T here’s a second Battle of Midway looming.
The stakes once again involve dominance over the Pacific Ocean. But this one’s not likely to inspire a movie starring Charlton Heston, and all the bombshells going off are rhetorical.
The New York Times reported this week that the Bush administration is preparing to close the landing strip on Midway Atoll, which is 2,800 miles west of San Francisco and 2,200 miles east of Japan. The administration says it would save $6 million a year by shutting down the airfield, which is the only federally operated civilian landing strip.
“There is no other airport available to commercial interests that we pay to operate,” said Brian Turmail, a Transportation Department spokesman.
As it stands, the airfield – which has basic landing lights but no control tower – will close after Nov. 20.
Big deal, you say? It could be, here in Everett. The Boeing Co. builds long-range, twin-engine jets in Everett that need the Midway field to fly the most direct routes across the Pacific.
Twin-engine jets operating over the ocean are governed by a set of safety regulations called ETOPS (extended twin-engine operations). Typically, the rules say that twin-engine jets cannot fly anywhere that’s more than 180 minutes away from an emergency landing field. But some airlines have received approval to fly their Boeing 777s up to 207 minutes away from an emergency landing strip.
Without the strip at Midway, airlines would have to reroute their Boeing jets to fly closer to the Aleutian Islands to the north, or farther south to stay within range of Micronesian islands. United Airlines estimates that would mean an additional 90 minutes on a flight to Japan and burn nearly $4,000 more in fuel, the Times reported.
Continental Airlines plans to begin flights between Japan and Honolulu in December, using 767s, but it will cancel that route if Midway is not available, a spokesman told the newspaper.
Advocates say the Midway airstrip makes trans-Pacific flights safer. In January, a 777 flown by Continental landed at Midway because of an engine problem.
Without Midway, Wake Island would be the closest emergency landing field, but it’s 1,100 miles away, and right now it’s not available at night because repairs are being made to its lights, the Times reported.
Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, both Demorcrats, have written a letter of complaint to the White House, and airlines and unions for airline workers have been loud in their opposition.
“I’m really ripped about this ridiculous loss of safety,” Air Line Pilots Association President Duane Woerth told the newspaper. “This is an inherently governmental function. They keep trying to outsource this inherently governmental responsibility.”
Losing Midway could hurt Boeing sales.
Boeing’s long-range twin jets are less costly to operate than Airbus’ similarly sized long-range A340s, which have four engines and are not subject to the restrictions – a point that Airbus has made time and again over the years.
Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said the company sides with its customers on this issue and is working with the airlines to figure out a long-term solution and funding. “We stand with the safety and efficiency of the air transport system,” he said.
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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