Gary-Chicago Not Good Enough for Cargo
The director of the Gary/Chicago International Airport, Chris Curry has this week poured cold water on the proposition by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley that the airport now focus on cargo activities to maintain its viability.
The Mayor made the suggestion(*) after recent arrival at Gary Chicago, Skybus Airlines failed and withdrew its services. However in writing to local media, Chris Curry has said that passenger services still remain as the airports top priority with Cargo activities being of secondary importance.
Expressing concern that grant funds received on the basis of the airport providing passenger services, Curry suggested that the funding might be withdrawn if the focus from passenger services
shifts. The director saying that “When the Federal Aviation Administration approved the letter of intent which granted $58 million for the airport expansion, it was based on relieving passenger congestion in the Chicago area. If the airport changed the focus of the original intent of the letter of intent money, there is the potential risk of losing that funding.”
Curry also commented that the airport at present, does not properly cater for cargo aircraft, except for the smaller cargo aircraft that do utilize the airport. “The airport has only one direction that an aircraft can land in inclement weather” said Curry. questioning the ability to be able to cater for larger cargo aircraft in poorer weather and strong wind conditions.
Further emphasising the importance of passenger services to Gary-Chicago, Curry remarked that should the airport be able to achieve a minimum threshold of 10,000 passenger enplanements, Gary-Chicago would be in line to receive one-million dollars of federal funding from the Federal Aviation Authorities Airport Improvement Program. However should that number of emplanements not be achieved, the airport receives a substantially less amount of around $150,000 dollars.
Both issues of funding requirements and shortcoming in airport infrastructure pose serious problems for Gary-Chicago, the airport in the short term destined to be under utilized, despite the hopes of many that the airport could have played a large part in relieving air-traffic congestion in the Chicago area.