LETTER: Close city airport

Boosters of the Kalispell City Airport are publishing highly deceptive claims in their paid advertisements for keeping the airport open.

First, every one of the airport’s users listed in the ad could operate just as well and more safely at Glacier Park International Airport, which is much better equipped for the fliers and better located for public safety. It also has plenty of capacity for more users. Hence net benefits of the city airport to the city are essentially zero.

Second, the financial data in the ad are based on incompetent accounting from an old consultant’s report that has been thoroughly discredited by accountants examining the city’s books. These figures are about as credible as the airport’s past claim of more than 45,000 aircraft operations per year, which would mean on average one take-off or landing every eight minutes for 16 hours a day 364 days a year. To test this assertion, one needs only to sit in Rosauer’s parking lot and watch nothing happen, especially on days without clear weather. That claim is pure fantasy.

The facts are that the city airport has cost Kalispell’s taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and continues to do so with negligible benefits except to the few dozen fliers who use it with minimal contributions to its cost. Taxpayers pay Red Eagle Aviation for airport management services and for snow removal and other maintenance, and the airport scoops up some of the city’s rental income from adjoining properties rented to nearby businesses. These revenues could pay for other city needs.

Don’t be bamboozled. The city airport is not an asset to the city. It is a liability, and the property needs to be put to better use. Now is the time finally to end this boondoggle.

—Bill Cox, Kalispell