It gets complicated, but it all seems designed to ignore those of us in local communities…
- City of Hawthorne owns the airport and the City Council gets to make overall strategic decisions about what will happen to the airport. They approve the Master Plan.
- FAA operates the runway and the control tower. It contracts out control tower operations to Serco. Since it is giving grants to the City for the airport it likely feels it has say over the runway, similar to the Santa Monica Airport case.
- Hawthorne Airport LLC runs the off-runway portions of the airport. They have leased the airport property from the City for 45 years. They are building several new hangars for the large turbo props and private jets. It is a strategic partnership of:
- City of Hawthorne airport staff includes:
- Guido Fernandez, Administrative Analyst, (310) 349-1636, GFernandez@cityofhawthorne.org
- ARNOLD SHADBEHR, Interim City Manager, (310) 349-2908, ashadbehr@hawthorneca.gov
One of the main outstanding questions remains:
Who controls the flight paths over our homes?
The Airport says it’s the FAA and the pilots.
The Pilots say it’s the FAA and the airport.
The FAA says it’s the Pilots and Airport.
Hmmm – a game of no one wants to take responsibility perhaps?
