Are there really airlines for Peotone?
Illinois Aeronautics Director Susan Shea claims there are airlines interested in using an airport at Peotone. But when pressed, she declined to name them.
I wonder if she has a hint of just what she is walking into. Or does she even know about the 16 airlines that have written to two governors to say they would not use an airport at Peotone?
Peotone airport likely, official says
Airlines expressing support to IDOT
By Stanley Ziemba
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 13, 2007
The state's aeronautics chief says some air carriers are already expressing interest in a proposed airport near Peotone and that its construction is inevitable despite uncertainty about the layout of the project.
Susan Shea, the Department of Transportation point person on the airport, said having competing layout plans is not a significant issue and she had not heard from the Federal Aviation Administration that the state must indicate a preference for one of the proposals submitted last week.
"We look forward to working with the FAA to resolve any issues," Shea said in an address Monday to the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce.
The FAA received layout proposals devised by IDOT and a south suburban commission created by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) for the airport in eastern Will County. The state did not specify which it prefers, something FAA officials said they hope to iron out to ensure a manageable study of whether the airport can and should be built.
FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said his agency likely will contact IDOT this week to set up a meeting so the approval process can proceed smoothly.
"We're not tossing the submission back, as some reports have implied," Molinaro said.
Should the state be required to name a preferred plan, the decision would be made with advice IDOT, legislators and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Shea said.
"A decision would be made sooner rather than later," she said, adding the FAA's review of the airport plans could take from 6 months to 3 years.
Rick Bryant, executive director of Jackson's airport commission, said FAA procedures require it to analyze all viable alternatives. "There's really not a big difference between the two plans," he noted.
Both layouts include an inaugural airstrip, passenger terminal and an existing general aviation airport within the proposed airport's footprint.
Jackson's plan places the airstrip and terminal about 3,000 feet south of IDOT's location, which its proponents contend would make the airport more environmentally friendly and economically viable.
Shea told Southland Chamber members construction of the airport will have a phenomenal economic impact on the region.
"It is coming," she said. "It's only a matter of when and how."
Shea said passenger and cargo airlines both have expressed interest in the airport, but she would not name them.
"I don't want to say that if we build it they will come, but they will," she said.
Shea said about 51 percent of the land for the airport's inaugural site has been acquired, adding that "taking people out of their homes" was difficult for her and that she empathized with them.
Her family, she noted, moved three times to make way for public works projects while she was growing up.
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sziemba@tribune.com
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