SLT solidifies end of commercial air service
By Kathryn Reed
A significant chapter in Lake Tahoe Airport’s history came to a close Tuesday when the City Council unanimously agreed to give up the FAA certificate that allows commercial air service.
Aircraft carrying high rollers and celebrities for the annual golf tournament will still be regular fixtures at Lake Tahoe Airport – and some of those planes are substantial in size. The decision also isn’t likely to be noticeable to pilots or the general public.
Formally called the Federal Aviation Regulation Part 139 Certificate, this is what the feds require for commercial service to be allowed at airports. Inspections are done annually to ensure an airport meets the specifications. Files and logs kept by the fixed based operator are looked at; the runway and taxiways have to be the correct slope; the pavement must be in a certain condition, as well as markings, lighting, and signage; rescue and firefighting equipment are analyzed, as are personnel training records. The fuel farm and mobile fueler’s fire suppression equipment is also checked.
And while no one from the FAA is going to continue to do these inspections, the city intends to maintain the airport as if it had the 139 certificate. According to Michael Golden, who runs Mountain West Aviation – the fixed base operation, this is something pilots like because it means the airport is run at a higher standard than other facilities.
If the day comes that the city wants to have commercial service, it still could. It means filling out FAA paperwork and having an airline lined up. More significantly it could mean a $15 million investment – in today’s dollars – to bring the runway up to specifications for certain types of aircraft. It’s also possible that depending on the airline and plane used, that type of capital outlay would not be needed.
TWA was one of several airlines that used to fly into Lake Tahoe Airport. Photo/Del Laine
It was pointed out that rules can change and there is no guarantee the city would have the means or ability to jump through whatever new hoops the FAA erects.
And the figure above doesn’t include the couple million dollars the terminal would likely need to bring it up to national Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regs.
The city’s certificate has been in the inactive status because no commercial flights have come in for 14 years.
The reality the elected were faced with on March 17 was that the last commercial flight in and out of the South Lake Tahoe airport was in 2001. This was long after the peak in 1978 of almost 300,000 enplanements. When the city embarked on updating the master plan, which was required after a settlement agreement expired in 2012, the future of the airport had to be decided.
Last summer the council at the time voted to have the airport become a general aviation facility without commercial service. This week’s vote solidified that decision. It also will keep the airport subsidy to $354,000 a year. It was expected to increase nearly another $120,000 based on changes to the training for firefighters. (At the peak, the city was subsidizing the airport with $600,000 a year from the general fund.)
Fire Chief Jeff Meston told the council training will still occur – but onsite, instead of offsite as the feds now mandate.
Another issue the city will have to tackle is replacing the 30-plus-year-old vehicle used specifically for fighting an airplane fire. They cost almost $1 million.
The staff report says, “Without a letter of intent from an air carrier, it’s unlikely that the FAA would participate in funding a new (Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting) vehicle.”
The devolvement continues. The town hangs on by the skin of its teeth.
Unless a enclosure is built there will be no
Snow Globe or other raucous events at the new general aviation airport.
Hopefully the Forest Service moves quickly to allow Vail to make Heavenly into a major summer attraction.
The Hard Rock spent $60,000,000 in Nevada to improve the old Horizon, all spent in Nevada and California gets to supply the workers while providing schooling and welfare. Another great deal for South Lake Tahoe?
Hard to be optimistic of the future.
Wow Legal, so it’s a BAD thing that the Park brothers invested 80,000,000 in the Hard Rock? Yes, it is in Nevada, but it is still part of the South Lake community. I bet all of the “California supplied workers” appreciate it. You apparently believe you are better than the service industry workers. If they live in CA, the pay income tax here, so your elitist statement about increased school and welfare costs is absurd ( more jobs equals more welfare is an equally absurd conclusion). What a sour attitude! What would you recommend? Do you have a master plan for a Tahoe utopia that you would like to share?
Wow! Already? How many years did the city pay to keep the certification without a snowballs chance in hell of ever having commercial air service return? Way too many,,, another great use of tax payer money. Let’s cut public safety and education funding so we can dump money in to an airport that will never have commercial service again. SLT residents have been paying for the elite to land in SLT and immediately go to Stateline casinos to spend their money in NV. So many other potential uses for the airport property if all of the special interests could agree on something. Probably not going to happen though.
I’m sure the City Council demanded some form of assurance that the promises made by people/companies above will be honored if commercial service is ever restarted. Otherwise it’s the same mistake they made with the development at TAHOLE.
Tahoe (Nevada) Dave, check out the wages paid by the Hard Rock and you tell me if most of the employees pay income taxes. Also no property taxes go the California. The service industry pays near the lowest wages of any industry. What dream world do you live in.
The benefits are minimal and the hours per week are generally less than 40.
I suggest a diverse economy not dependent exclusively on tourism, but the people who run this town have never explored this option. How about a low impact light industrial park devoted to software employing lots of younger folks from silicon valley.
You may consider me elitist but I consider you less than a good observer of the passing scene.
I bet you live in Nevada. (pun intended)
There is no reason why this regional asset should be subsidized exclusively by the taxpayers of South Lake Tahoe. The airport will be of critical importance to the residents of Christmas Valley and Glenbrook, should there be another major fire, yet the $350,000 subsidy that keeps it afloat comes exclusively from those who live in the city limits. The first item in the new plan should be to transfer ownership to a Joint Powers Authority, so everyone who benefits from the airport share sin its cost.
legal beagle:
I agree that industry diversification is needed but with the Tahoe basin lacking the fiber optic infrastructure to accommodate low impact light industrial software development that won’t be happening. The Tahoe Prosperity Center is a group working to bring that needed infrastructure into the Tahoe basin and you may want to peruse their website at http://tahoeprosperity.org/
City Resident:
I 100% agree with your comments and on the formation of a JPA. I would add that both Douglas County and El Dorado County need to participate and they need to contribute funding for this regional asset.
Legal beagle,
Not to rain on your parade, but supposedly the domestic software projections for the future is less jobs. This doesn’t mean there are not real possibilities for high tech silicon valley transplants.
Supposedly medical industry (I guess to care for athletes and we’ll insured visitors at minimum), recreation, and land management jobs(I guess to take care of rentals and vacation homes) are on the rise.
LTCC, the local college does have a persistent hi tech curriculum, that constantly churns out more techy individuals. A few of these former students are involved with media and recreation, and have bought homes locally.
Great to finally see that decision made !
I’ve had no problem using South Tahoe Express servicing Reno Tahoe Airport for all my travels for years.
This airport has never worked for commercial flights for the 38 years I’ve lived here. The noise, pollution and danger to neighborhoods has never been worth trying it again.
Seems the local ISP market needs more competition. This country has a very low rated internet quality / service evaluation. Charter giving up to around 30 mbps is pretty stout, but apparently not widespread enough through the area. BUT, no where near the 1 gbps band width in other areas of this country and Japan.
Just thinking that the Tahoe airport was/is a regional asset with a value perhaps under utilized. Small airports in Colorado (Eagle County), Idaho (Sun Valley), Mammoth Lakes, and elsewhere get financial support from area businesses. I never understood what made the Tahoe airport different. The elevation of the Eagle County airport is about the same and the runway a bit shorter as I remember. Distance to Denver is a bit longer then from South Shore to Reno. They have charter service and commercial service with a significant number of passengers. Again not sure why our situation turned out so different.
City Resident- You make a good point however the City you live in has it’s offices at the airport. It bought the airport for a dollar and moved out of a high rent building to do so. How much money has that saved and continues to save your City? I am not interested in subsidizing the City by a JPA on the airport. Some of us choose to live in an area that’s covered by one less level of government- and that is on purpose.
There isn’t a snowballs chance Douglas county is going to send money to South Lake Tahoe Airport when the Minden / Gardnerville and Carson airports supply all of the exact same things with far better weather and reliability.
Nobody in Nevada is going to care one bit if the City closes the airport.
But you folks are all very correct to keep the “us vs. them” mentality between Nevada and the City. After all, that is what is really important.
tahoeadvocate-
I like your sarcastic comment !
Moral Hazard-
You can bet the casinos are very interested in the airport, and they love not having to pay for it!
Isee – Yes, the city bought the airport from the county for $1, in about 1980. It was a great deal for the county, and a poor deal for the city, because it shifted millions of dollars in expense from the county to the city. The city didn’t move its offices there until a few years ago, after a former city manager failed to renew the lease in the building it occupied, and the landlord doubled the rent.
Perhaps we should all move to the county and let someone else pay for the airport. As a city voter and taxpayer, I think that the city should shut down the airport if others who would rely upon it in an emergency won’t contribute to its subsidies.
So, after wasting over a million dollars, they have decided not to pursue airline service, but they will still spend the money for training? They will keep the expenses but give up the benefits? Awesome and effective management at it’s best.
BTW, the subsidy does not come exclusively from City residents at all. We shop in the City and sales tax is the majority source of their funding.
I really hope the city doesn’t depend or use the same person/advice to purchase a fire/rescue truck, as they used for the troubled fire truck they purchased last year.
Yeah, close it. Let’s get rid of CalSTAR too. Who needs a runway for those pilots that come up to fly over the lake and find they need to land for an emergency. Who cares, they can always ditch it in the Lake.
Surrendering the Part 139 won’t make the airport go away, they just won’t have to do any costly maintenance, have any staff or any fire rescue available or the need to maintain costly snow removal equipment (make it a seasonal, unmaintained runway). Now maybe the city departments that use the hangars for storage won’t have to scramble to explain why they use the hangars for free.
Perry-
I think you need to take another look at the college if you think it offers any kind of hi tech education.
Public safety is the highest tech that is being offered.
d long, lack of competence and leadership is the difference, IMHO.
In my opinion, closing the airport would be a huge mistake. Most people don’t realize how much revenue it actually brings in. People that own planes have a lot of money to spend when they come here. Also, the airport is extremely important for fire fighting efforts.
If we close the airport, what will happen to the air show? What about fire fest? What about the celebrities that fly here and spend a fortune? What about all the other events that are held at the airport? What will happen to the helicopter tours based out of the airport? What about Calstar? Where will the city offices be moved? What about Mountain Aviation? What will happen to the restaurant(s) at the airport?
The airport is a huge asset to this town. I am not saying that there aren’t issues that need fixing, but would we really want to lose this asset just to save costs?
We are willing to give $50 million to the college to patch up the roof, but we can’t spend a $100,000 a year just to keep the airport open? That seems backwards to me.
greengrass
Greengrass, I’m with you on the airport and your comparison to fixing the leaky roof at LTCC for 50 million.
The airport is important to this community and the Tahoe area that it can provide services to.
Let’s use the airport, not lose it!
I live in the flight path for the airport and airplane noise does not bother me one bit!
No commercial service ? Big deal. I’ve seen many tried and all have failed. Keep the airport open and running!!!
Thank you very much. OLS
The Airport, like our college is a great asset to our community, but we need to think long and hard about how best to use it. I support the city’s decision to give up FAA certificate for now.
Does anyone know if there were commercial flights heading out of the airport? I was under the impression that there were no commercial flights.
Sam, there was commercial service to Lake Tahoe. A few years ago, they considered bringing the commercial flights back, but new FAA regulations would have required them to remove ½ mile of trees at the end of the runway, and the environmentalists wouldn’t allow it.
Thanks for clearing that up. I’m not up to date on my airport history.
Greengrass, I dont think you are accurate, there was not any promise to the community regarding the arrival or operation of commercial services. It had mostly to do with the observation tower which had been shut down, also security issues after 9-11. There has been no commercial airline service for many years (maybe 15 years or close to that). Dont blame environmentalists for purely money issues. If commercial operations were viable they would be happening now. They arent. Approximately the annual costs to keep the airport open for private air service has been at least 400K. Sometimes more…
To those who say the airport should close, this ground has been covered for years. It won’t happen the FAA does not shut airports especially ones they have spent millions on. You really need to get your head around that and move on. The airport is fine as a General Aviation airport that provides us a significant safety benefit. The city subsides it but the city subsidizes the rec center, snow removal, police and fire. None of these departments generate enough revenue to cover their cost. It would be interesting to see what the revenues and taxes generated by general aviation pilots are that are not collected at the airport but at lodging properties and restaurants in town is. Those revenues and taxes probably cut that subsidy in half or maybe eliminate it. Make the airport the very best operated GA airport it can be with some potential revenue generating opportunities on the airport grounds and that will be fine. Let’s move on.
I remember the days of Air Cal and other short lived commercial carriers here. At that time I had just bought my first residence and was working rotating shifts to pay for it.
The flights dropped down right over my home low enough to read the lettering on the tires and shook the ground. I waged war in the newspapers with Dick French ( airport manager) over their inconsiderate management of aircraft approach patterns over neighborhoods.
The unregulated noise was annoying but the potential for a crash in neighborhoods was neglected entirely. People who own homes do actually have the right to peaceful enjoyment of their property – which includes the air space above it. I believe the county forcing new construction owners to sign an “avigation easement agreement” giving up their rights is unconstitutional.
Residents have the right not to have the danger of aircraft crashing in neighborhoods or be perpetually aggravated by aircraft noise. Revenue from commercial flight service serves no benefit for the average homeowner.
The airport is a great asset to the community – especially should another wildfire threaten homes. However, I don’t think that private pilots spend enough money in the City of South Lake Tahoe to cover the millions of dollars it’s cost the city to subsidize the airport for the past 35 years.
So many airport booster live outside the city limits and don’t contribute to those subsidies. In particular, its a great benefit to the Nevada-side casinos who use it to fly high-rollers in and out of their properties. If the city had never assumed ownership of the airport, we would have had tens of millions of dollars available to pave streets, or to better pay our police and firemen.
It is fair that all those who benefit from this regional asset help pay its subsidies. The city should insist that the airport be owned by a regional JPA.
I grew up taking flights on PSA and AirCal at the SLT airport. It would have been great to have had the Alaska Turbo Prop planes here, but taking the South Tahoe Express from the MontBleu to RNO is not that big of a deal. Time passes, things change…there is no sense wasting more money chasing our tail on this pipe dream.
Finally reality has set in. We have wasted $25 to $35 million dollars on that “airport” with only the “promise” of tinkle down economics.
I am sure the private Lear Jet owners first stop is Raley’s to pick up some groceries when they come to town.
The last time someone tried to fly commercial into that “airport” the Lodging Association had to bribe them with about $80,000… they did not even make it to the end of summer.
Sorry OLS, the County sold us the “airport” for One Dollar and they got the best part of the deal.
Nowhere in the article does it say that the airport is closing.
Rock , there is no way the lodging Assoc had 80k to bribe anyone.
The LTVA may have subsidized the fights, much like Mammoth does now(and they spend a heck of alot more than 80k)
Tahoe Air was a pet project for the City Council.
it was really about selling 1/4 share condos at the Grand Residence club.
back before they broke ground when the LTVA was marketing Orange county, Phoenix and Huston.
those are things that were swept under the carpet.