LABELLE, FL. -- The Federal Aviation Administration has officially accepted the preliminary application for Hendry County, Florida's AirGlades Airport to participate in the Airport Privatization Pilot Program (APPP). Under secret negotiations, the county is negotiating the sale of the large central Hendry county airport and land to a private company.
The negotiation details and the name of the parties involved are not being provided to the public.
Hendry County submitted its preliminary application August 31, 2010. A Hendry County Delegation visited FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., Monday, October 18, 2010, where they received formal notification of FAA's acceptance of Hendry County's preliminary application. Hendry County will now begin preparing the final application for approval by the FAA.
"As I wrap up 8 years serving the citizens of Hendry County, I am proud to know that AirGlades has a tremendous future ahead of it," said Hendry County Commissioner Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy was the commissioner representative to the delegation visiting FAA's headquarters. "Not only does this enhance aeronautical capacity for the region, but it also represents a significant step forward in the development potential of AirGlades as an economic driver," said an enthusiastic McCarthy.
Congress established FAA's Airport Privatization Pilot Program to explore privatization as a means of generating access to various sources of private capital for airport improvement and development. Private companies may own, manage, lease and develop public airports.
The Act authorized FAA to permit up to five public airport sponsors to sell or lease an airport and to exempt the sponsor from certain federal requirements that could otherwise make privatization impractical. The airport owner or lease holder would be exempt from repayment of federal grants, return of property acquired with federal assistance, and the use of proceeds from the airport's sale or lease to be used exclusively for airport purposes. The pilot program began in September 1997.
On September 14, 2006, the City of Chicago submitted a preliminary application for Chicago Midway International Airport, a large hub airport. The pilot program can only include one large hub airport, so applications for other large hub airports will be placed on a standby list.
As of October 19, 2010, there are five active applications in the program.
- Chicago Midway International Airport
- Gwinnett County Briscoe Field
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
- Luís Muñoz Marín International Airport
- Hendry County Airglades Airport
http://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_compliance/privatization/media/2is_privatization_factsheet.pdf
FAA Airport Privatization Program
http://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_compliance/privatization/
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