To B-III or not to B-III

Mammoth Lakes Town Council moved forward with a proposed 5-Year Airport Capital Improvement Plan (ACIP) and 2014-2025 work program that includes plans to build a new terminal, but not necessarily to reclassify the Mammoth Yosemite Airport from a B-III to a C-III class airport.

The ACIP, as presented at the January 15 Council meeting, maps out 42 projects for completion between 2014 and 2025. The overall cost of these projects: $68 million.

$31 million of that would go toward the new, three gate terminal. The new terminal would accommodate commercial service, and multiple planes on the ground, said Acting Public Works Director Peter Bernasconi.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) must approve the ACIP before the Town can receive any FAA funding for projects like the terminal, Bernasconi explained. “All projects are expected to be funded in part by FAA funds,” he said, “with at least 10% matching [from the Town].”

Bernasconi also addressed a recommendation by Swall Meadows resident Stephen Kalish (see Kalish’s comment letter at right) that the Town pursue a C-III airport, rather than resubmitting for a B-III airport. Kalish argued that “the town’s airport has outlived its useful life and needs to be replaced … [R]egional air service is now a C-III operation, and the town’s airport will never be anything more than B-III.”

Bernasconi said that in talks with the FAA, Town staff was encouraged “to keep our B-III designation and work to construct a terminal building that will accommodate [C-III] service.”

Only once that terminal is built, he said, would the Town consider working toward a C-III designation. “There is another ALP [Airport Layout Plan, part of the ACIP] revision after the terminal building is constructed, and that will be looking at revising the ALP to make the airport a designated C-III airport,” he said.

Mammoth Yosemite Airport already receives C-III airplane traffic. The Q400, the primary aircraft for Alaska Airlines, is C-III class.

“The B-III, C-III distinction really isn’t that great,” argued Airport & Transportation Manager Brian Picken. “We meet almost all of the C-III requirements already. Other C-III aircrafts could come into our airport, even if we never became a C-III airport.”

Council approved the ACIP 5-0.