Chicago Makes Case for Using AIP Funds To Bulldoze Meigs
Last Friday the city of Chicago filed a 43-page legal brief with the FAA claiming the city was justified in using $2.8 million in Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funding to tear up Meigs Field in March 2003. The brief came in response to an October FAA investigation into whether or not funds intended for O’Hare and Midway were illegally used to destroy Meigs. The city claims there is precedent for using such funds to dismantle “abandoned” airports, citing the cases of Denver Stapleton and Austin (Texas) Robert Mueller Airports. Both sites were shut down concurrently with the opening of new airports meant to take their places—Denver International Airport and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, respectively. Critics of the city’s actions dispute the connection. AOPA president Phil Boyer said the funds were meant for airport construction, not destruction. An NBAA spokesman said the application of AIP funding in this case was a “gross misuse” of the money, since—unlike the two cases cited as precedent—the action served to “reduce capacity rather than increase it.” The FAA must decide if the use of the funds was appropriate. According to AOPA, the city could face fines of up to three times the $2.8 million diverted, or $8.4 million.