AOPA

The Importance of Santa Monica Airport

Even though I don't fly out of Santa Monica Airport, it holds a special place in my heart. I've known many people that have learned to fly out of Santa Monica and it is an incredibly important place for the general aviation community. I have been following the airport's journey over the years, watching as the local government of Santa Monica has been slowly trying to remove the airport has been heartbreaking. For those unaware, local officials in Santa Monica have been on a mission to shut down the airport in order to open the area for further development.

In their effort to remove general aviation from the city, the Santa Monica local government has made the airport much more dangerous by removing a section of runway. This decreases the area an aircraft is able to use during emergency landings and prevents larger aircraft from being able to use the airport. Removing the airport from the city of Santa Monica seems particularly shortsighted and detrimental to the residents of Santa Monica in light of the updated California Geological Survey, which indicated that the airport could play a "lifesaving role in disaster-relief operations" in any future earthquakes in the region. And as most Angelenos know, it is not "if" we will have another earthquake, but "when".

See the original article here.