Cape & Islands News

The airports to nowhere

At right: Senator Kennedy was tracked down in a Senate hallway by a CNN reporter who recorded his misleading statements about the $8-million dollars he and Senator Kerry had "earmarked" in the new transportation bill, monies which will be taken away from priority airports on the FAA list which does not include Barnstable or Nantucket. Click here or on  the photo to hear the CNN interview.

Senators Kennedy, Kerry earmark $8M for Barnstable and Nantucket airports
Funding was intended for terrorism upgrades and to shorten airport delays

By Walter Brooks, capecodtoday 

CNN broadcast a special report today on the "earmarks" which both Massachusetts US Senators have added to the transportation bill which is designed to relieve the historic delays in the major airport hubs nationwide.

The bill seeks to relieve hours-long flight delays at major hubs like Atlanta, Newark and Philadelphia.  Instead $8 million has been earmarked for the tiny commuter airports in Barnstable and Nantucket by Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.

Mr. Kennedy told CNN "there were security issues" at the two airports. He added the funds were "on the comprehensive list ... and they are well deserved." The two airports here service the towns where Mr. Kennedy and Kerry have homes. 

When CNN contacted the FAA they were told these three small airports were not on the priority list which was made up of the nation's major airport hubs, not small commuter or connector airports.

The Kennedy-Kerry $8 million dollar earmarks will deny other, larger priority airports the funds they need. See the CNN video of Kennedy here.

The Kennedy-Stevens connection 

It was ironic, at least, that a similar earmark of $3.5 million was added to the same bill by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens for the tiny Akutan airport in the remote Aleutian islands. Mr. Stevens was enlisted by Mr. Kennedy last year in an attempt to block the Cape Wind project by having the powerful Republican insert a "stealth" ammendent" in a previous transportation bill.

Akutan island (see map above) is located in the eastern Aleutians, 766 miles southwest of Anchorage.  The island's major employer, a fish processing company, is also a major contributor to Senator Stevens.

See the CNN report on Stevens here. 

Frequent and lengthy flight delays are increasing and worsening, putting 2007 on track to break records set in 2000, according to a Department of Transportation inspector general report.