‘Summer W. House’ may doom airport biz
Expectations that President Trump will use his favorite New Jersey golf club as the “Summer White House” have nearby aviation workers worried that federal security measures will destroy their businesses.
The “temporary flight restrictions” around the president forced two local airports to completely close down between Thursday and Sunday — and the closings are likely to continue until the reopening of Trump’s “Winter White House” in Florida, one owner fumed.
“It places a black cloud over the airports,” said Suzanne Solberg Nagle, co-owner of Solberg Airport in Readington, NJ. “The long-term economic result is frightening.”
Solberg Airport is within the 10nautical mile, no-fly “inner ring” that the Federal Aviation Administration imposed around Trump National Golf Club in Bedminister.
Nagle said her three-runway airport does about 60 percent of its yearly business during the summer — mostly on weekends — and called the FAA’s restrictions an “inverse condemnation” of her property.
“This is a taking without compensation,” she said.
A local flight instructor fretted that he’ll have to cancel one-quarter of his classes if Trump stays in Bedminster — as he did this past weekend — as frequently as at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.
Mar-a-Lago, which Trump visited seven times during the first 12 weeks of his presidency, closes for the summer next weekend.
The veteran flyboy also predicted dire consequences for airplane mechanics and fuel sellers.
The co-owner of Somerset Airport in Bedminster, the township’s Republican mayor, Steven Parker, declined to discuss Trump’s potential impact on his business.
But last week, Somerset Airport posted a message regarding “presidential TFRs,” short for temporary flight restrictions.
“For flight school customers, we are looking at options to fly dual training at other local airports,” it said.
“For our based customers, this means you may have to relocate your aircraft in order to have access during presidential visits. We regret the great inconvenience that will cause.”
The co-owner of Alexandria Airport in Pittstown, which was shut down Sunday for the departure of Air Force One from Mor- ristown Airport, said he was facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses from canceled skydiving and instructional flights.
“It hurts down the line,” Bill Fritsche said. “It puts us out of business.”
Nagle said the Secret Service had “made arrangements” to allow the QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning — billed as “the largest summertime hot-air balloon and music festival in North America” — to be held July 28 through 30 at Solberg Airport, even if Trump is staying in Bedminster.