Friday, December 27, 2002

Provo Needs a Tower / State Aviation With Utah County's development as a major center for high technology, it is critical that the area have good air transportation access.  The Deseret News recently discussed Provo's need for a control tower.  On busy days, as many as 60 flights per hour take off and land at the airport.  Provo has a master plan for the airport, but lacks funding necessary to get it fully developed. What is the State's role?  The Dept. of Transportation's Aeronautics Division has the mission of promoting and fostering aviation in the state.  They are responsible for providing safe and functional airport systems as part of the statewide transportation program.  As we discussed earlier, their website needs some work in order to adequately service their customers.  This is a good example.  The Aeronautics site needs a list of public and private airports, accessibility requirements, ancillary services, pilot information, etc. On the other hand, the UVSC aviation science program has a very useful site.  The program operates out of the Provo airport and has been quite successful.  You can learn quite a bit with a quick run through their site.  It, too, could use some work, having too many "under construction" graphics, etc.  They do have an online, interactive dispatch scheduling capability. While on the topic of government and air transportation, the FAA has an online Air Traffic Control System Command Center.  The site gives a quick look at the status of all major airports across the country.  Right now, they're all green except San Francisco International.  A quick mouse over SFO gives you the details of its delays.  It would have been interesting to look at this on the days leading up to Christmas.  Another new feature is the e-CVRS system which allows you to make online or phone reservations at High Density Traffic Airports (HDTA).  All of these kinds of systems should be featured on our State aviation site as well (vertical integration of government). 7:51:21 AM

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.