Regional Jets at Friedman Memorial Airport (FMA) - FMA submitted a Change Proposal to the FAA in February that asked if the Letter of Agreement (LOA) between the Airport and the Hailey Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) could be modified to include scheduled commercial approach category C aircraft. This precipitated a Safety Management System (SMS) review to assess whether this change presents any risk to the National Airspace System.

New Updates:

• On Tuesday, April 24 and Wednesday, April 25, the Safety Risk Management (SRM) Panel (representatives from FMA, the FAA, Airport Engineers and Serco, the company that runs the control tower) convened to initiate a Safety Management System (SMS) review. The SRM panel was evaluating whether regional jet-type aircraft could be included under the existing letter of agreement with the airport control tower. The outcomes are as follows:
  • Yes, we can add commercial regional jet-type aircraft to the existing letter of agreement with the control tower.
  • In order to get permission from the FAA to provide service with an aircraft an airline has not used at our airport before, it needs to request operations specifications (ops-spec) approval.  If that aircraft is a jet aircraft, an ops-spec approval will require an environmental assessment (EA). An EA will be our next challenge.

Improvements to Friedman Memorial Airport - The FAA has told us that FMA has design deficiencies that, if not remedied, could result in the reduction or elimination of air service. As such, the FMAA has instructed Airport Staff to work with the FAA to explore what fixes can be made at the existing airport.   This will be guided by the alternatives identified in an Airport Layout Plan (ALP) process. With the SMS review complete, we now have the framework for an ALP process and efforts to develop a scope of work have begun. Note: this is a public process and your involvement and feedback is important.

New Updates:

• During the SMS Review, a safety case analysis identified four primary areas of design deficiencies at FMA. In priority order, they are:
  • Runway Safety Area
  • Runway Object Free Area
  • Runway - Taxiway Separation
  • Runway - Aircraft Parking Separation
• At the May 1st FMAA meeting, Dave Mitchell from T-O Engineers, the Airport's engineering firm and Airport Manager, Rick Baird, gave a presentation outlining an approach to developing the ALP scope of work. The Board agreed with their recommendations. Highlights include:
•  "Dual Paths"
•  Move forward with the airport relocation process.
• Plan for improvements at the existing site in a tiered process:
• Only do the steps that are necessary.
• Phase improvements to limit costs and impacts to the community.
• Focus on improvements that help retain, improve and develop air service.
• Meet standards, where possible.
• Where not possible, pursue Modifications of Standards.
• Research opportunities for improved reliability.
• Analyze options within the existing fence, then look at options outside the fence, if necessary.
• The Board agreed with the recommendation to start the process by looking at alternatives. The primary reasons for this were that our needs are not demand driven, but rather fixing what we have, and that we are going to need FAA buy-in early, even to study some options.
• The Board gave guidance that the following were "off the table":
• A plan that will encourage larger aircraft to use Friedman.
• Any option that includes a different runway alignment.
• Major increases in runway length.
• With guidance from the Board, Airport Staff will now go about developing a formal scope of work for review and feedback from the Board at the June FMAA meeting.

Pursuit of a replacement airport - A replacement airport is likely the best long-term solution for this community.  Critical components in the replacement airport process would include the evaluation of operational feasibility, identifying additional or new funding sources, locating a feasible site and building community support.

New Updates:

• At the SMS Review on April 24 and 25, Airport Manager, Rick Baird, asked the FAA about restarting the Environment Impact Study (EIS). He was told they were not ready to discuss the topic at that time but would take the request back to Renton and be back in touch.

General

New Updates:

• The Board was presented with a scope of work for additional Passenger Demand Analysis from Mead & Hunt. The primary goals of this analysis would be to answer the following questions:
  • What can be done to reduce leakage from our community to other airports?
  • What can be done to retain existing and develop new air service to our community?
• The Board agreed to discuss the ROI potential of such a study at the June or July FMAA meetings.