David Knight, the county's transportation and public works director, says the county will continue to move forward on a new terminal and runway and a new regional air carrier, but he warned the board, "After Sept. 11, the whole world has changed for airports."
Due to lost revenue and increased development costs, the Charles Schultz-Sonoma County Airport expects that it will have lost about $70,000 between Sept. 11 and Oct. 11. Knight says that additional security alone is costing $1,000 a day.
The county had planned on building a new runway in the hopes of attracting a regional air carrier. A new terminal building had been designed and is near completion, but will have to be amended to accommodate new security measures, says Knight.
Knight adds that while Congress has allocated $15 billion to the airlines, there has been no support for airports yet. Knight still wants to proceed cautiously, even though United Airlines is ending its service to San Francisco and Los Angeles from the airport next month. The airport had hoped that Sun Air Express of Redding would take its place, but the regional carrier stopped flying on Sept. 21.
Prior to the terrorist attacks, a new terminal project review committee determined that securing a new regional carrier would depend on the completion of the terminal's design and a study on increasing runway lengths.
Now officials say that longer runways will be a controversial project that will require amendments to the General Plan and the Airport Master Plan. "There is no guarantee that any air carrier service will be secured as a result of these actions,'' Knight told the Board of Supervisors.
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