CLEVELAND — The people with power to close Burke Lakefront Airport say that’s not going to happen — effectively grounding Mayor Justin Bibb’s push for change.
During an interview Friday, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration said the agency is opposed to shutting Burke. And Ohio’s U.S. senators are deferring to the agency.
“We don’t have enough airspace capacity for the future as it is,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said, citing anticipated demand from drones and battery-powered aircraft that take off and land vertically, like helicopters.
“The FAA is against closing airports across the country,” he added. “We need to talk about how do we open new facilities. Not how do we close existing, valuable real estate. So I will tell you, the FAA is not in favor of closing Burke field.”
Bedford spoke with News 5 after touring a major air traffic control facility in Oberlin on Friday. He was joined by U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Westlake Republican who has been weighing the Bibb administration’s request for Congressional action to shut Burke down.
Earlier this year, Moreno said he was letting the discussion play out — and waiting to see more information. Now he’s taking a stance, siding with federal regulators.
“It would be patently absurd for a politician to override the experts at the FAA, to say we know better than you do,” Moreno said Friday.
He urged the city, which owns Burke, to focus on helping the airport thrive instead of trying to replace it with parkland, recreational facilities and other development.
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“From my perspective … there is no scenario in which Burke Lakefront Airport would be closed, given the study and time that the FAA has spent analyzing this,” Moreno said.
News 5 has requested any FAA data or analysis shaping the agency’s position on Burke.
“The city’s better served addressing the issues in the neighborhoods,” Moreno said. “Addressing public safety. Addressing economic prosperity, which can be driven by Burke Lakefront Airport. In the business world, we have an expression: ‘Don’t talk about things that are never gonna happen.’”
Those remarks came as a blow to public officials and civic leaders who launched a formal push to close Burke last fall.
In October, Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne asked Ohio’s congressional delegation to legislate a shutdown — the surest way to put an expiration date on Burke and cut through regulatory red tape.
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In an emailed statement Friday, a Bibb administration spokesman said the 450-acre Burke site belongs to the people — and should benefit everyday Clevelanders.
“Burke is an underutilized public asset that has been operating at a multi-million-dollar deficit over the past two decades,” spokesman Jorge Ramos Pantoja wrote.
The airport is subsidized by operations at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, where the city and the airlines are embarking on a nearly $2 billion modernization project that will include a new terminal. The Bibb administration believes it’s possible to invest in regional aviation at Hopkins and other locations, while transforming the Burke property into something new.
“Our responsibility is to improve the overall quality of life and economic well-being of Clevelanders. Decisions about Burke should be guided by that responsibility,” Pantoja wrote, “not by whether an airport can continue operating there. We are disheartened that the federal administration’s position appears to bypass the best interests of Clevelanders and Ohioans, who actually have to live with the consequences.”
On Friday, U.S. Sen. Jon Husted’s team said the Columbus-area Republican is also deferring to the FAA, taking the view that any changes at Burke should go through the traditional regulatory process.
In an emailed statement, a Husted representative said the senator also would need to see the reuse plan for Burke and “a realistic strategy” for funding redevelopment, along with broad local support.
The nonprofit North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation, which is working to remake the downtown lakefront, commissioned a survey about Burke’s future this year. The survey netted more than 6,200 responses.
Most people said they want a more accessible lakefront, with strong interest in park space, trails, restaurants, sports and recreation, playgrounds and public art. But participants also raised questions about the cost and feasibility of a redevelopment project.
“A majority of both Cleveland residents and non-Cleveland residents stated their support for the closure of Burke Lakefront Airport,” Scott Skinner, the nonprofit’s president and executive director, wrote in an emailed statement Friday afternoon.
He said his organization will continue working to liven up the lakefront, with an emphasis on public access and economic growth.
Baiju Shah, president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, said the business group is disappointed by Bedford’s position on Burke. “We are eager to explore opportunities to make it a productive city asset and to identify opportunities for new air technologies in the region,” Shah wrote in an emailed statement.
Pilots and aviation organizations, meanwhile, are relieved. They’ve been lobbying for months to keep Burke open and to quash the city’s attempt to win congressional buy-in.
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“This, I feel like, might be the light at the end of the tunnel for us,” Kim Dell, the executive director of the Cleveland National Air Show, said during an interview at Burke on Friday afternoon.
She’d heard rumors that the opposition campaign was having an impact. But the firm rejections by Bedford and Moreno still caught her by surprise.
“It definitely takes a little bit of the pressure off. That’s for sure. But I think we’re still a little wary, because this has been going on for so long,” said Dell, who has stressed that closing Burke would mean the end of the air show in its current form.
Burke mainly serves private jets, flight schools and medical helicopters. It’s home to a mix of aviation tenants and unrelated businesses, along with the International Women’s Air & Space Museum.
Opponents of a shutdown teamed up with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association to form a group called the Lakefront Airport Preservation Partnership.
Kyle Lewis, the association’s Great Lakes regional manager, thanked Moreno and Husted for recognizing the value of Burke and its role in the airspace system.
“Congress was the shortcut that Mayor Bibb was counting on to close the airport,” Lewis said in an emailed statement. “We have worked behind the scenes for months and had many productive conversations with local and federal officials on this important issue. We’ve said from the beginning that the city should work with the FAA to develop an airport master plan to provide an unbiased path forward for the airport that takes the needs and concerns of all parties into consideration.”
Cleveland could close Burke without FAA approval. But the city would have to wait until 2039, when the last strings attached to federal and state grants for the airport burn off. The city has used those grants for planning and improvements to runways, aircraft-parking areas and the paths between them.
Once the grant-repayment obligations end, the city could submit a 30-day closure notice to the FAA and shutter the airport. But that’s an expensive and difficult route. Cleveland would have to carry Burke until 2039 without tapping additional state or federal funds.
Bedford said the FAA is open to conversations about airport closures in cases where there’s waning demand, a clear place for displaced flights to go and no impact on safety.
“That may be where we let the local communities make those decisions,” he said.
But the agency expects nationwide air traffic to double over the next 20 years — and to increase in Cleveland, fueled in part by emerging technology like electric air taxis. Bedford said closing Burke would be “very counterproductive” when it comes to safety and economic growth.
Moreno was more blunt.
“The conversation was open,” he said. “And in my mind, this conversation is now closed.”
Michelle Jarboe is the business growth and development reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @MJarboe or email her at Michelle.Jarboe@wews.com.
