DOT Ready to Settle Up with 9/11 General Aviation Claimants
A final rule published yesterday by the Federal Aviation Administration spells out how fixed-base general aviation operators and providers of general aviation ground support services at five metropolitan Washington, D.C., area airports will be reimbursed for losses they suffered when the airports were closed by the government after the attacks on September 11, 2001. The airports are Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport; College Park Airport in College
Park, Md.; Potomac Airfield in Fort Washington, Md.; Washington Executive/Hyde Field in Clinton, Md.; and Washington South Capitol Street Heliport in Washington, D.C.
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the three Maryland airports have since been reopened to transient general aviation traffic, but the volume of general aviation activity has not returned to pre-9/1 levels because of continuing security restrictions; the South Capitol Street Heliport was not
reopened to general aviation traffic and is now used exclusively by the
Washington DC Metropolitan Police.
The specified operations at the five locations are getting help because Congress directed to assist with what it termed "unusual financial losses." DOT's 2006 appropriation bill provided up to $17 million in reimbursement.