The Uncertain Future of Lock Haven Airport
Published on July 2024
Inside City Hall at Lock Haven, PA, somebody is trying to sink the local airport (KLHV). The City has reduced the staff and services the airport offers. It has hired a surly and uncommunicative grouch as the airport manager. The city has blocked some customers from accessing the field with chain link fencing. It even has sequestered thirteen acres of ramp space as an unwieldy “enterprise zone." It has failed to price services competitively, neglected to solicit grants, imposed onerous “overhead” charges, and avoided funding urgently-needed capital improvements. One specific example: the airport has one employee and one computer, but last year the City charge the airport $16,000 for "information technology (I.T.) services." The City Manager has opined that the airport is a drag on the City’s already perilous finances. No wonder the airport is losing money: it’s being mis-managed from the top. Here's a detailed report and some suggestions which would be relevant to almost every small airport.
