CONTROLLING OUR SKIES: Destin Airport to get air traffic control tower

The Destin Airport will get an air traffic control tower in the future, but some area residents say the tower won’t curb the noise that’s burdened homeowners near the airport for years.

Okaloosa County Airports Director Greg Donovan announced that the Federal Aviation Administration has accepted the airport into its contract tower program at a Destin Airport Master Plan meeting on Tuesday. The news came only hours before the meeting.

“We’ve provided the FAA with substantial data showing the value of having positive control of the air space,” Donovan said during the meeting. “It makes our bases stronger, and it makes the air space safer.”

But pilot and area resident Jim Link said he doesn’t think the tower will have any effect on airport safety. He said Eglin Air Force Base approach and departure control monitors aircraft entering the region and pilots control the traffic once they reach the airport. He said he thinks the current system is working because there haven’t been any fatal accidents at the airport in 17 years.

“My feeling is that if you put a control tower in, you’re just putting one more voice between the pilot sitting on the runway and Eglin approach control,” Link said. “I don’t know where they get the idea that it’s going to increase safety.”

Acceptance into the tower program has been a high priority for the Okaloosa County Board of Commissioners for about five years, and Donovan and his staff have spent the last two years gathering data to present to the FAA. In addition to providing a study showing the economic benefit of constructing a control tower at the Destin Airport, Donovan said he and his staff worked to educate the FAA on factors unique to Destin, including the close proximity of Eglin Air Force Base and the high population density in the city.

“It’s a very positive step forward,” Donovan said. “Having a control tower gives us the ability to have more defined and formalized air traffic control procedures that limit the exposure of noise.”

Donovan said much of the noise that area residents have complained about is generated by idling planes as they sit and wait to take off. He said a control tower would help decrease idle time. Less time spent sitting on the runway will also save money in fuel costs.

Airport noise critics and area residents Betty Kenyon and David Barr said they think the tower is a good first step. Barr said he thinks minimizing back up as planes wait to take off will help with the noise problem, and he’s happy that the tower will force pilots to adhere to FAA guidelines. But he is concerned that a tower might increase the amount of traffic coming through the airport.

“If they turn that thing into a 20-hour-a-day operation, this neighborhood is never going to get any sleep,” Barr said. “But Greg (Donovan) has assured me that wouldn’t happen. If it’s properly implemented and not used to increase the traffic and hours of operation, I think it’s a good thing.”

“It’s not going to turn into an international commercial service,” said Donovan, who noted that expanding the airport wouldn’t be possible due to the lack of compatible land. “It’s a niche airport, and it’s a resource for Destin.”

Link said he doesn’t think the tower will increase or decrease traffic at the airport, but he also doesn’t think the tower will minimize noise. He said pilots will still have to spend some time sitting on the runway when there is Air Force traffic in the air.

The cost of constructing the tower is estimated to be about $3 million, and the airport will also have to pay to maintain the tower. Donovan said he had applied to the FAA for grants to minimize the cost. The Aviation Trust Fund, a federal reserve of tax dollars levied on airline tickets and operations, will provide funding for the operation of the tower. 

Now that the airport has been accepted into the program, it will compete with 14 other airports on the list for priority. Donovan said the next step is to lobby for priority status. He said citizens can help by writing to their senators. 

“I feel pretty good that we should have a high national priority,” Donovan said. “It’s going to pay dividends from a safety standpoint and an efficiency standpoint, but also from a compatibility standpoint.”