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Note that the airlines headed by USAirways has revolted against a similar enlargement of Philadelphia International Airport. It is predicted that costs per enplanements there will rise to totally unsustainable levels, that the airport expansion will cost an entire year's profit for USAirways over a 20 year period. Southwest Airlines is already cutting service between Warwick and Philadelphia and USAirways the only airline left servicing Philadelphia threatens to pull out of that airport. When you add the costs to airlines here for the glycol management plant plus the 20% share of the costs of the safety improvements and all of the costs for mitigation, the runway extension, terminal and parking improvements to deal with the "increased passenger counts" you find that there is no way that the airlines are going to fly anything but commuter jets in and out of Green, if anything at all.

That is the risk that RIAC is pushing the city into - no air service at all if this project proceeds. Why do we care? Because tax revenue would drop if the hotels around the airport go belly up and the city would have a gaping hole where the airport used to be.

RIAC must prove to the General Treasurer that it has the financial capability to deal with all of this by January 31, 2012 - twenty days from now. This is a federal requirement. That may be one of the reasons why RIAC management is so itchy to push the city council into some kind of an agreement. But, unless passenger counts improve substantially RIAC will be unable to show this capacity to float more bonds and it will be forced to dip into its $40 million in cash to build the glycol plant. There is insufficient cash at RIAC to then meet the 20% local share for the safety improvements.

Should the City Council be asking the Circuit Court of Appeals to review RIAC's financial capabilities to build the facility? Of course it should because RIAC and the FAA have never addressed this issue in the environmental impact study and Record of Decision.

From: Council working on demands of airport

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