FAA Delays Closing of Barkley Control Tower

Barkley Regional Airport on Friday received notice that the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington will delay closures of all 149 federal contract air traffic control towers until June 15. This includes the tower at Barkley.

The FAA says the reason for the delay is to allow the agency time to attempt to resolve multiple legal challenges to the closure decisions, which have been brought by airports and related stakeholders nationwide.

This marks the second revised dater for the closure of the tower at Barkley, which was originally slated for April 7. A procedural change for the closures prompted that date to be moved to May 5, before today's date was released.

"With each delay, we are hopeful that more action will be taken to prevent the tower from closing at all, said Airport Manager Richard Roof.

"We have been monitoring and exploring the possibility of joining in the legal actions of other airports, but at the same time we are optimistic that it won't come to that."

Roof added that the airport also received word today that Senators Jerry Moran of Kansas and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut intend to introduce a free-standing bill early next week, when Congress from its Easter recess, to prohibit the FAA from closing all 149 contract towers on FAA's closure list, and giving them license to explore other options that will help kep the towers open.