The airport to No Where

1stCavRVN11b sends us this article about the John Murtha-Johnstown-Cambria County Airport from the Washington Post;

Inside the terminal on a recent weekday, four passengers lined up to board a flight, outnumbered by seven security staff members and supervisors, all suited up in gloves and uniforms to screen six pieces of luggage. For three hours that day, no commercial or private planes took off or landed. Three commercial flights leave the airport on weekdays, all bound for Dulles International Airport.

The key to the airport’s gleaming facilities — and, indeed, its continued existence — is $200 million in federal funds in the past decade and the powerful patron who steered most of that money here. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) is credited with securing at least $150 million for the airport. It was among the first in the country to win funding from this year’s stimulus package: $800,000 to repave a backup runway.

Sweet work if you can get it, I suppose.

Murtha spokesman Matt Mazonkey defended the public spending and said it is unfair to weigh the airport’s low volume of passengers against the federal dollars invested in the facility. He noted that several regional airports are confronting the same problem.

“Would we like to have additional commercial flights and business? Absolutely. But you don’t attract additional business without having the infrastructure in place to do so,” Mazonkey said.

Yeah, well, US taxpayers have been paying for the airport to no where for ten years. When can we expect to start seeing more passengers than employees? Well according to the WaPo article, not any time soon. In fact, Murtha just scored 800 grand to repave a back runway at the airport. I’m sure it needs a repaving with the voluminous traffic that uses it.

Murtha wants to cut bonuses to the troops and cut defense spending, but these boondoggles of his don’t get any where near the budget axe.

Category: Economy, John Murtha, Liberals suck, Usual Suspects