Regional Jets at Friedman Memorial Airport (FMA) - In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared to evaluate environmental effects associated with proposed commercial scheduled regional jet operations at Friedman.  SkyWest Airlines has made a request to the FAA to modify their operations specification (ops-spec) to fly CRJ700s at Friedman, thus triggering a CRJ700 specific EA.

New Updates:

• The final Environmental Assessment is complete and a Finding of   No Significant Impact (FONSI) has been issued.
•  The SkyWest Operations Specification application has been amended to include the CRJ-700.
• This clears the way for SkyWest to begin planning CRJ-700 operations at Friedman. 

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 some 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.   The FAA's Northwest Mountain Regional Office has determined the next steps are to execute a technical analysis of possible alternatives to provide a safer airport for the aircraft that use the airport currently (C-II and C-III). 

New Updates:

• At the November 6 FMAA meeting, Dave Mitchell of T-O Engineers presented a final draft of the Alternatives Technical Analysis. An overview of the seven alternatives in the analysis are as follows:
• Four are in full compliance with FAA design standards
• Three meet as many standards as possible but would require some modifications of standards to achieve compliance.
• All seven meet runway safety area (RSA) standards, though only two would meet the FAA's congressionally mandated compliance deadline of December 31, 2015.
• Both the City of Hailey and Blaine County plan to hold meetings where they can review and discuss the alternatives in a pubic forum. Both bodies will determine any future communications with the FAA, if necessary, at their respective meetings.
• The Blaine County Commissioner's meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 13 at 2:30PM.
• The City of Hailey's meeting is TBD.
• Next steps are to submit the final Alternatives Technical Analysis on Friday, November 9