Flying Cloud Airport is our airport. That sounds funny to say, but it’s our airport.
We’re lucky to have it and we’re stuck with it, all at the same time.
Flying Cloud Airport is owned and operated by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). The MAC operates Flying Cloud as a reliever aiport. The reliever deisgnation means that Flying Cloud has a relationship with Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP).
The general idea behind the reliever airport concept, when it was originally conceived, was that small aircraft of all types could and should be located away from the MSP fields, thereby giving the MSP runways and airspace to the large airlines and large airplanes. The little guys could be at the little airports and the the big guys could be at the big airport. Sounds reasonable, right?
Northwest Airlines thinks differently now. Maybe they thought differently all along, but they are just getting around to making their point about it now. Northwest recently sued the MAC because Northwest believes that MAC uses fees and revenue generated at MSP to subsidize the operations at the reliever airports around the metro area. The Star Tribune reported on the current status of the suit earlier this week.
This might end up become a fight between accountants and economists to sort out the flow of money from Northwest to the MAC and then from MAC to Flying Cloud Airport. Does it work like that? I don’t know, but even if it did, would that be wrong? Remember one of the basic ideas behind the entire concept of reliever airports was to get small planes out the hair of the big guys at MSP. Maybe it’s appropriate for them to help support a place for the little guys to fly.
One of the things that really bugs Northwest (I know because I’ve heard their executives say it privately) is that a lot of business travelers are now flying in charter aircraft or small privately owned corporate jets instead of flying coach or first class on Northwest’s big planes. And guess where those charters and small privately owned corporate jets are based………. yes, the reliever airports. Northwest is feeling a bit of a pinch now because customers they used to serve are now using alternatives to them. And Northwest feels like it is subsidizing the operational costs of the small airplanes that are flying the customers that used to fly with them.
The City is on the periphery of this squabble, and that’s where we are staying. We’ve made peace with the MAC this past year. We’ll wait and see who prevails.
