News
Apr 19 2010
Airports give free flights
Small airports are cashing in on federal tax dollars by giving away free flights. CNN's Drew Griffin reports.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Our special investigations unit has been tracking small airports across the country, airports using your tax dollars to stay open. And what got our attention? How some of them are getting the money. They're offering free parking, even free flights. Confused? We were too. So our Drew Griffin headed to West Virginia to get some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This airport near Clarksburg, West Virginia, boasts quick check-ins, free accessible parking and convenient baggage claim, which is not surprising because the planes don't exactly queue up at North Central West Virginia Airport.
(on camera): You can park here for free. You could park right next to the terminal. You can park all day and watch and you may not see a single plane.
(voice-over): And if you did stay all day, you'd catch just three commercial departures carrying on average six passengers. But still the federal government pours money into this airport, 30 million to lengthen the runway in 1999. Last year, 1.6 million in stimulus cash. And for the last two years, an extra million dollars, money given to this and any small airport that can show it gets at least 10,000 passengers in a single year.
Get just one passenger less than that magic 10,000 and you'll get a measly, $150,000. It's an all or nearly nothing program that government waste watchdog Senator Tom Coburn says could only be devised in one place.
SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: Congress did. We've created the incentives to kind of weasel on it so you can get more money. And it's exacerbated now because of the economic downturn.
GRIFFIN: Weaseling because tiny airports across the country like North Central West Virginia, airport managers do just about anything they can to hit the jackpot of 10,000 passengers and get the government's money. And that includes free flights.
SUZANNE PIERSON, TOOK FREE FLIGHT: It was just a little --
GRIFFIN (on camera): Ad that said --
PIERSON: In the news, it says free flights although they're trying to meet their quota and they were like 300 passengers short of the --
GRIFFIN: And so literally you have a free flight coming out of a free flight?
PIERSON: Yes, it was awesome.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Last December, Suzanne Pierson saw an ad in the local paper for a free sightseeing flight.
PIERSON: This was quite a thrill. GRIFFIN: The local news was there too, catching her, her grandson Donovan, and hundreds of others flying a chartered 757 above Bridgeport and Clarksburg.
(on camera): And where did the flight go?
PIERSON: It went everywhere.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Actually, it went nowhere, just up and down. Suzanne and her grandson became part of the airport's $10,000 passenger a year count. Dozens of airports have been chasing that number as well. In Kearney, Nebraska, residents paid $15 for aerial tours of the city's Christmas lights. In Altoona, Pennsylvania, they offered 10-minute flights. Back in Clarksburg, airport director Rick Rock even gets money to fly school students to Washington D.C. for the day to bump up his passenger count.
(on camera): How is that paid for?
RICK ROCK, AIRPORT DIRECTOR: It was through contributions through the Board of Education.
GRIFFIN: This is the restaurant. Looks like it's closed. Busy airport.
(voice-over): The airport just got a separate $150,000 grant from the FAA to -- well, you guessed it, to promote itself.
(on camera): No planes, no restaurant.
(voice-over): Now consider this, those three scheduled departures a day, they do go to Washington, but all stop in Morgantown, 35 miles away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing?
GRIFFIN: I took the flight myself. And no sooner were we reaching altitude we were preparing to land.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies in gentlemen, United Express welcomes you to Morgantown. It is approximately 10:20.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Every single person who leaves Clarksburg has to take that 10-minute flight.
(voice-over): The man who runs the Clarksburg Airport says he's proud of what it's done to get as much money as possible.
ROCK: We've had an economic analysis study done that says the economic impact of this community originally is $395 million.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Our special investigations unit has been tracking small airports across the country, airports using your tax dollars to stay open. And what got our attention? How some of them are getting the money. They're offering free parking, even free flights. Confused? We were too. So our Drew Griffin headed to West Virginia to get some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This airport near Clarksburg, West Virginia, boasts quick check-ins, free accessible parking and convenient baggage claim, which is not surprising because the planes don't exactly queue up at North Central West Virginia Airport.
(on camera): You can park here for free. You could park right next to the terminal. You can park all day and watch and you may not see a single plane.
(voice-over): And if you did stay all day, you'd catch just three commercial departures carrying on average six passengers. But still the federal government pours money into this airport, 30 million to lengthen the runway in 1999. Last year, 1.6 million in stimulus cash. And for the last two years, an extra million dollars, money given to this and any small airport that can show it gets at least 10,000 passengers in a single year.
Get just one passenger less than that magic 10,000 and you'll get a measly, $150,000. It's an all or nearly nothing program that government waste watchdog Senator Tom Coburn says could only be devised in one place.
SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: Congress did. We've created the incentives to kind of weasel on it so you can get more money. And it's exacerbated now because of the economic downturn.
GRIFFIN: Weaseling because tiny airports across the country like North Central West Virginia, airport managers do just about anything they can to hit the jackpot of 10,000 passengers and get the government's money. And that includes free flights.
SUZANNE PIERSON, TOOK FREE FLIGHT: It was just a little --
GRIFFIN (on camera): Ad that said --
PIERSON: In the news, it says free flights although they're trying to meet their quota and they were like 300 passengers short of the --
GRIFFIN: And so literally you have a free flight coming out of a free flight?
PIERSON: Yes, it was awesome.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Last December, Suzanne Pierson saw an ad in the local paper for a free sightseeing flight.
PIERSON: This was quite a thrill. GRIFFIN: The local news was there too, catching her, her grandson Donovan, and hundreds of others flying a chartered 757 above Bridgeport and Clarksburg.
(on camera): And where did the flight go?
PIERSON: It went everywhere.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Actually, it went nowhere, just up and down. Suzanne and her grandson became part of the airport's $10,000 passenger a year count. Dozens of airports have been chasing that number as well. In Kearney, Nebraska, residents paid $15 for aerial tours of the city's Christmas lights. In Altoona, Pennsylvania, they offered 10-minute flights. Back in Clarksburg, airport director Rick Rock even gets money to fly school students to Washington D.C. for the day to bump up his passenger count.
(on camera): How is that paid for?
RICK ROCK, AIRPORT DIRECTOR: It was through contributions through the Board of Education.
GRIFFIN: This is the restaurant. Looks like it's closed. Busy airport.
(voice-over): The airport just got a separate $150,000 grant from the FAA to -- well, you guessed it, to promote itself.
(on camera): No planes, no restaurant.
(voice-over): Now consider this, those three scheduled departures a day, they do go to Washington, but all stop in Morgantown, 35 miles away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing?
GRIFFIN: I took the flight myself. And no sooner were we reaching altitude we were preparing to land.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies in gentlemen, United Express welcomes you to Morgantown. It is approximately 10:20.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Every single person who leaves Clarksburg has to take that 10-minute flight.
(voice-over): The man who runs the Clarksburg Airport says he's proud of what it's done to get as much money as possible.
ROCK: We've had an economic analysis study done that says the economic impact of this community originally is $395 million.
