Alaska State Legislature

News From The House Majority

Ken Freeman, Press Secretary
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: (907) 465-3804
web site: web site: http://www.akrepublicans.org
Actuality line: 1-800-478-6540

Joint House and Senate Administrative Regulatory

Review Committee Addresses Alaska Airport Regulations

For Immediate Release: March 21, 1997 Contact: Rep. Jeannette James (907) 465-6819 Walt Wilcox (907) 465-6819

JUNEAU - The Legislative Regulatory Review Committee met Wednesday to evaluate proposed regulations sought by the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) and to review implementation of legislation, passed last year, seeking to protect the interests of lease holders at Alaska's rural and international airports.

Representative Jeannette James, Chair of the Regulatory Review Committee said the Committee is reviewing the DOT proposed regulations before they are implemented.

"The DOT wanted to finalize these regulations immediately and I have requested and received a 30 day public comment period extension, which expires 3/28/97, as requested by the air carriers and private plane operators in the State of Alaska," said James. "The Committee decided to move forward with this review because DOT has declined to conduct further public hearings."

The proposed regulations began as legislation passed in May of 1996 by the 19th Legislature. HB 543 dealt with lease extension preferences and according to James, DOT turned HB 543 regulations into a complete rewrite of Statewide Aviation leasing regulations.

"DOT created nearly 200 pages of proposed regulations. The proposed regulations have been through the public process, and despite seemingly unanimous objection from all classes of business, and people impacted, the DOT has proceeded with only cosmetic changes," said James.

James said the Alaska Air Carriers Association, which represents 180 of the states air carriers and associated businesses are strongly opposed to the DOT regulatory changes.

The Department of Transportation proposed regulations would change the current leasing procedures so airport properties would be leased on a bidding system without consideration of improvements and other measures made by current tenants.

"The regulations would give "kingdom like" authority to airport managers, giving them the right to negotiate leases, and charge fees as they see fit and bypass the public process while doing so," said James.

James said DOT admitted that they could not compare the current regulations with these new regulations as it was too difficult.

"How can the aviation industry understand regulations that DOT can't?" asked James.

"The suggested DOT regulations may threaten Alaska's aviation infrastructure by discouraging investment and development. Specifically, private aviators stand to lose any physical improvements they added to airport structures at the conclusion of their lease," said James.

"This potential loss could foster reluctance by the private sector to continue improving the infrastructure at aviation sites across the state. In addition, aviation operators would be left with no assurances that improvements and investments would be protected through continuing agreements with the state," said Rep. James.

James said the proposed regulations and implementation of HB 543 will be a top priority of the Regulatory Reform Committee.

"The purpose for state involvement in airport management should be to promote, encourage, and develop aviation in Alaska. It is important that airport leasing policy and practice in Alaska remain committed to supporting Alaska's aviation industry," said Rep. James. "Our Committee will work to ensure that appropriate regulations are promulgated."

"The Legislature, in passing HB 543, needed to introduce this bill to protect the aviation industry and drive back agency regulations that go too far - especially proposed regulations that would clearly not be in the public's best interests," said James. "It is up to the Legislature to create laws, not government bureaucracies."

According to Kim Daniels Ross, executive director of the 180 member Alaska Air Carriers Association "The regulations as proposed are so unbalanced and overly reliant on the discretion of airport managers and other DOT officials no private citizen or commercial enterprise could reasonably make any investment in airport properties or reasonably make any commitment to use airport facilities," said Ross.

"In the past decade, the Alaska aviation industry has made significant progress and investment in developing a system which better meets the transportation needs of our vast state. Alaska's aviation system is considerably different than other states, and unfortunately the Department of Transportation didn't take this into consideration when proposing its regulations," said Ross.

Ross summarized by stating "In short, the proposed new regulations are too flawed to fix."

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