Aviation groups want Dillingham Airfield to keep flying as businesses face an uncertain future

Two national aviation organizations have weighed in on the Dillingham Airfield controversy, with one asking the state for more time to maintain jobs and find a new airport “sponsor,” and the other asking federal authorities to “stand firm” and not release the state from grant obligations at the airport.

State Sen. Gil Riviere, who has advocated for keeping skydiving, glider, ultralight and other flight operations at the 9,000-foot runway, said businesses are “freaking out,” given the surprise announcement that the state intends to pull out as landlord June 30.

Tenants were notified just last month about the termination. “They are under a great amount of stress,” Riviere said.

Tom Sanders, who has run Paradise Air Hawaii at Dillingham for 17 years, is threatening legal action if the state follows through on its plan.

“On July 1 I’m homeless. So we’re not going to take this lying down,” said the owner of the powered hang glider flight school.

Tenants are on 30-day revocable permits with the state, which leases the airfield for free from the Army. Sanders maintains the state signed a contract to manage the airport.

“I think it’s going to be proven that through their (the state’s) negligence … they have not managed the airport,” he said, accusing the state Department of Transportation Airports Division of being an absentee landlord.

“I just put in $40,000 worth of hangar doors — and I’m relying on the fact that they (the state) just signed, about nine months ago, a lease that says, ‘Oh, we’re going to extend this for five years,’” Sanders said.

The initial term of the lease was 25 years, ending in 2033, but the term was later changed to five-year increments, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Asked for comment on the latest efforts to keep the airport going, DOT referred to past statements.

On Feb. 6 the state agency said that “after careful consideration” its Airports Division “concluded that operating Dillingham Airfield is not in the best interest of the state of Hawaii.”

Uncertainty with the lease, risk of losing federal funds, the need to operate a community water system at the airfield and lack of authority over the Army- owned facility were cited as factors in the state’s decision.

Additionally, DOT Airports “subsidizes a million dollars a year for the operation and maintenance at the airfield, and we will focus the resources on the remaining 14 airports in our jurisdiction,” DOT Director Jade Butay said in a release.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, representing the general aviation interests of over 1,000 members in Hawaii, said in a letter to Gov. David Ige dated March 2 that it was asking for at least a 14-month postponement of the termination to provide sufficient time to identify a new sponsor for the airport and figure out new management for the community water system.

AOPA and members of the state Legislature “are ready to work with your administration and with the U.S. Army” to find a solution, Melissa McCaffrey, with AOPA’s Western Pacific Region, wrote to the governor, but DOT Airports “has not been willing to hear from the impacted stakeholders and put effort into a solution which would avoid the loss of hundreds of jobs.”

The United States Parachute Association, meanwhile, said in a letter to the FAA, also dated March 2, that it was imploring the federal agency to not release DOT Airports from its grant obligations.

“Dillingham Airfield is a thriving civil airport with 11 aviation business that employ some 133 people,” Executive Director Edward Scott said. Businesses there attract some 55,000 visitors each year, according to USPA.

Dillingham Airfield “is the very picture of the success of a general aviation airport in receipt of FAA funds,” Scott said.

There are 47 civilian- based aircraft and over 36,000 civilian aircraft flights annually at Dillingham, according to the FAA. The Army has priority use of the airfield for training.

DOT Airports received three Dillingham improvement grants from the FAA in 1988, 2003 and 2005 totaling $1.3 million.

“We made that investment expecting a minimum useful life of 20 years,” and the DOT is “obligated to ensure that those improvements and the airport are available for civilian use at least through 2025 in order to comply with its federal obligations,” the FAA said in an email.

DOT Airports said it was prepared to discuss a payback. Agency spokesman Tim Sakahara previously said the amount could be amortized because of the duration, and a payback “would not be the full amount, if you will.”

The Army said it won’t get into the general aviation business. As far as a new authority, “the Army, in general, will only negotiate with a federal, state or county entity who can indemnify their operations under a government-to-government lease,” U.S. Army Hawaii said.

The parachute association said that “it would be bad enough if there was a nearby airport that could accommodate the displaced business and workers. But there is no alternative airport on all of Oahu that can accommodate the recreational activities that have called Dillingham Airfield home for more than 40 years.”

Sanders, who owns Paradise Air Hawaii, said DOT Airports never cared about Dillingham and that in its neglect, problems arose with some tenants.

He doesn’t buy state concerns about a $1 million annual subsidy — given that the two skydiving centers are top-notch operations that are among the busiest in the world, with each bringing in probably $8 million a year in sales that boost the North Shore economy.

“Every municipality in the United States would be happy as hell to have the commerce that’s over there,” he said.