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FUNDING AND INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES AT SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED AIRPORTS (Huntington, West Virginia)
Monday, March 8, 1999
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Aviation,
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 1 p.m., in the Council Chamber, Huntington City Hall, 800 5th Avenue, Huntington, West Virginia, Hon. John J. Duncan, Jr. [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Mr. DUNCAN. Good afternoon, and welcome to a hearing of the House Aviation Subcommittee.
Let me first say what a great honor and privilege it is for me and Congressman Tim Holden of Pennsylvania, who you will hear from in just a few minutes, and some of our staff members to be here in Huntington.
This is my first visit to Huntington, but I sometimes tell people that in my district, which is Knoxville, Tennessee, and the surrounding area, that the biggest thing in my district is Tennessee football, and that the most patriotic colors are orange and white instead of red, white and blue. But we let a good player get away, and for the last few years I have been rooting for Marshall whenever I have seen you all on television and so forth, because Chad Pennington is from my hometown in Knoxville, And we are all very proud of what he has done here.
We are also very proud of our colleague Congressman Nick Rahall. My father was in Congress for 23-1/2 years before me. I have known Nick for many, many years, and he does a really outstanding job representing this district. And this subcommittee gets invitations to go all over the country, and we can't go to even but a small fraction of the places to which we are invited, but we wanted to come here to be with Nick.
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Some people watched the House Judiciary Committee in action a few months ago, and you have many good people on that committee, but it is also known as a very partisan committee. Well, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is known as probably the most bipartisan or least partisan committee in the entire Congress, and we all work together very well, and I can tell you that Congressman Nick Rahall is a very district-oriented Congressman, as I am, and we work together on many, many things.
I went home this past weekend and celebrated my 21st anniversary, and my 13-year-old son, my youngest, had been trying his best over the last couple of weeks to talk me into getting what he called a Chihuahua dog. I had turned him down because we already had two dogs, but my oldest son John, who is 18, came in one night this weekend and said that Zane, my 13-year-old had told him, said, let's get that dog as a gift for Mom and Dad for their anniversary because they can't turn down a gift. And he is one who doesn't really want to take no for an answer. In the same way Congressman Rahall doesn't take no for an answer when it comes to things for this district.
We were driving in, and I told him that I think that the geography and the type of people here in West Virginia are very much like people in east Tennessee.
We are here today to discuss two issues that are very important to everyone who lives in areas served by small airports, infrastructure funding and air service. And the reason we are here is that we are going around the country. Two weeks ago we held a hearing in Wichita. I have held many field hearings in the years—I am in my fifth year as chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee, and I have always felt it is very important to get outside of the Beltway and discuss with people the needs and the problems, and hopefully the solutions, to those problems that they are facing and that they know about.
So we have gone to many different locations, but economic development is almost entirely tied into aviation today. Air passenger traffic, air cargo traffic, both are shooting way up. In fact, air cargo traffic is going up at two and a half times the rate of air passenger traffic, but if you don't have good air service, you can't get businesses. If you can't get businesses, you can't get people. It just goes hand in glove, so to speak.
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Yet airport development in this country is severely underfunded. The GAO tells us that every year airport funding falls about $3 billion, at least, short of estimated needs. Unfortunately this problem is much worse for the smaller airports. In fact, the GAO estimates are that the small and medium-sized airports received only half the funding they needed.
For that reason I think it is particularly important that our committee succeed in something we are trying to do, and that is to unlock the Aviation Trust Fund. For many, many years, as all of you know, we have been spending the Social Security and the Highway and the Aviation and all the other Federal trust funds for just all the different purposes of the Federal Government. But the Congressional Budget Office estimates that if we don't touch the Aviation Trust Funds, that over the next 10 years it will build up to more than $90 billion. This is money that aviation users are paying and which is set up to try to improve our Nation's aviation infrastructure and aviation system.
Last week, I joined with the Chairman of our full committee in introducing the Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century, or what we are referring to as AIR 21. AIR 21 is the first step towards addressing our growing aviation needs. It takes the Aviation Trust Fund off-budget and spends trust fund resources on their intended purpose, aviation infrastructure. It would increase the AIP program from $2 billion to $5 billion a year. It raises the minimum entitlement for primary airports from $500,000 to $1.5 million a year. It also creates entitlements for general aviation airports. It establishes a new short-term program, the Air System Acceleration Program, or ASAP, which is targeted at increasing competition and improving air service in underserved airports.
The second issue that we are going to get into today is competition. I think there is almost a crisis. In fact, there is a crisis in many small and medium-sized communities around America because the lack of airline competition has choked off economic development and is spreading unneeded hardships to working families. I have recently heard several accounts of companies relocating because of unreasonably high air fares and lack of air service. I saw a most interesting poll 2 or 3 years ago, and it said that over half the people that live in our Nation's big cities would like to live in small towns or rural areas if they could find jobs, but they simply can't.
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When you go like to—we found out that a walk-up airfare for a round trip between Knoxville and Huntington is over $1200. Well, the staff of the subcommittee told me recently that they had seen an ad in the Washington Post to have a trip to Spain, 2 nights in a hotel, breakfasts, 3 days there, for $348. This $1200 is ridiculous. I have been told that many people from this area drive 2 or 3 hours to Columbus or Cincinnati or other places to try to get cheaper air service.
I believe that the Congress needs to, and has the responsibility to, encourage competition in the airline industry. This past week I introduced H.R. 951, Airline Service Improvement Act, to improve air service to smaller communities across the Nation that have not benefited from deregulation's so-called pockets of pain. And we did this last year, and what we are trying to do is we are either going to take this up as a separate bill, or hopefully incorporate much of it in our big FAA bill.
But this bill includes provisions that, one, would allow the Department of Transportation to grant exemptions from the slot rules so that an underserved community could get flights to the very popular high-density airports. It establishes a $5 million-per-year grant program to fund marketing programs in underserved communities. It includes a loan guarantee program for the purchase of reasonable jets as long as the carrier provides the service to an underserved community, and it includes a Contract Tower Program provision to help provide the important safety enhancements to airline passengers and general aviation pilots by providing air traffic control services to some of the smaller airports. In addition to this $5 million guarantee program, we are going to authorize about 15 million more that would be subject to funding.
These are some of the things that we are trying to do, and we look forward to your ideas and suggestions as to ways and other things that we might do to improve air service and hopefully improve the quality of life and the economy in places like Huntington and around the country.
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Mr. DUNCAN. At this time I would like to call on our good friend and colleague, Mr. Rahall.
Mr. RAHALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly deeply appreciate the time that you and my colleague, Tim Holden from Pennsylvania, have taken to be with us in West Virginia today. You have adequately described the demands upon the subcommittee's time to be everywhere in the country during this year of aviation in which we have some important legislation to craft to build and improve our Nation's air service. So I am deeply honored that you have taken the time to be with us.
My colleague Tim Holden does represent a district very similar to mine. The only difference is his coal is that hard coal known as anthracite, and ours is some of the best coal in the world, but we do have similar concerns.
The Chairman has so adequately described a problem that faces small rural airports, nonhub airports, if you will. We know the horror stories about air fares, how exorbitant they are, how if you wear a certain color or tie or dress and show up before noon on a certain day of the week, you can get a greatly reduced airfare from Washington to L.A., et cetera, but that doesn't occur no matter what you wear or how you show up or what day of the week it is when it comes to small rural areas of our Nation in regard to domestic airfares. International airfares and coast-to-coast, you can get all of these deals, but not to those who are hard hit in the rural parts of our Nation.
Just as building a highway is important to an area and it brings jobs, so is an improved air service and a facility that handles airplanes. These are tools of economic development. They are the engines of economic development, if you will, that if you don't have them in place, then a potential for economic development is vastly diminished to an area.
Speaking of highways, I showed my colleague portions of the Tolsia Highway that has been upgraded with Federal funds as we drove in, so we have seen where those funds have benefited West Virginia, where in last year's transportation bill we were able to get a foot in the door for unlocking the Highway Trust Funds, and that is what we want to do this year under Chairman Duncan and our full committee Chairman Bud Shuster's leadership is do the same with the Aviation Trust Funds.
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Exorbitant air rates and inadequate service can devastate a community. For example, one week ago we checked out what it would cost to fly US Airways between Washington, D.C., and Huntington on this date, Monday, March 8th. The airfare round trip could be anywhere from $714 to a high of $914. Now, if somebody would rather have gone to London today, perhaps you, Jim Bowen, might rather have been in London than be with us here in Huntington today, but you didn't, but if you could have, your airfare would have only been $281 round trip.
Mr. BOWEN. I am on my way to London.
Mr. RAHALL. So that can be duplicated for many of the areas around our country today. I am sure that most probably many of you would rather be somewhere else rather than here today, but you have decided not to, and we appreciate that very much. We do have a distinguished panel from whom we are going to hear.
Let me make just one more observation. Today's hearing comes at a time when our committee is preparing to authorize an Airport Improvement Program, otherwise known as AIP. This is a Federal program that provides Federal assistance for airport development, such as construction of runways and various types of facilities. All of our airports in southern West Virginia have benefited from it in the past.
Many of us from rural areas, however, are looking at this program as more than just a means to finance runways and taxiways and build terminals. We are also interested in exploring ways that the program can be used to improve air service in rural areas, in small communities. In this regard, the U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing several new initiatives in this area including a public-private partnership marketing arrangement to help communities attract enhanced air service.
Before I go further, I would like to recognize that we do have with us today—FAA Administrator Garvey could not be with us, but she did send a person who I have known for a long time who is truly her eyes and ears and who will report back to the Administrator what she hears today at this hearing, and that is Suzanne Sullivan. And I want to thank Suzanne for being with us as well.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Suzanne is really the most powerful one here.
Mr. RAHALL. Well, that is true. You make the point very well. And I might say for your part, Mr. Chairman, you have been a champion of proposals to provide Federal funds to either subsidize air service to an airport which is not receiving adequate service or to use these funds to assist airports to attract jet service, and I commend you for your leadership in that area as well.
Finally, I would note that while today's headlines in our State are taken up much with the regional airport and the recent decision that was made taking quite a burden off our Secretary's shoulders, who we will hear from in a moment, I want to say that is not a part of today's hearing, but rather what we are looking at is how to improve air service and lower rates today, now, because that is a problem that we are facing. We need to do something now in the interim while that process, other process, goes forward as it should. But our needs are immediate and perhaps certainly more so than a 10-year time span for a regional airport.
So again, I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to express my personal appreciation and thanks to Mayor Dean for her hospitality and to Secretary Bonasso for being with us, to Jim Bowen, to Dr. Gilley of Marshall University, to the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, Ken, Bud, for your hospitality in helping us make the arrangements, and to each of you for taking your time to be here today.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Rahall. Mr. Holden.
Mr. HOLDEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly share your pleasure, Mr. Chairman, in being here in Huntington with our good friend and colleague Nick Rahall. As you expressed in your opening statements, Mr. Chairman, Nick Rahall does an outstanding job representing his congressional district. In fact, the last session we were putting together the highway bill, and Nick took the time to come to my part of Pennsylvania and look at our needs and concerns, and we did very well in Pennsylvania on that highway bill.
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But as we were flying in today, a lot of people were talking and looking at the Ohio River. I didn't look much at the Ohio River. I was looking at the highways off Interstate 64, and I think I need to get Nick back up into Pennsylvania when we are preparing the next highway bill because things look pretty good around here.
But, Mr. Chairman, I do appreciate all the work that you have done in putting together our bill that was introduced last week. I know when I traveled around the country with you several weeks ago, we talked about the needs and concerns of smaller airports. That is why I am very much looking forward to hearing from our witnesses, because I believe the largest airport in my congressional district, the Reading Regional Airport, has the same needs and concerns as the Huntington Tri-State Airport. So I think this is going to be very informative for me as we move forward trying to get the legislation passed into law.
With that, Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you.
And we certainly have a very distinguished panel, as Congressman Rahall said, and to open up today's hearing we are going to have some introductory comments by, first, the Honorable Jean Dean, Mayor of the City of Huntington, and the Honorable Samuel G. Bonasso, who is Secretary of Transportation for the State of West Virginia.
And Mayor Dean and Secretary Bonasso, it is a privilege to have you with us. Mayor Dean, you may begin your comments.
TESTIMONY OF HON. JEAN DEAN, MAYOR, HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA
Ms. DEAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and on behalf of the City of Huntington, we are both honored and privileged to welcome the subcommittee here today. Thank you for being here, Congressman Holden, Congressman Duncan, and, of course, our own Congressman Rahall.
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I would hate to play favorites here, but a very special thank you to you, Congressman Duncan, for sending us Chad Pennington. Every Saturday this fall we have appreciated his talents greatly.
But we are also very much well aware of what our Congressman Rahall has done for us economically. We seem to be playing a balancing act here. Congressman Rahall has assisted us when we became 4 years ago an enterprise community. Just this past January, he was right there and had assisted us when we were named an empowerment zone. So this community is moving forward very strongly in developing economically.
We have seen great improvements in the last 4 to 5 years, shall we say. The trouble is while we are on the one hand progressing economically, we are also being strapped because we do not have the kind of air service that we need to attract companies. We have the kind of air service that loses companies for us.
Last year, of course, it was quite devastating to know that Ashland, Incorporated, was moving to another location and that one of the prime reasons cited was the lack of first class air service. This is a big loss for our community. It is kind of like waiting for the other shoe to drop. We hope no other corporate headquarters get the same idea before we can see an improvement in our air service.
While we are trying and have seen great economic development here with great help from the Federal level, nevertheless we are very much afraid that while we are endeavoring to develop a regional airport, that is 10 years away. We have to do something now. And while sometimes it is a little difficult for us to understand that we are, in fact, a rural community since this is one of the two largest cities in the State of West Virginia, nevertheless we know that we are classified as rural.
Even when we have flights coming into our airports, the type of equipment that is used on those flights is sometimes, to say the least, uncomfortable, shall we say. Not only is it uncomfortable, the costs, as you have already mentioned, are sometimes enormously higher than we feel that they should be when compared to cross-country flights or transatlantic flights.
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So it is a great source of satisfaction to know that this subcommittee is looking into these problems for us, and we have great confidence that you will, in fact, find us a solution. Thank you for being here.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you very much. Secretary Bonasso.
TESTIMONY OF SAMUEL G. BONASSO, SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION, STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA
Mr. BONASSO. Chairman Duncan, Congressman Holden, Congressman Rahall, it is a pleasure for me to bring you welcome greetings from Governor Cecil H. Underwood and the West Virginia Department of Transportation. We are very happy to have you here. It is a unique honor to welcome you and offer my comments, because you will be discussing initiatives to improve and retain air service in rural communities.
It is no secret that West Virginia is a rural State. But no matter what your definition of ''rural,'' the majority of the United States' population is rural. Over 40 percent of our people live in unincorporated areas, and some definitions of ''rural'' go as high as 82 percent of our population living in rural America.
Unless we create a nationwide plan for our air service system, West Virginia and rural America will not be able to meet the transportation needs of the 21st century. This means improving our air service and infrastructure that supports it.
The House Transportation Committee Chairman, as you have mentioned previously, designated this year the year of aviation, as you know. When the people of rural America have to drive 2 to 4 hours to get on an affordable airplane flight, we have what you might call a seat-of-the-pants understanding of the important role and critical role that aviation plays in the Nation's future and in West Virginia's future.
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As we approach the 21st century, it is imperative that we provide air transportation access at affordable fares to all our citizens that live in or near small communities with basic airport facilities. An integrated aviation system would accomplish this result. It is time for our Nation to do for aviation what President Eisenhower and that Congress did for the highways in the 1950s. We must do something visionary.
An integrated aviation system would bring together flight frequency of high-traffic urban centers with the vast collections of people in rural America, and, yes, that will likely necessitate donee and donor States. However, we are called to enliven the vision of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater when he said, ''Aviation will be for America in the 21st century what the interstate highway system has been for America in this century.''
Air service is not a luxury. It is a necessity. In 1998, there were over 600 million domestic passengers. In 10 years the domestic aviation industry will have over 1 billion passengers. That 65 percent growth will severely burden all the urban facilities in our country. This growth will place a premium on air access. Access to air transportation is a critical element in every State's ability to grow, to attract and retain businesses, both large and small.
Congressman Rahall, I know we are focusing on southern West Virginia today, but an example from northern West Virginia airports is typical of the lack of service in rural America even in what is a good rural market. One of West Virginia's fastest growing airports is Benedum Airport near Clarksburg, the home of the FBI identification facility.
Benedum Airport's present infrastructure projects include a runway extension and access road with total investments of over $37 million. Although this airport is within 10 minutes of the FBI facility, due to the lack of scheduled air service and the present price structure, FBI employees drive back and forth to Washington, D.C., or take a flight out of Pittsburgh to their destination.
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These are the conditions that put rural America at a disadvantage. These are the conditions that promote urban sprawl. They increase the vehicle miles traveled and the costs to taxpayers of extra hard-earned money. Rural America must be able to offer air service, one, at an adequate flight frequency to connect with hub flights; two, at a cost that prevents 2- to 4-hour drives from being economical; and three, it needs to bring back inner lining privileges that promote competitive pricing.
The lack of inner lining has almost forced rural America to pay a far greater price than necessary for essential air service. The large regional air carriers have carved up rural America and are now consuming it. Since that is where the majority of American's live, it is quite a feast.
There was a time with inner lining when someone from a small city had a choice of major air carriers. Now it is either fly with the feeder that is the major regional carrier subsidiary or drive 2 to 4 hours to a hub, and that is if you are fortunate enough to have a hub that close.
Let me relate a personal experience. Last Tuesday the West Virginia Public Port Authority chose a site for a regional airport in the Kanawha Valley. Just the prospect of that regional airport over the past 2 years has had a dramatic positive effect on air fares and flights in this part of rural America.
My residence is in Morgantown, 85 miles from the greater Pittsburgh airport. Next month I will be traveling to San Francisco. I would normally fly out of my home in Morgantown, but I decided to check flights also out of the Charleston Yeager Airport. The first fare quoted to me saved me $150 by flying from Charleston to connect to Pittsburgh with the same west coast flight I would be taking if I flew out of Morgantown, starting 150 miles further south. Now that's on $475 fare. Something is wrong with this picture of rural air service.
Further, in the past 2 years, the increased flight frequency at Yeager and reduced fares has cut the leakage significantly over the past 2 years. So there is a way to bring big carriers to the table to contribute something instead of just being used as a meal.
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The Airport Improvement Program, it is just great to hear what you are planning to do with the Airport Improvement Program. We feel that it needs at a minimum $2 billion, and your prospect of $5 billion will do great things for these rural airports. A 5-year plan would do for aviation what TEA-21 has done for highways and other transportation modes in allowing us to have the time to plan. A 5-year plan would eliminate the disruption of airports of development and construction caused by uncertain funding levels and short time frames. So that kind of approach would be very, very helpful.
West Virginia airports' very existence depends on AIP funding. In fiscal year 1998, the Federal Aviation Administration's funding for West Virginia was $10.1 million. Due to the funding limitations, however, additional grant requests vital to our rural airports of approximately $8 million for development went unfunded. So double the 2 billion would be very helpful, and getting the 5 would be right where we would like to see it go.
West Virginia has 36 active airport projects totaling over $42.5 million in project costs. This represents Federal funds of over $36.3 million over a period of years.
In the global marketplace today, air service is the single most important mode of mass transportation. The international market is expected to double over the next 10 years. Will the United States be ready to meet these challenges? Working together and with your help and your creative vision, we can improve air transportation to rural America and connect it to the global marketplace. If you will create a larger vision, change can be stimulated, and we can succeed in providing quality, affordable, essential air service to rural America.
I and the West Virginia Aeronautics Commission look forward to working with you on this exciting contribution to connecting people together. Thank you.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.
We do recognize these problems, and we are going to try to do what we can. We were successful last year in getting the Highway Trust Fund off budget, and we hope that gives us at least a chance to do the same with aviation.
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I will say that while the problems are there, the opportunities are probably greater than ever, because with the computers and the Internet and the watts lines and the fax machines and all of that, these big companies no longer really have a need to be located in these major metropolitan centers if they can get the good air service that they need to move out to the rural and small towns, to medium-size cities.
I believe the plan is, because we have got two panels with numerous witnesses, we weren't really going to ask either of you any questions. We are honored that you would take time to be with us. Thank you very much.
Mr. BONASSO. Thank you very much for inviting us.
Mr. DUNCAN. We will now call up panel number one. Panel number one consists of Mr. Larry Salyers, who is the airport director of the Tri-State Airport Authority; Mr. Tom Cochran, who is the airport manager of the Raleigh County Memorial Airport; Mr. Benjamin Beverly, who is chairman of the Mingo County Airport, and he is accompanied by Mr. Joe Altizer, who is the airport manager for the Logan County Airport.
Gentlemen, we are pleased to have you with us. At our hearings we ordinarily proceed in the order the witnesses are listed in calling the hearing, and that means, Mr. Salyers, we will proceed first with you. You may begin your statement.
TESTIMONY OF LARRY G. SALYERS, DIRECTOR, TRI-STATE AIRPORT AUTHORITY; TOM COCHRAN, MANAGER, RALEIGH COUNTY AIRPORT; AND BENJAMIN BEVERLY, CHAIRMAN, MINGO COUNTY AIRPORT, ACCOMPANIED BY JOE ALTIZER, MANAGER, LOGAN COUNTY AIRPORT
Mr. SALYERS. Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Aviation Subcommittee, my name is Larry Salyers. I appreciate the opportunity to present testimony on infrastructure and funding issues in air service at small and medium-sized airports. I appear here today as airport director of Tri-State Airport Authority and a member of the recently formed group of small airports and communities known as the Small Southern Cities Consortium.
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The lack of sufficient funding for infrastructure projects at small airports is of serious concern. While the Aviation Trust Fund's uncommitted surplus is increasing, funding for infrastructure projects at small airports remains at the same level or in some incidents decreases.
The current PFC cap of $3 per passenger should, in our opinion, be increased to $5 with the large and medium hub airports being required to turn back 100 percent of the AIP funding, thus increasing the amount of funds available for small hub airports and nonhub airports. Small airports often have difficulty allocating the local 10 percent funds for AIP projects. It may be time to review the funding formula.
While possible changes to our aviation legislation is being explored and evaluated and may indeed prove to be of considerable value, we would recommend the concept of upgrading existing small and underutilized airports, enabling them to function as fully operational facilities within our National Aviation Transportation System.
The Small Southern Cities Consortium members believe, and I strongly agree, that rural and small city airports across the United States are facing a number of challenges with respect to commercial air service. These challenges are largely a product of changes in the industry, including aircraft fleet decisions, presence of low fare airline service at airports such as Columbus, which is a short driving distance of Huntington, and a balance of supply and demand.
When compared to large and medium-sized airports, small and rural communities are unable to sit at the same table and obtain the air service and fare levels that these communities need to continue local economic development. Unless action is taken to restore and promote air service to these underserved areas, we will never be able to close that economic development gap. Further, all small communities should be able to expect reasonable air fares and access to our National Aviation System.
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The initial meeting of the Small Southern Cities Consortium was held in Washington D.C., on Monday, February 8th on Capitol Hill with 27 airports and communities represented. The group supports new funding methods, including a possible program to enhance air service for small communities that could be based on a pilot project that would require public-private partnership.
We hope that you find the suggestions of the Tri-State Airport and also the Small Southern Cities group as helpful. And again, thank you for the opportunity to appear here today, and we welcome the opportunity to work with you on these vital issues.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Salyers. Mr. Cochran.
Mr. COCHRAN. Thank you, sir. My name is Tom Cochran. I am the manager of Raleigh County Airport. On behalf of the Raleigh County Airport, I wish to thank Congressman Rahall and you, sir, and also Congressman Holden, for the opportunity to attend this subcommittee meeting.
West Virginia has faced many struggles in the past to keep pace with the rest of the Nation. Twenty-five years ago we found ourselves behind the times again with our highway system. However, today, after tireless efforts of dedicated people, we have a highway system in this State second to none. Now, approaching the new millennium, we must address an even greater challenge, our State aviation and the survival of the small airports.
Each airport has its own unique place that it fits within our State. Raleigh County Memorial Airport was dedicated on July 4, 1952, with one 4,000-foot runway. Today, 3,000 acres, two runways with parallel taxiways, one runway being the third longest in the State, make up our airport. This was all accomplished through AIP. The AIP funding of land acquisition, runway/taxiway construction, lighting/signage and navigational aids have brought us to present time.
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Small airports' existence depends totally on AIP funding in keeping us operational with safety standards and meeting all FAA regulations. In 1997, AIP funding awarded the Raleigh County Airport $290,000 to rehabilitate landing, taxiway and signage lighting for runway 10/28. In 1998, we received $250,000 to rehabilitate the taxiway parallel to this runway. These conditions made for better and safer night flight conditions for flight activity at our airport.
To meet these financial burdens of these projects would virtually be impossible for this airport. General revenue for daily operations is generated through fuel sales, timber and land sales, and hangar rental. We are committed at this point to save what we have already invested in, and I would request of this committee to search every avenue of extending AIP funding, with the forethought of a 5-year plan to enhance our future.
Small airports are awarded AIP grants through discretionary funding and State apportionment. Current guidelines can push the small airport back down the ladder for their entitlements; however, with passenger facility charges, cap increase from $3 to $5 is a must. In AIP reauthorization, larger airports who qualify would be able to supplement their AIP funding and leave more of the AIP money for the smaller airports.
The economic impact small airports have on a community is unmeasurable. At our local airport we are seeing the growth of air cargo being serviced by UPS as well as FedEx. We have a 218-acre industrial park adjacent to our airport that has created 578 jobs for our area. However, we have had two missed opportunities in the past 6 months for 278 acres on the west side of our runway due to no infrastructure. The infrastructure development is waiting.
Through our airport we also promote tourism through whitewater rafting and ski packages. Our local corporate organizations within our county have grown. We now have five corporate jets with three helicopters based at our airport on a permanent basis with daily flight activities.
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The air service is another extension of our growth potential at small airports. In recent years, however, we have seen a dramatic decrease in our enplanements. An example, in 1990, Beckley had 11,521 enplanements. Last year we had 2,940. These numbers represent what the airlines are looking at, and it certainly isn't small airports. Airlines will go where the market is and where the load factors are greater. We see less air service, higher airfares and poor connections. We not only force our local citizens, but our business clientele, to other airports, and most of these are out-of-State airports where we are also losing revenue. Two favorite out-of-State airports from the Beckley area is Roanoke, Virginia, and Columbus, Ohio, one being a 5-hour drive and the other a 3-hour drive.
The corporate opportunities that have shown interest in Beckley in the past 6 months have been negative for one reason, because we have no real connection to the rest of our Nation through no air service. But there is hope through the approval of what you gentlemen are looking forward to and to the reorganization or reauthorization of AIP rural air service. And it is essential to keep this program alive for the future of all small airports in small communities. Thank you.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Cochran. Mr. Beverly.
Mr. BEVERLY. Good afternoon. My name is Ben Beverly. I am chairperson of the Mingo County Airport Authority in Williamson, West Virginia. Thank you for the opportunity to voice my opinion as to the importance of the Airport Improvement Program to rural Mingo County.
Mingo County has a population of approximately 34,000 people within an area of 429 square miles. It is approximately a 2-hour drive from Huntington or Charleston by car, 30 minutes by air.
How and why is the AIP beneficial to Mingo County? Let me begin with some history about Mingo County's airport. Our airport was first developed in 1968 through the appropriation of an FAA grant. The runway is approximately 3,500 feet, and there are 13 aircraft based at the airport. Since its creation through the Airport Improvement Program, a slip has been repaired, and the runway has been paved. A master plan has been developed for the airport, and Airport Authority members are aggressively pursuing funds to complete the work.
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Safety is the primary concern of the members of the Mingo County Airport Authority. While West Virginia is wild and wonderful and full of glorious mountains, sometimes certain hilltops become a safety issue for aviators. Under our master plan, the 5-year goal is to extend the runway, remove obstructions, and create a parallel taxiway. Once these hilltop obstructions, which pose a hazard to unknowing flights entering and exiting Mingo County, are eliminated, along with other stated improvements, lighting the airport for night operations should become a reality. All of these projects will improve safety.
These improvements will permit a more diverse aircraft to utilize our facility. It will permit the expansion of business and industry as air transport becomes more accessible. It may even bring jobs by attracting package carriers such as FedEx or United Parcel Service. For years a four-lane road to the major cities of Huntington and Charleston were major concerns of the citizens of Mingo County. However, now that Corridor G is complete to Charleston and a four-lane is being constructed to Huntington, attention is focused on air transportation and its importance to achieving a self-sustaining community.
Airports play an important role in the economic well-being of the communities they serve. Airport users and businesses that provide aviation-related services derive direct benefits from the airport. Indirect economic benefits to the entire community have been calculated to be many times the direct benefit. Benefits of emergency and essential air transportation access may not be quantifiable; however, it is a proven fact that adequate air travel is a prerequisite to development of new business in an area.
As FAA celebrates its 50th anniversary of airport grant programs, let's realize the importance of another 50 years of success. This program has made possible the development of the airway system by aiding in the building of airports around the Nation, including West Virginia.
The Airport Improvement Program was authorized nearly $5.2 billion for the first 5 years of the program. AIP, like previous programs, has not been fully funded; however, it has been a success. Airports around the country would not have been able to complete improvements without this program. General aviation airports, such as Mingo County Airport in Williamson, owe its very existence to the Airport Improvement Program. Airports are safer, more efficient, and less noisy neighbors because of funds provided by the Airport Improvement Program.
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The FAA must continue to provide leadership and support necessary plans to develop and maintain a system of airports in the United States. Airports must be safe, efficient and economical to meet the needs of transporting people and goods by air.
The U.S. Congress is ultimately responsible for the level of AIP funding. Confusion or misunderstandings in Congress relative to the needs and benefits of the Airport Improvement Program may result in regulations, rules and funding levels that will not achieve the best results for our airport transportation system. It is necessary to hold hearings of this nature to listen to the people who are responsible for the day-to-day operations of rural public airports. You must learn of the importance of these facilities in the community.
Lastly, as the master plan for Mingo County Airport indicates, $20 million are needed over the next 15 years for improvements to the Mingo County Airport. Without full appropriations of the Airport Improvement Program with particular emphasis of rural transportation systems, communities like Mingo County will be isolated from the global, prosperous economy of the world. Give rural areas the chance they need to compete by fully funding the Airport Improvement Program. Thank you very much.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you, Mr. Beverly. Mr. Altizer, did you have any comments you wish to make?
Mr. ALTIZER. As I understood, I wouldn't be allowed to testify; however, I would like to point out the Logan Airport being probably the newest airport in the State, was also funded entirely, almost entirely, by Airport Improvement Funds, and it has allowed several things in its capacity to facilitate small business in the region. That is where the small airports fit in, I think most important, to facilitate small businesses in the area, myself to travel, other business leaders to travel, and help their businesses grow.
Mr. DUNCAN. All right. Thank you very much.
Mr. Rahall.
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Mr. RAHALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to express my appreciation to the panel for being with us today. I think it covers pretty much, except for Mercer County, the entire southern part of the State, Logan, Mingo, Beckley and Huntington. And I know some of you have traveled quite a bit to be here, so we appreciate it.
Let me ask Mr. Salyers and Mr. Cochran the first question. You mentioned in your testimony that Congress is considering a number of initiatives to assist small airports enhance their air service. The AIP bill introduced last Thursday, I guess it was, in the House contains a proposal to assist in subsidizing air service to airports and assisting airports in obtaining jet service. Do you see any other activities that we should be looking at as far as assisting small airports besides those that I have just mentioned?
Mr. COCHRAN. Yes, sir. I think it would be a golden opportunity if the AIP funding would be expressed and extended in other forms. For instance, airports that have acreage for development that would enhance economic growth in our area through infrastructure, not just for what we have seen in the past of the runway and operational or upkeeps of the airport, If we could use some of this AIP money for development cost, infrastructure and marketing, marketing not just for the airport, but for marketing towards the economics, and the economics being a part of our growth.
Also, to better serve the air service need, the subsidy money certainly would be welcome, but I think that the airlines should also be maybe impressed upon to shoulder some of this burden through—if there could be some legislation directed toward, say, for instance, the four major carriers that we have to service this State. If they could just be required to service two other cities in our State from their inner State hub, it would expand upon our air service need. In doing that, better business brings air service, better air service brings better business.
Mr. SALYERS. Congressman Rahall, in answer to your question, as I mentioned in my comments, it is very difficult for small communities to sit at the same table when the larger airports have so much money that they can make partnerships with the airlines and support that additional service and obtain even more than they have now. It is very difficult for small communities. We have discussed it here, and we have met with several airlines, and the subject always comes up. How will your community take part in this additional air service?
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So I think it is vital, and I commend you all for looking at that so that those funds could be used to market air service.
Mr. RAHALL. So we are looking at providing a service here other than just for the vacation planner or business trip. We are looking at what truly could be the engine for an economic development, as I said earlier, and we are looking at not only people traveling, but possibly cargo as well, and moving cargo from planes to highways, or cargo from planes to rivers, or cargo from planes to transit even. We are looking at truly expanding and trying to develop an intermobilizing concept in aviation as much as we have done in the highway system; is that correct?
Mr. SALYERS. I think that is very correct. You mentioned cargo. We recently were lucky enough to have FedEx locate a regional sort facility here, and it has created quite a space problem, but it is a nice problem to have, with their 727. They started with one 727 and now have two there. So it creates a problem for us for space.
Additional funding, we have five projects that are in our 5-year program through the year 2004, and those programs are at 27 million, and all the rest of them are at least 2 million, extension of the runway being 27 million. If the funding level is not increased, it is obvious to say that we can't do those projects unless discretionary moneys are found. In the past we have been fortunate enough to get some discretionary money, But discretionary money for West Virginia, those dollars have been few and far between.
Mr. RAHALL. I might note, I had to add cargo there because Vickie Schaffer is here, and Jim Williams is here, and we were going to move that cargo from the planes to their buses.
Mr. COCHRAN. Is there any way of moving it to Beckley?
Mr. RAHALL. Between Williamson and Logan.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know my time is up.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you, Mr. Rahall.
Mr. Holden.
Mr. HOLDEN. I just have a few questions for Mr. Salyers, and one question maybe the entire panel can comment on.
Mr. Salyers, I am not sure during your testimony if you said it or I missed it. How many enplanements did you have at your facility last year?
Mr. SALYERS. We had 70,000 enplanements.
Mr. HOLDEN. You also referenced the Small Southern Cities Consortium in your remarks and their support for a pilot project that would require public-private partnership. Could you elaborate on that proposal?
Mr. SALYERS. Well, we had been discussing forming a group of small southern cities that feel like the only way to get a seat at the table with the airlines and try to get reasonable air service and reasonable fares is to form a group, and the more the small communities are interested in that group, the more our comments would be heard. And that is the effort of that group is to try to form together a group to discuss with airlines and try to convince them to serve several small communities rather than just each individual community out trying to get additional air service.
Mr. HOLDEN. How many cities do you have in the group?
Mr. SALYERS. We had 27 represented at the first full meeting on the 8th.
Mr. HOLDEN. This morning we flew out of Reading National Airport that has an elevation of 16 feet and landed here in Huntington where the elevation was 828 feet. I have a general aviation facility in my district in Schuylkill County, my home county, where the elevation is 734 feet. And I know that you have airports represented here, Beckley, Logan and Williamson have elevations of 2,495 and 1,656 and 1,575 respectively. I am just curious if there is any special airport needs for facilities with these types of altitudes?
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Mr. COCHRAN. No, not in ours, other than more dollars to work with to upgrade.
Mr. HOLDEN. I was just curious.
Mr. BEVERLY. I would like to bring something to the panel's attention. We have had several corporate flights that have been discontinued into the Mingo County Airport basically because of liability and insurance reasons. We have had a King Air that used to come into Mingo County daily, a Citation jet used to come in about three times a week, and they just don't come anymore because of the hazards and the restrictions surrounding our airport. They are now coming into areas, outlying airports, that have obstruction-free approaches to the runways and have to drive over to the Williamson and Mingo County area to conduct their business.
Another example I would like to pass along at this time is—it was on the front page of our Williamson Daily News a week, week and a half ago that one of the local banking institutions was in the process of being purchased by a larger institution based out of, I believe, Wilmington, North Carolina. BMT, I believe, was the name of the company. It came out on Tuesday in the paper that they were going to buy one of the local institutions.
The following day a lady called me from the Williamson bank there and identified herself as an employee, and her question was, can we land a King Air at Mingo County. And her second question was, can we get in and out of there at dark, after hours.
So, of course, I told her I have personally seen King Airs land there. She wasn't familiar with the size of the King Air, the model that was coming in. But I told her, no, we could not entertain after-hour flights because we don't have lights.
So this is, I think, an example of how business in small community airports are going to go hand in hand if these small communities are going to improve their opportunities. Thank you.
Mr. HOLDEN. That is all, Mr. Chairman.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you, Mr. Holden.
I noticed that both Mr. Salyers and Mr. Cochran mentioned the possibility of increasing the PFCs from $3 to $5. I will tell you that in the bill that we introduced, that it does allow increases of up to $6 as long as you can show certain conditions such as that the project would increase the safety of the airport or it would help increase competition and so forth. And that is another way we are trying to help relieve the competition problem at some of these airports.
And you are right, Mr. Salyers, whether it is crime bill money or hub money or aviation money or any Federal money, the big cities have the staffs and the technical experts and the grant application experts, and they get far more than their share. If there is anybody that is getting shortchanged in these ways, it is the very small town and rural areas, because they usually don't have the staffs or the expertise at times to apply for some of these moneys.
In fact, in Wichita a couple of weeks ago we had one airport official who operated an airport where they had 13,000 enplanements a year, and he said that they didn't see any need to have a PFC unless they went up some because he said it would cost him $40,000 to hire the consultants to do the paperwork. Have you all found that the paperwork is burdensome or difficult or expensive?
Mr. SALYERS. Yes, it is. Our cost is normally $10,000. Our consultant prepares all the documents necessary, makes arrangements necessary for the meetings, and charges $10,000.
Mr. DUNCAN. Why can't you just—I mean, explain that to me. Why can't you do it yourself? Shouldn't we simplify it so you don't have to hire—
Mr. SALYERS. If it were simplified, Chairman, we could, but it is a very lengthy and it is a very difficult process. It has to have approval of the airlines, and then the FAA, and it has to be presented in certain ways. A consultant who does it for many airports can do a much faster job than a small airport that would have to take staff away from something else to work on the PFCs.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Do you think you could suggest to the FAA ways to simplify it so that people on your staff could do it?
Mr. SALYERS. Absolutely, it could be simplified.
Mr. DUNCAN. We also in our legislation are expanding the Essential Air Service Program. I do understand that there are some—in fact, I think you have been involved in that, Mr. Cochran; is that correct?
Mr. COCHRAN. Yes, sir.
Mr. DUNCAN. What do you think about that program? How does that work at your airport?
Mr. COCHRAN. Right now we have four flights a day to Washington Dulles that is on our essential air service program, And it benefits the need of the city in one phase. In other words, the carrier that is the only essential air service lists flights to Washington Dulles. Now, for instance, if you wanted to fly from Beckley to Orlando, Florida, you would get on a plane in Beckley and fly to Washington, and you would have to buy another segment of ticket in Washington to go back south to Orlando. And that is because no one will code-share here in a southern route with our carrier. This is mostly US Air country that we are speaking of, and they won't recognize our carrier.
So it actually lets us get out of town, but it doesn't do anything for us to help our business clientele that we are looking for. We need a southern route. We need something to expand upon.
Mr. DUNCAN. Did you say your last project that you did through the AIP program was $290,000 or something to that effect?
Mr. COCHRAN. We had one for 290- and one for 250-.
Mr. DUNCAN. Rough guess; how much has the Beckley Airport received over the last 5 years from all sources of Federal funding?
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Mr. COCHRAN. In 1993, we had a $3 million project on a parallel taxiway to our longest runway.
Mr. DUNCAN. But typical—
Mr. COCHRAN. But over the years, as I explained, the airport has grown doublefold. Also in the 1970s another runway was also built there, but in the last 7 years, there has been $4 million in AIP programs.
Mr. DUNCAN. Last 7 years?
Mr. COCHRAN. Raleigh County Airport.
Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Salyers, I will say this: Attracting that Federal Express facility is sure a good sign because that will help you attract some business here.
Mr. SALYERS. Yes, it has.
Mr. RAHALL. It is a Tennessee company, too.
Mr. DUNCAN. Another interesting thing, you have two or three things going for you. In this part of West Virginia, you have got to be within 500 miles of some huge percentage of the population of this country. Also, I have said before several times that it is almost politically impossible to build a new airport in this country today, and therefore we have to expand or improve the airports that we have. But you have an unusual situation here in that I understand that you have actually picked out a county for a regional airport that is very receptive or available for getting that airport, and that is unusual.
Mr. Beverly, your enplanements have gone way down over the last few years. Do you attribute it all to this insurance problem, and is your airport surrounded by mountains? Is it in a dangerous location?
Mr. BEVERLY. Yes, sir, it is. Basically, if you could visualize some of the four-lanes we have had here where they cut through a mountain to put a road through it, basically they did about the same thing when they first established the Mingo County Airport. Out to the north we have a cut-through on a hill that is in close proximity to the arrival—the normal arrival route to our airport. And on the very end at the south, there is a small hilltop there that creates some obstruction.
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Basically the mining companies, some of the businesses in the area, were using the airport daily for their operation, 5, 6 days a week, sometimes 7. Like I say, because of the obstructions and the hazards to our airport, they haven't directly relayed this to me, but through word of mouth it is a liability problem, an insurance problem, that they just had to stop coming to Mingo County because of the liabilities.
Mr. DUNCAN. Well, is there anything you can do about that?
Mr. BEVERLY. Well —
Mr. DUNCAN. You can't hardly move mountains.
Mr. BEVERLY. Well, that is what we hope to do. Basically, like I say, we have got some hilltops that we need to remove.
Mr. DUNCAN. You can remove some of them?
Mr. BEVERLY. Yes, with the funding. Of course, the funding is an exorbitant cost to remove these hilltops.
Mr. DUNCAN. How much have you been receiving from the Federal Government?
Mr. BEVERLY. Since I have been chairman of the Airport Authority the last 5 years, I would guess between a half and three-quarters of a million dollars might have been spent at the Mingo County Airport just for minor projects. Our first phase of our master plan, which includes an obstruction removal on the south end with a runway extension and widening from 60 feet to 75 feet, the first phase of that project is $1.9 million.
Mr. DUNCAN. We are proposing in this legislation—of course we don't know what all will end up getting through, but we are proposing a new ASAP program, we are calling it, to set up an entitlement of—a $200,000 entitlement for some of the small airports in addition to some of the other funding.
Mr. Altizer, am I pronouncing your name correctly?
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Mr. ALTIZER. Altizer.
Mr. DUNCAN. What is the situation at your airport?
Mr. ALTIZER. Actually the situation with Logan is pretty good. We have received several million dollars in the last 10-year period, the last 10 years being the bulk of the building of the airport. Basically it was the lighted runway, very few obstructions to the approaches, and by June or July, the FAA has assured us that we will have of GPS approaches in there.
Mr. DUNCAN. How many planes do you have coming in there, how many passengers and so forth?
Mr. ALTIZER. We just finished up the last year. The actual number was just over 500 aircraft operations.
Mr. DUNCAN. Five hundred operations?
Mr. ALTIZER. Which is not bad considering there is still no hangar on the field. These are simply transits, people coming in for business, corporate, some general aviation, things of that nature. We have attracted a couple of corporate aircraft. King Air has come in from time to time. We have had to work real hard to keep those guys coming back because of the facilities. They can't leave their aircraft overnight, and they are concerned because of the location up on top of the mountain. But we have pretty much done a lot to dissuade those thoughts.
Mr. DUNCAN. I think Mingo County is 33,000, a little over 33,000. What is your population?
Mr. ALTIZER. The population in the Logan area is just over 40,000.
Mr. DUNCAN. Is that the population of the county?
Mr. ALTIZER. In the county, just over that. But the airports—our particular situation, what we are interested in from here on out is attracting people to base there, whether it is general aviation, corporate, something along those lines. We have many people that come up and ask, can I get on a plane and go to Charleston? Can I go to Beckley? Can I go to wherever? Of course the answer is no. What they are really asking is, is there an air taxi operator, air charter operator that is here on the field that could be available. That is where I see our next move is to attract someone that wants to establish that business.
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Of course, outside the improvement program, you are talking the bureaucratic process with the FAA, which is extremely difficult for a lot of start-up operators to handle, and even some operators that have been in business for a while.
Mr. DUNCAN. Well, I was telling some people at lunch that we have been very fortunate in the Knoxville area, we have got a whole host of people who sound a little different from us who are moving in there to retire. In fact, I had the wife of one of my county officials tell me last year you couldn't even hear an east Tennessee accent at the Wal-Mart anymore because so many people were moving in.
I spoke last year to the Florida Airport Manager's Association. They had a lunch at the Daytona Beach Airport. They told us that they were having real problems there because all they had was retirees and families. They didn't have any businesses, hardly any business travelers, and the airlines want the business travelers.
We have been fortunate in Knoxville that we have been getting a lot of businesses in there recently, too, so that has been good. And Nick told me they have a lot of people retiring down to the Beckley area, and that is good. That is good to become a big retirement area. It is good to have people moving in. It would be hard to represent some of these areas like North Dakota and rural Iowa, my mother is from Iowa, and some of these places where people are moving out. But you have got to have the business moving in there, too. The airlines will follow the businesses if you can get them to move in there, but it is a Catch 22. It is hard to get businesses to move in without the air service.
So do you have anything else?
Mr. RAHALL. No, Mr. Chairman, no questions. But just to add in your response to Mr. Beverly about moving mountains, if a certain judge would lift the restraining order in West Virginia, I assure you, we could move mountains.
Mr. HOLDEN. No questions.
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Mr. DUNCAN. I guess we better move on to the next panel Thank you very much for being with us. Your testimony and comments have been very helpful.
We will call up panel number two at this time: Mr. J. Wade Gilley, who is president of Marshall University; the Honorable Jim Booton, who is president of the Wayne County Commission; Mr. Jim Bowen, who is president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO; and Mr. James E. Casto, who is chairman of the Transportation Committee for the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce. We appreciate each of you taking time out from what I know is busy schedules to be with us here today.
Mr. DUNCAN. Once again we always proceed in the order the witnesses are listed on the call of the hearing. That means that, President Gilley, we will start with you, and you may proceed with your statement.
TESTIMONY OF J. WADE GILLEY, PRESIDENT, MARSHALL UNIVERSITY; JAMES H. BOOTON, PRESIDENT, WAYNE COUNTY COMMISSION; JIM BOWEN, PRESIDENT, WEST VIRGINIA AFL-CIO; AND JAMES E. CASTO, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, THE HERALD-DISPATCH, AND CHAIRMAN, TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE, HUNTINGTON REGIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Mr. GILLEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me extend my welcome to you and to Congressman Holden and our own Congressman Nick Joe Rahall for taking time from your busy schedules to be here to hear our concerns and also for your interest in what will be the most important item in America's growth in the future, the airline industry and its effect on small cities. So we appreciate that.
I am like the mayor, I also want to thank you personally for Chad Pennington. The 3 years he has been quarterback here we have won 33 games, which is a pretty good average, but not as good as Tennessee this year. I would like to congratulate you on that great season that the University of Tennessee had; 13 and 0 is pretty good in a national championship.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you.
Mr. GILLEY. We share something in common. We lost Randy Moss, and people said, you won't have a winning season, and we went 12 and 1. And they said since Manning was leaving, Tennessee couldn't do it, but you sure did.
Mr. DUNCAN. We try to send some missionaries out from Knoxville every once in a while.
Mr. GILLEY. Well, you sure did a good job.
But I would like to also thank Congressman Nick Joe Rahall for all of the things that he has done and for the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights and for his work in establishing the Marshall University Appalachian Transportation Research Institute last year. We think that is going to be of great service to this region's economic development and for all Appalachia, we hope.
There is an organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts, whose corporate name is Cognetics, Inc., which is a firm that evaluates communities on their economic development growth and potential. In their recent report they indicated that there were four hard determinants of viable, growing communities. Of course, we were pleased that first on that list was universities. They found that universities are very critical to the growth of any community, and particularly those communities that are growing fast.
Also a skilled labor pool and a good place to live were on that list, and important to us here, air service. So universities, skilled labor pool, good place to live, and air service.
We think we are a good university with 16,000 students. The region itself has seven public and private colleges and universities. So in that respect, we think we are in pretty good shape. We know it is a nice place to live, and we think we have a good skilled labor force, as has been shown by Toyota and others moving here.
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But we think that the challenge before us in the 21st century is air service. As our faculty and staff and students try to get in and out, we frequently find that they drive to Lexington, to Cincinnati, to Columbus primarily to take advantage of lower air fares.
Our faculty, who generally work on a budget, we give them a certain amount for professional development, shop around to see where they can get the most for their money, rather than spend it all on air travel getting out of Huntington. They frequently will drive to Lexington so they can get a much reduced airfare which allows them to do more with their professional development funds.
So as we look at the future, we think that there is strong potential here in this region. We believe the university, which has grown from 12,000 students to 16,000 students in the last 6 years can grow to 20,000, But that will take some effort on our part. And we also believe that improved air service would be a real asset to us as we plan to move the university forward.
Students find the air service to be essential as they come from other States, And we have students from nearly every State and more than 20 foreign countries. But academics, we like to get in and out to associate with their colleagues around the country and are very interested in the quality and the price of air service. So to some degree, the growth and development of our university and its contribution to the growth and development of this region is dependent upon air service and the improvement of that.
And we believe that the country, as one country, needs to provide good access to air service for all of its citizens, not just for those who live in urban areas. We believe a place like Huntington, West Virginia, which has so much potential, and such a great place to live, can be even better and can serve the country and this State better if we have better air service.
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So your interest, your commitment by being here is all very important to us, and we want to thank you for your efforts, and we thank Congressman Rahall for bringing you here today in his continued quest to make this southern West Virginia a better place to live. Thank you, sir.
Mr. DUNCAN. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Gilley. I certainly enjoyed talking with you after lunch. I know we have 25,000 students at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and Knoxville would be a very different place if it wasn't for the university. Marshall University is, I know, an extremely valuable asset. There is not many universities of over 15- or 16,000 students, so this is really impressive.
Mr. Booton.
Mr. BOOTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the aviation subcommittee. My name is James Booton. I am the President of the Wayne County Commission and second vice president of the Tri-State Airport Authority. Thank you for the opportunity to present our views on infrastructure funding and air service at small airports.
In my prepared remarks there is not much that I could say that hasn't already been said. I would like to approach it in maybe a little bit different manner.
In my duties as county commissioner, like yourselves, I serve the public. That's my first interest. I can hear the complaints. If there is anything good, occasionally they tell me about it, but most of the times it's the bad things they tell me about.
Air transportation in our area has been a real problem for our citizens due to the costs, due to the service that we have. I find that it is a luxury for most of our people. We are a very rural county in Wayne County and the surrounding areas. We are very rural. I find most of the time the weight scale is not the greatest that it could be around some of these larger areas, so it becomes a real luxury for us to be able to afford an air trip.
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Most of the time for our average citizen a flight out of here is not a vacation trip. It's an emergency. It's some part of the family that's somewhere that needs help to get to, and we find that this is very critical to our area here that something be done to get our airfares in line with other places so it won't be such a luxury for our people.
A lot of times in order to make a flight, families have to literally take from their budget from their families and other things that they need, from their household needs, to make that trip. We would like to see it where it's something that they could do to take a vacation, not only just in emergencies.
We would like to see a place where companies could locate here and be able to have service out of here. Maybe economics is not the major reason for the companies who maybe could afford these air fares, but it's certainly got to enter into their budgetary times. But the type of aircraft that flies in and out of here, the frequency and where they could go and the time and their schedule is very important.
Secondly, as the second vice president of the Airport Authority, I have a chance to sit and listen and see what really happened and know how important that these AIP funds are to the Tri-State Airport. As a member of the Tri-State Airport, I would like to reiterate that it is truly a Tri-State Airport. We serve Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. It's very important that we be able to keep good transportation here for these people. I find that many people in eastern Kentucky and southern—southeast Ohio are in the same situation as far as economics that we are in. We are very similar. We may have a few more mountains here in West Virginia than they do, but we have very similar needs. So it's very important to us that the Tri-State Airport see that these funds continue.
We've been very fortunate at Tri-State. I was just checking with Mr. Salyers. In the last 10 years we probably received about $10 million, and that's great, but there are still a lot of projects out there that are not funded, a lot of projects that need to be funded and this is our only means of getting the job done.
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Thirdly, I'm a real estate broker in the area here, and I get a chance to meet a lot of people that's coming into our area looking for housing, the possibility of coming in and starting new companies and looking for a place, so I hear the complaints. I hear about the fact that they can't get here in a timely manner, that they can't get out in a timely manner, and not last or least to say, the cost of making these trips has really been a hardship.
So in all of these aspects, I do get to deal with the public and the problems. I know that the airport is a real key to future development in this area.
Congressman Rahall mentioned a while ago about intermodal transportation. Multimodal transportation is a buzz word anymore, but it's a reality here in the Tri-State area. We are looking at river transportation. We are trying to get port authorities started here. We are looking at air. We are looking at roads. The Congressman has been very helpful in helping us getting our roads updated so we can be a part of that. We have two different railroad lines that come into the area here, so we truly have the possibility of a multimodal community, but we do need something as far as airport and service to get here. We think this is one of the things that's most lacking in our areas is the airport service.
And last but not least, my role as a grandfather and as a parent, I'm very interested in seeing that my children and my grandchildren are able to stay in this community. I think airports, multimodal transportation and all these things, are the key to getting jobs here, the key to getting companies to locate here. In doing so we will be able to keep our children here and they won't have to go somewhere else to find a job. But if they do have to, if we could, at least, be able to get them to fly back in and visit and see those kids or we can fly out at a price that will no longer be a luxury to us.
Mr. DUNCAN. Well, thank you very much for a very fine statement, Mr. Booton. Mr. Bowen.
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Mr. BOWEN. Yes, sir, thank you. Chairman Duncan and Congressman Holden and Congressman Nick Joe, on behalf of the working men and women of the State of West Virginia, I want to thank you for being here today. You are dealing with a subject that I have very little knowledge on other than people issues because that's what I deal with.
And I like to be called a special interest because I couldn't think of a better thing to represent than people. I don't know too much been AIP or lengths of runways and so forth, but I do know that we have a fantastic highway system in our state, and it certainly helps in attracting business. I will shock some people by talking about economic development because there will be subjects I could bring up that none of us in the room would agree with me on. On this one, they probably all will. I believe in economic development, and I believe that it is what we have to have happen in West Virginia to be able to have good working jobs and be able to pay for airfare even though it is ridiculous in the price.
As I say, we have a fantastic highway system. We have a lousy, to be frank about it, airway system. I'm not so sure my good friend, Nick Joe, wouldn't like it to stay at 700 to come from here to Washington, D.C. And that way I won't be able to go down and pester him about another issue or two that we might want to talk about. But the reality is it's ridiculous. He opened up by saying you could fly to London for a couple hundred bucks or 300 bucks, and from Huntington to Washington, D.C. Is 700. That's unbelievable.
And as the previous speaker, Mr. Booton, spoke, a lot of our folks when they need to hit the airlines it's because of a tragedy in their family or a very ill person, and they don't have time to think about the price. You just have got to appreciate the fact of how that digs into their pocketbooks and their budget to have to do that. They don't have it. It's no choice. It's just a necessity. And that's what is sad about this. To go to Pittsburgh from here is another ridiculous price cost that's unbelievable, another $700 figure. It's just impossible.
And I notice as the panels are constructed, I didn't see too many business people as such, but we deal with contracts with a lot of businesses in our state, and I know they, too, are tired of the cost of having their salespeople or their engineers flying around and having to pay the exorbitant costs to get to places to try to solve problems to bring more productivity in to our state.
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We have a good work force in this state, one that's willing to get out and step up and make things happen. We have a much better labor climate in this state than we had 20 years ago. We work hard. We are hard working people. And as I said, it's a privilege for me to be able to represent them and express to you the need to do something about the air service, not only to be able to hopefully maybe some day go on a vacation that way, but to have our product brought in here for repair and ship out finished products in an expeditious manner so we can meet today's fancy buzz word of overnight delivery, on time delivery, so our employers in this state have a better opportunity to be competitive with employers who have much greater access to be able to deliver overnight products and equipment to repair facilities than we have. So it is a competitive disadvantage the air system we have available to us, not only in the passenger arena, but in the freight arena.
Your opening statement covered the whole subject, as far as I'm concerned, Chairman Duncan, and I appreciate that. As long as you keep that spirit and that attitude and that focus, you can make things happen here in West Virginia, and I thank you for the opportunity to say a few words.
Mr. DUNCAN. Well, thank you. My opening statement was too long, wasn't it?
Mr. BOWEN. No, sir. It was right on target.
Mr. DUNCAN. I tell you what, I appreciated your comment about being a special interest. I've told people that everybody has a special interest of some sort. For some people, it's teachers, some people it's libraries, some people it's national defense. I mean, everybody is tied into or supports some type of special interest of some sort. Thank you very much.
Mr. Casto.
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Mr. CASTO. My name is James Casto. I am the associate editor of the Herald Dispatch Newspaper here in Huntington. I'm also the Transportation Chairman for the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce. And I appear here today on behalf of the Chamber and its 700 member businesses. We appreciate this opportunity to make our voices heard.
As the poet John Donne told us, ''No man is an island,'' each of us is ''a part of the main.'' Much the same might be said of cities. No city is an island. Each city in this great country is or ought to be a part of the vast fabric of the American landscape and an integral part of the national economy.
Yet in recent years, many American cities have become virtual islands, isolated from the rest of the nation by the impact of what has happened in the airline industry.
Airline deregulation, we were told, would result in lower fares and better service. And that, in fact, is what has happened—if you look just at the nation's major markets. But airline deregulation has been an unmitigated disaster for small communities such as Huntington, where today our flights are fewer, our planes are smaller, and our fares are higher, a hell of a lot higher.
We are not asking that Congress reregulate the airline industry. We know that that is not going to happen. But we are asking that Congress enact measures designed to inject into the airline industry the kind of competition that deregulation promised, but failed to deliver. That new competition will then, we believe, solve many of the air service problems we now face.
Time was when a city that was well served by highways and by railroads was a city well equipped to compete for jobs. Today, if you don't have good airline service, you might as well post a sign saying, ''Closed, Out of Business'' at the city limits.
We in Huntington have been fortunate enough in the past few years to add a number of good jobs to our local economy. But even so, we are clearly paying a high price in lost economic opportunity because we lack suitable air service.
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The truth is we might as well be an island, adrift in uncertain economic seas. We implore you to help end this isolation by working with us to achieve the kind of quality air service we now are denied. Thank you.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Casto. Mr. Rahall.
Mr. RAHALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, panel, for giving testimony. It was truly on target and from the heart and certainly expressed the viewpoint of countless thousands of our mutual constituencies.
Commissioner Booton, you referenced the Fed Ex regional facility that's recently opened at Tri-State. For my part, and this goes along with what you mentioned in your testimony as well, I am interested in expanding and exploring methods of truly increasing intermodal transportation other than in the highway arena or in the air arena because I think they are very important links in this country to a very effective overall national transportation policy to take us into the next century and promote economic development.
In other words, I think we can more efficiently move cargo between airports and trucks, between airports and railroads, between airports and buses, between airports and rivers, byways and seaways, and I think this truly can come about. We see it coming about in the transportation arena, in the highway arena. We see railroads working with truckers now, believe it or not, even almost appearing together in the same room, representatives of trucking companies and railroad companies. Certainly we see the unions working together as last week we had an unprecedented gathering of railroad CEO's and rail union in our transportation and infrastructure hearing room in Washington for a joint meeting. So I think it's truly the way of the future and we need to expand this into the aviation arena.
I just wondered if there is anything else you would like to see added or perhaps any of the other panel would like to comment on this intermodal concept as well?
Mr. BOOTON. There is a lot of things happening in multimodal or intermodal transportation, and we feel very fortunate to be located here. We do have the university here. We do have a medical school here. We have items that I can see that are very important in those transportation of items being brought into our area, whether it might be tests that need to go out for medical purposes, or students coming in and out as Dr. Gilley said earlier. I think all of these tie together, and I can see through your efforts and the efforts of things that we are doing here locally, that there are things coming together on this intermodal transportation. I think it's the key to our future here, and again, I think the air service is the weak link. I think we have the other things going in the right direction.
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Mr. RAHALL. Anybody else? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you. Mr. Holden.
Mr. HOLDEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not have any questions for the panel, but I would just like to thank them for their testimony. The problems that you identified in your economic development efforts and the migration of your children are the same concerns I hear in my congressional district, in Reading, Pottsville and Pottstown and Sunbury. In my home county of Schuylkill where the unemployment rate is two times Pennsylvania's average, our economic development people did a great job in attracting Lowe's to have their distribution center for the northeastern part of the country to be located there.
And the Appalachian Region Commission was very helpful with some of the sewer and water infrastructure that we needed. That's really a great boost to the county, but we need to do more. And as we're trying to talk to Lowe's suppliers to possibly locate there to reduce their costs, now the question of infrastructure is always the first question that's asked. And last year working together in a very bipartisan manner, this committee, the transportation committee and the entire Congress did a lot to address our highway problems in this country.
This year we had an opportunity to address our aviation shortcomings. And I know that the Chairman, both Chairman Shuster and Oberstar and Nick Rahall have been working very hard. So I just look forward to working with them so we can do the same thing with the aviation trust fund that we were able to do with the highway trust fund and make all of your efforts and economic development a little bit easier in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you. President Gilley, Mr. Salyers mentioned a while ago that he thought he could come up with ways to suggest to the FAA to greatly simplify the paperwork that's required in dealing with the federal government. Do you think it would be possible for you to get one of your public administration professors or some of your economics or political science students over there to take that on to work with him and some of these other airport people as some kind of project to improve some of these, maybe statewide, some of these airports' access to federal money or their ability to attract more of it? Do you understand what I'm saying?
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Mr. GILLEY. I think I do, Mr. Chairman. I think that's certainly something we could work with the airport here and the other airports in southern West Virginia and help accomplish. It's certainly part of our mission as a university.
Mr. DUNCAN. Well, like I said a few minutes ago, I really do think that in all types of federal money, the rural areas, the small towns, and even the very small cities have been very much shortchanged, and I think it's because they just don't have the staffs or the expertise sometimes to—or just the manpower to get some of this federal money. It's not just with—it's throughout the federal government.
Mr. Casto, you mentioned deregulation, and that's been something of great, I guess, interest to me. I mentioned they are frequently referred to as pockets of pain. And certainly Huntington and a lot of other places would qualify. The GAO says that deregulation has been a great success in about 70 percent of the country, but at least 30 percent, and I sometimes think that 30 percent may be growing, where deregulation is not really working. What we are trying to do with our air service improvement act and some of this legislation that we are talking about is to try to do something about that in sort of an incentive way without reregulating.
Do you have any suggestions about what we can do to improve this situation or do you think that we should go back to some type or at least some limited type of reregulation?
Mr. CASTO. I know there is legislation which would create new slots for flights at some of the larger airports. I think if those can, indeed, be reserved for start-up carriers or for carriers who are, at least, sort of embryonic in nature as opposed to the large, almost monopolistic carriers that have, as earlier testimony indicated, pretty much carved up the country to themselves. That is perhaps the best hope that we have.
One of the things that has really penalized communities such as ours is one of the things that the airline industry is proudest of, and that is the hub and spoke system because that has been a great system, if you are an airline. And it's been a relatively good system if you are a hub city, although the statistics show that people who live in hub cities pay higher airfares than people who don't.
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I don't have any idea that we are going to somehow get that particular Genie back into the bottle. I don't think we are going to be able to do anything to dismantle the hub and spoke system or to cushion its impact, but the key is competition. Deregulation was built as a way of increasing competition. In fact, we have less competition now than we did before deregulation. Congress needs to apply itself to stimulating competition and then let free market solve the problem itself.
Mr. DUNCAN. Well, it's not easy, you know, everything looks easy from a distance. It's not an easy thing to work all of this out because overall airline fares since deregulation have really, in terms of real dollars, have gone down. You can't find too many things that have gone down in price over the last 20 years.
Mr. CASTO. And that, of course, is what the airlines and the FAA point to as the miracle of deregulation. But that doesn't do us much good.
Mr. DUNCAN. Right. Well, I'm very familiar with that. In a lot of ways we still have, you know, the Knoxville airport had by far a record year this last year, over 1,600,000 passengers. But we still have to many locations extremely high prices. Even on a government rate, round trip to Washington costs me $420. We've got good deals for certain locations, and we are doing far better than we were five years ago or 10 years ago, but we are not very far away from some of the same things that you all are facing here.
Then we get into the issue of this predatory pricing which, you know, sometimes like in Des Moines, they had a new low cost airline come in there with very low prices to Chicago, and then United Airlines came in and greatly undercut the new airline until it ran it out of business. So you've got those kind of situations, too, that are very, very difficult to deal with.
You may be interested to know that the Department of Transportation has recommended that we phase out or that we do away with slots at three of these four slot controlled airports with the only one left being the Washington National Airport. And even there, we are talking about increasing the number of slots to 48, with half of those going to underserved airports. Now there is negotiations going back and forth on that, on all of that right now. Some people are suggesting a phase in period of those slots going out so that the majors don't get all of those open slots so that some of these smaller, start-up or low cost airlines can get some of them.
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Mr. Booton, I can tell you that I am very familiar with this problem with many people leaving the counties. My father came from a family of 10 children and they had an outhouse behind their house, very rural counties on the Kentucky line. Scott County is much like many of the counties around here, and my dad loved his county, but he said one time to me, he said, in Scott County you used to be considered a success if you just made it out of the county. Nine out their 10 children left the county and it was because of the job opportunities and so forth. So it's a real problem.
Do you have anything else that you wanted?
Mr. RAHALL. Well, just in closing, I guess—
Mr. DUNCAN. Well, go ahead, because we've got to cut this off and catch our plane in a short time so go ahead.
Mr. RAHALL. I guess to follow up what you were just saying about your county in your district, I've not seen this movie yet, but I understand there is a movie out in the theaters called October Sky. You have seen it, I take it, Mr. Chairman?
Mr. DUNCAN. Yes.
Mr. RAHALL. I'm told it's about Homer Hickem and three of his high school buddies who grew up in Coalwood in McDowell County, West Virginia during the late 1950's. It's a story about Homer and his friends, how they were fascinated by the launch of Sputnik, really captivated their dreams and they learned about rocketing as a means to escape the county, from having to go into the coal mines and have to stay in the county and do what their fathers and grandfathers had done for so long.
They went on and learned about rocketing. They won a national science contest, and all of them got college scholarships, and Homer went on to work for NASA. While the movie takes place in Coalwood, I understand it was filmed in eastern Tennessee, Mr. Chairman, and if you wait long enough at the end I'm told and you watch all the credits go through you'll see our chairman, Representative Jim Duncan's name, in appreciation for some assistance he gave in the filming of that movie.
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I bring this up because in a sense, those of us that are trapped in rural communities by high airfares and inadequate air service, typify the Homer Hickem situation. The promise of new legislation to address this problem is, indeed, parallel to his Sputnik, I guess you would call it. It's similar to what Sputnik was to the Homer Hickems of the world. We are all being inspired to take action. When they roll the closing credits at the end of this legislation and all of the rural communities are saying thank you, I'm sure that our chairman, Jim Duncan's name, will be among the top of the list of those credits as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for being with us today. Thank you, my colleague and friend, Tim Holden, from Pennsylvania for being with us and thank all the panels.
Mr. DUNCAN. Nick, thank you so much. You know, I am very proud, and I hope all of you go see that movie, October Sky, because it is a great movie. They finally made a movie where they don't have to have just terrible language in every other sentence and so forth. It just shows up how much of this area is similar to my home area because all of that movie was filmed just outside of Knoxville and a little bit of in Knoxville, although in the movie Knoxville is Indianapolis. But they were kind enough, and it surprised me, to list my name in the credits. We had helped them with Norfolk Southern to get permission to use some of their tracks, and it was a difficult thing, but I think the main reason is I made arrangements for the director and the producer to play golf at a country club that I am a member of in Knoxville, and I think that's the main reason they listed me. But I will tell you this, you don't want to wait to see my name because I am listed below the hairstylists, and there is about 300 names, I think, that run through before you get to mine.
Mr. RAHALL. Like I said, when they roll the credits from this legislation, you won't be that far down.
Mr. DUNCAN. But I was appreciative that they did that. Mr. Holden.
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Mr. HOLDEN. No questions.
Mr. DUNCAN. Well, let me say thank you once again to all of the panelists and to everyone else who has come out. This doesn't stop here. We are going to be—this bill, we start one of the significant steps in the process is tomorrow and another one Thursday, but this is something we are going to be working on. It will have to go through the House and, of course, through the Senate. Then it goes to a conference committee. So this is something that's going to take a few months. So if any of you have any ideas or opinions or suggestions or thoughts on this, we would be glad to hear from you. I know Congressman Rahall would be, and I would be, and we certainly appreciate the time that you've taken today, and I think this has been a very helpful and informative session, and this will conclude this hearing.
[Whereupon, the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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