FAA abandons study on Lihu'e Airport extension

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser KauaÎi Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — The Federal Aviation Administration has abandoned its environmental impact statement on extending Lihu'e Airport's main runway, sinking any plans for the project in the near future.

While visitor industry officials, farmers and others support extending the north-south runway, the environmental community has opposed it.

Backers hoped a longer strip would allow aircraft from the Mainland and Asia to take off from Kaua'i fully loaded with fuel, passengers and cargo. Most long-haul flights must now take off with only partial loads or refuel in Honolulu.

Opponents said they fear sudden increases in tourist counts and the danger of alien insects and other pests arriving on foreign flights.

Both the Kaua'i runway extension and the controversial plan to extend Maui's Kahului Airport runway from 7,000 to 10,000 feet were halted last year when Gov. Ben Cayetano said he would block expenditures for either.

Cayetano said airport revenues were down, and building the expensive extensions would require higher landing fees. He said at the time that increased fees were not acceptable in a time of weakening tourist traffic. This week, the governor suspended landing fees because the fear of terrorist attacks since Sept. 11 has reduced air travel and put the airline industry in a precarious financial bind.

An environmental impact statement had been completed for the Maui project but was the subject of a court dispute, but one was still under way for the Kaua'i runway extension when Cayetano made his decision.

The FAA kept working on the environmental studies for the project in case there were other airport jobs that might need such a study.

"We continued with it until we got the draft out. We determined that there were no other projects at Lihu'e Airport that would require a federal EIS," said project engineer David Welhouse of the FAA's Honolulu Airports District Office. Thereafter, the process was halted, he said.

The Kaua'i proposal had included three alternatives: extending the runway to 8,000 feet, 8,500 feet or 10,000 feet. While the environmental impact statement draft did not recommend any one of the alternatives, Welhouse said planners were leaning toward the shorter lengths.

The state is continuing work on its own environmental impact statement for other Lihu'e Airport projects, said Ben Schlapak, head planning engineer for the state Airports Division.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at (808) 245-3074 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com