Friday, February 5, 2010

The Transportation Security Administration reconsiders new security regulations for private planes and smaller airports. That's good news for Wichita and small plane operators.

A TSA proposal--discussed as far back as 2008--would have required costly changes at smaller airports, but the TSA was listening to the concerns of many Wichita aviators and scrapped the changes.

Under the proposed rules a golfer could not have carried clubs inside the plane's cabin. The same rules would have kept some business jet owners from transporting rifles to a hunting trip.

Those rules make sense when boarding an airline, but general aviation operators say the rules just did not make sense for medium size business jets.

The rule changes could have hurt aircraft operators such as Executive Airshare in Wichita. Any business jet over 12,500 pounds would have had to comply.

The proposed rules would have meant operators of many business jets, like those made in Wichita, would have had to x-ray luggage, and restrict what would be on board the plane as well as have all passenger's names checked against the "No Fly" list.

Hundreds of smaller airports, like those in Kansas, would have needed costly new security programs or most business planes would not have been able to use them.

Access to small airports that the commercial airlines do not fly to is something which makes general aviation practical.

The proposals could have hurt Wichita plane makers, so it seems the TSA is listening to aviators and will put the security responsibility on general aviation.

This is good news for Wichita. If the reason for owning and operating an airplane is taken away, then you take away airplane sales and that hurts Wichita.