Sen. McLachlan calls on DC delegation to advocate for Danbury airport [WLAD.com]

Area lawmaker calls on DC delegation to advocate for Danbury airport

A local lawmaker is calling on Connecticut’s representatives in Washington D.C. to advocate for Danbury, not just New Haven when it comes to stopping federal budget cuts. Danbury State Senator Mike McLachlan wrote to Senators Blumenthal and Murphy in February asking for support and advocacy to keep the Danbury Municipal Airport Tower operational.

He says he was disappointed they recently focused on the air traffic control tower at Tweed New Haven Airport closing, and not the one at Danbury Municipal Airport.

“We have a lot of traffic that goes from Danbury to White Plains and into Teeteboro Airport which is a very busy corporate airport in New Jersey. We are very important to the New York airspace.”

McLachlan says the control towers maintain safety and order in the skies, going without the tower would lead to a lack of traffic flow safety. He notes that the Danbury tower is the busiest of the six slated to close in April while Tweed is the fifth busiest.

McLachlan says closing the tower would be like allowing an intersection with an out-of-service traffic light to go without a traffic director.

“Danbury is the busiest general aviation airport in the state of Connecticut .”

Six people are employed at the Danbury air traffic control tower. He says that’s six more people that will go without work and six more families that will face additional hardships in a time when they are already sacrificing a great deal.

McLachlan says it also takes away revenue from municipalities because there are several aviation businesses at these smaller contract airports.