California Airports

Meeting on future of South Tahoe airport set for Feb. 13  – A meeting on the future of the Lake Tahoe Airport in South Lake Tahoe will be held for residents and businesses on Feb. 13 at the airport at 1901 Airport Road.

The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the City Council chambers as part of a review of the Airport Master Plan.

AOPA and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) have joined forces to file an amicus, or friend of the court, brief in support of an FAA motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit over the future of Santa Monica Municipal Airport. While the city of Santa Monica and the FAA have presented the technical arguments over the terms of an agreement signed decades ago, AOPA and NBAA intend to present the court with the bigger picture of what is at stake if the city is allowed to breach its agreement leaving the future of the Santa Monica airport to the city’s whim.

Google to restore Hangar One and operate runways at Moffett Field – MOUNTAIN VIEW — After designing driverless cars, experimenting with robots and secretly building a fleet of barges, Google is taking on a new challenge: running an airfield in the heart of Silicon Valley and restoring one of the area’s most iconic buildings, once used to house Navy blimps.

On Monday, federal officials announced they have chosen a Google subsidiary to restore the landmark Hangar One at Moffett Field and assume control of the airfield’s two runways, located just a few miles from Google’s main offices.

AN AMBITIOUS $17 million plan to improve the county airport at Gnoss Field by extending the runway 1,100 feet would cut through wetland habitat, but won’t have any “significant unavoidable impact” on the environment, a county consultant says.

The runway project, which officials said is needed to improve safety, efficiency and meet Federal Aviation Administration standards, has drawn fire from neighbors who fear a fleet of bigger, noisy jets.

CHICO – While it’s willing to do the work, the Chico Airport Commission has made little progress pinpointing why the airport loses money every year, and it might not be an easy answer.

The commission has struggled to understand the airport budget and various funds that make up the Chico Municipal Airport.

Park Service offers five alternatives – January 29, 2014 

The fight to save California’s Chicken Strip, an uncharted 1,350-foot dirt strip that provides fly-in access to the warm springs area of Death Valley National Park, continues. The National Park Service is seeking public input to help inform and shape alternatives for a management plan and environmental impact statement for the area near the strip.

Would Require The FAA To Reduce Noise From The Aircraft In The LA Area Beginning A Year After Passage – Buried in the 1,582 pages of the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by congress is a provision that would require the FAA to reduce helicopter noise in the Los Angeles (CA) area unless it can show “voluntary” efforts are effective in achieving that goal.

In the battle to close Santa Monica Airport, the federal government on Friday requested that the city’s lawsuit to gain control of the historic facility be dismissed.

Santa Monica officials sued in October, challenging the constitutionality of a 1948 agreement that transferred ownership of the property and its 5,000-foot runway from the federal government back to the city after World War II on the condition it remain an airport.

A California bill that would help airports pay for federally funded improvement projects passed the State Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing on an 11-0 vote Jan. 14. On Jan. 21, the bill was placed on the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file pending consideration of amendments later in the week.

FAA Tells Santa Monica It Must Operate Airport Through At Least 2023 – City Had Hoped To Repurpose 227 Acres Of Airport Property To Other Uses

The city of Santa Monica, CA has been told in no uncertain terms by the FAA that they cannot close the airport and open up its 227 acres for redevelopment until at least 2023, and likely not ever, according to a communication sent by the agency to city government.