FAA Closures Include Tacoma Narrows Airport Control Tower

Five Washington state airport control towers will close as a result of budget sequestration, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Friday, including the Tacoma Narrows airport in Gig Harbor. 

The other Washington state airports affected are Renton Municipal, Olympia Regional, Felts Field in Spokane and McAllister Field in Yakima.

Theses closures are just five of 149 such closures across the country announced by the FAA.

The FAA reviewed hundreds of contract control tower locations with low traffic rates during the second week in March and made its decision based on the amount of impact on national interests, according to a March 5 letter from the FAA to Pierce County. The FAA did not consider local community impact.

In its letter to the County, the FAA explained that the timing of this closure is driven by budget sequestration, and similar reductions may be needed in the future.

Despite the tower’s closure, the Tacoma Narrows Airport will remain open.

“Instead of having tower controllers directing air traffic, pilots would use well-defined procedures applicable at all airports without an operating control tower,” according to a statement from Pierce County. “These standard procedures are already in use between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. at the Tacoma Narrows Airport, and 24-hours a day at Pierce County Airport-Thun Field, which is also operated by Pierce County and has never had a control tower.”