Charlotte Airport’s $1B Runway Won’t Have Key Safety Light System
The new $1 billion runway at Charlotte Douglas International Airport will skip installing runway status lights: a vital warning system found at 20 other major U.S. airports. Budget limits forced…
CHARLOTTE,NC – MAY 15: Passengers walk between terminals at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on May 15, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Air travel is down an estimated 94 percent due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and major U.S. airlines are taking a major financial hit with losses of $350 million to $400 million a day and nearly half of major carriers airplanes are sitting idle. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
The new $1 billion runway at Charlotte Douglas International Airport will skip installing runway status lights: a vital warning system found at 20 other major U.S. airports. Budget limits forced this choice on the 10,000-foot strip.
"Our obligation to be financially sustainable does not position us to support an unrequired program," said Jack Christie to WSOC-TV.
As the world's sixth busiest hub, planes take off and land here countless times daily. Workers are building the massive strip, stretching 150 feet across, at a cost topping $1 billion.
Those who guide planes stress that these lights save lives. "Runway Status Lights are a visual cue to pilots when there's something else that's on the runway," said Anthony Schifano, President of the Charlotte National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
These warning signals flash red as aircraft approach. "When the airport status lights are activated, they are telling the person sitting on the runway it is unsafe to enter the runway," Schifano said.
While airport staff claimed the FAA had backed away from this tech, the agency quickly corrected this. They pointed to Memphis Airport's work with FedEx to add these lights.
Instead of lights, the airport wants to use special side paths to cut risks. But control tower staff say this falls short. "That doesn't mean that every aircraft can use those end-around taxiways," Schifano noted.
Pilot Hickory Ham stressed how these lights help in bad weather. "On a clear, blue day, maybe this seems redundant, but when you are in bad weather and it is super foggy, there are times air traffic control can't even see out of the tower," he said.
Twenty U.S. airports now use these warning lights. The FAA wants more sites to add them once money becomes available.
Staff in the tower keep asking for these safety tools. "We have to have the safety systems in place to make sure that, especially considering how close the runways are together, that we are able to do our jobs and do our jobs safely," Schifano said.
