Tucson Airport expansion plans

[jslugman]

Someone's thinking big and not willing to lay down and die:

http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2010/12/18/news/doc4d0a6e45a29a0382044337.txt

[John B.]

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

Typical foolishness from Tucson's city government / county government / business community.

I will say it is a good idea to keep Raytheon happy.  Plus, considering the only reason that airport exists is because the AzANG is there it is good to keep them plugged in for the long term.  Maybe a second runway would be a good thing!

But a really novel idea would be to introduce commercial passenger traffic to Tucson International Airport--perhaps even flights that originate from foreign airports.

But, wow.  Exactly which manufacturing is trying to move to Tucson--or would even want to move to Tucson if the "proper" facilities or if a long-term plan existed?  I am just not seeing this demand.  I could be wrong, but I don't see a steel mill opening up over there.

On the airport side of things, TIA can't keep air carriers and some of those that listed as active here don't really have many flights in and out of here.

TIA's biggest problem is that Tucsonans have mostly blown off TIA and just drive up to Sky Harbor.  TIA can't help some of this--it can't compete head-to-head with an airport the size of Sky Harbor, but over the years TIA has been little more than a site for abandoned buildings and I can't see TIA ever having a use for a third runway.

Have to keep an eye on this.  This sounds like another of those things where Tucson gets to pay the salaries of expensive consultants and architects for something that there is no intention of following up on.

[Joe Copalman]

Wow.  That's a VERY ambitious re-work they're talking about there. 

Even more remarkable is that there is actually a dude named Chuck Huckleberry. 

[Chris Kennedy]

The $30 million in bonds they would need to get approval for from the voters sounds like a major sticking point to me. That would be a pretty hard sell. The voters seem to be pretty reluctant to approve bond issues these days, even for things like schools.