the behest of industry lobbyists, and when the risks of
certifying more maintenance facilities with fewer inspectors or
using more runways for more flights with fewer controllers are quantified,”
SMAAC said in an earlier report on its website www.quiettheskies.org. |
