Operations Threshold to Establish a Tower

luvflyin said:
Sheridan Wyoming about 5 or so years ago. It was a Non Federal Tower. There were a lot that closed in 1981.
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Doesn't change the principle of your example, but I think you mean Gillette, WY, Sheridan has not had a tower that I know of, at least since 1994.
 
Jim Carpenter said:
Doesn't change the principle of your example, but I think you mean Gillette, WY, Sheridan has not had a tower that I know of, at least since 1994.
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Slapin’ self upside the head. I remembered it was up there in that corner of Wyoming but guessed wrong. Post edited. Thx for the point out.
 
Not trying to thread-jack here, but I'm curious. Anyone know why KFDK and KESN have towers when both lack scheduled airline service? My best guesses would be multiple runways (unlikely, there are plenty of non-towered fields with crossing runways) or the presence of a State Police helicopter base. Thoughts?
 
BaltCoFlyer said:
Not trying to thread-jack here, but I'm curious. Anyone know why KFDK and KESN have towers when both lack scheduled airline service? My best guesses would be multiple runways (unlikely, there are plenty of non-towered fields with crossing runways) or the presence of a State Police helicopter base. Thoughts?
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All I know is that there are plenty of towered airports that don't have airline service.
 
Country Flier said:
KAID, Anderson Indiana is another...privately funded (I've heard). I was at the field one time early, before the tower opened, and I watched a car pull up to the control tower...a guy and his dog got out and went inside. My friend local to the field said the controller took his dog to work with him every day...maybe he takes a hand-held with him to let the dog out....a quick check of Anderson IN shows 53 operations...PER DAY!
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Anderson is a weird case, as is KMIE Muncie just down the road, for the same reasons.
Many moons ago, the two major companies based in town required an active tower for their corporate operations. KAID had scheduled corporate shuttles, and even a scheduled 135 passenger operation to Detroit there at one time. Both companies are long gone now, operations shipped off to Mexico and China.

Feds paid for the tower and maintenance, city pays for the contract controller.
(Used to an independent guy, don’t know about now.)
 
BaltCoFlyer said:
Not trying to thread-jack here, but I'm curious. Anyone know why KFDK and KESN have towers when both lack scheduled airline service? My best guesses would be multiple runways (unlikely, there are plenty of non-towered fields with crossing runways) or the presence of a State Police helicopter base. Thoughts?
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Because the FAA decided to really mess up the field required a tower? FDK never had (at least not in the 50 years I've been flying there) air service. It had a moderate amount of traffic (much as JYO), but never in my estimation a problem that demanded ATC involvement.
 
Scheduled air service neither requires a towered airport, nor does a towered airport require scheduled air service. Whether or not an airport has a tower is based on number of operations (either present or historical), desire of the airport and or community to have a tower, and the FAA's ability to fund and operate it. There are busy non-towered airports that don't have a tower because of funding or lack of desire, and their are low traffic airports that have a tower just because they always had a tower and no one wants to give it up.

Politics sometimes get into play as well. Is it a Senator's hometown?
 
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