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An amphibious airplane lands at Renton Field at 2:30 on Sunday, thirty minutes after what had originally been announced as a planned 2:00 PM to midnight closure. The closure had been cancelled with a few hours notice. Saturday’s closure had been similarly cancelled the day before.
Renton airport businesses and pilots had been making new plans after learning that the runway at Renton Airport would be closed for ten hours a day, every day from 2:00 PM until midnight. A runway closure is a big deal, and requires rescheduling of everything from flight lessons, to flight-club use rosters, to weekend getaway schedules.
But in the final hours on Saturday, and then again on Sunday, the runway closures were cancelled.
While this could have been good news for anyone suddenly able to adjust their schedule, it’s bad news if they will now be asked to plan for replacement closure days in the future.
It raises doubts about how coordinated the runway closure planning is with the contractors doing the work at the airport.
This excerpt from the FAA NOTAM list last Friday showed runway closures planned though the weekend. On Saturday morning the Saturday closure notice was rescinded but not the Sunday notice. Then on Sunday morning, the Sunday notice was rescinded. It leaves airport operators wondering what will happen in the future.
An anonymous commenter on my blog brought this uncoordinated scheduling to my attention (Thank you Anonymous). After pointing out the on-again off-again closure, the commenter added:
“Business owners are losing revenue at very tough time due to the mismanagement of the contract schedule and poor communication with the airport tenants. Renton Airport management is making it impossible for business owners to operate successfully at Renton Airport. The unreasonable lease terms and cost prohibitive rate increases coupled with mistaken and mismanaged closure schedules make it impossible for Renton Airport tenants including small flight training organizations preparing the next generation of commercial pilots to succeed in business at Renton Airport.”
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