At Least For Another Year
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill must continue to
operate Horace Williams Airport for the public and the school's
Area Health Education Center's (AHEC) Medical Air Operations for at
least another year thanks to language AOPA supported in the state's
House budget bill. The language survived House-Senate deliberations
to make it into the final budget that was signed into law Saturday
afternoon.
During the next year, the Legislative Research Commission will
study the effect that closure of Horace Williams would have on the
AHEC program.
"Horace Williams could well be closed by now if AOPA's 10,000
North Carolina members hadn't come to the airport's defense.
Hundreds of pilots contacted their state legislators, telling them
to keep the airport open," said Roger Cohen, AOPA vice president of
regional affairs. "The legislature has once again recognized the
importance of the airport, and the study will offer AHEC doctors
and pilots a chance, maybe a last chance, to preserve the airport.
Passage of this bill is just one step in a long, tough
journey."
AHEC uses general aviation aircraft
to transport health science faculty, medical residents, health
science students, and university officials across the state. Moving
AHEC operations, most likely to Raleigh-Durham International
Airport (RDU), could potentially delay routine AHEC flights because
of the growing number of scheduled airline flights and the
worsening ground traffic congestion.
"RDU, a busy airline airport, is at least a 30- to 45-minute
drive from the university. The doctors and pilots will not want to
delay their regular flights and endure the daily traffic congestion
between Chapel Hill and Raleigh," Cohen said.
Even though AOPA, local pilots, and the medical community have
managed to keep the airport open for another year, the university
is more committed than ever to closing Horace Williams.
"AOPA members need to continue reinforcing the value of the
airport to their legislators," Cohen said. "UNC still intends to
close the airport."
AOPA has been lobbying to protect the airport for more than
three years. Earlier this year the university managed to get a
last-minute anti-airport provision added to the Senate Budget Bill
that would allow UNC to close its airport as soon as its AHEC
Medical Air Operations moved to RDU. The university wants to build
a new campus on the land.