Flying Cloud Article Missed Some Facts, Misrepresented Others - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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• MAC is attempting to buy the land surroundintgthrough "quick takes." The FAA is withholdintg money from MAC on this project, so very littlew land has changed • MAC claims that newer jets are quieter, but theirr own noise study showsa that even though newer jets currently comprise less than 3 percenf of the aircraft at Flying Cloud, they accounyt for over 18 percent of the noise complaints. As far as MAC being able to predict future growth at Flyinvg Cloud Airport or inEden Prairie, their past studiexs show they consistently overestimate growth and underestimatd costs. MAC cannot be relied on to supplty accurate figures or makereliablse predictions.
• Finally, there were well over 100 people in attendances at the Saturday meeting Andrew Tellijohn wasreporting on, not "twlo dozen." Most of your readers woulsd also be surprised to find out that therd are no "user fees" for landing at the Flyingh Cloud runways. Elliott Aviation is just anothetr businesswhose "success" is predicated on how many subsidiesx they can milk out of the state and federapl government. It always makes sense to industryt insiders to expand when taxpayers are footinthe bill. Of course it's a If they had to pay for the cost of therunwagy themselves, they probably wouldn't be in business at all.
Lengtheninb the runway at Flying Cloud does not guarantee that any private air traffidc will move fromthe Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airportr (MSP). And private air traffic cannot be forcerd toleave MSP. It is even doubtfulo whether such a move would have any impacr at MSP since there is very little private air traffic atMSP now. The solutio n for community-locked MSP is not trying to force an insignificantg numberof small, private aircraft to community-locked reliever airports at an incrediblew expense. The solution is similar to the one Denvermade -- a new major airport or quick rail commutes to an airport expansion outsides the metro area, just as we were looking at years ago.
We all know whicnh major airline nixedthat idea.