TO THE EDITOR:
Your Jan. 14 editorial (""Abandoned Authority: Halting plans for a new airport is a wise move"") on a new Orange County airport makes statements that are contradicted by UNC's own consultants" Talbert & Bright (T&B;). In addressing the needs of UNC's AHEC Medical Air Operations" your editorial emphasizes ""the extended travel time associated with the proposed RDU hangar."" But T&B; finds that ground travel to RDU will take only 20 minutes longer in 2015 than ground travel to an Orange County airport. Twenty minutes matters when rushing somebody to an emergency room" but not when dealing with the scheduled medical education and treatments that characterize the AHEC operation.
T&B; also says that in 2015 an Orange County airport would save a grand total of 852 hours a year of UNC medical staff's time. Given the value that T&B; attributes to staff time this is a cost of only $69000 a year which is trivial relative to the nearly $30 million cost of building an new airport.
T&B; says that RDU is the best location for the AHEC operation. T&B;'s figures imply that AHEC's cost of operating out of an Orange County airport will be seven times the cost of operating out of RDU even including the cost of extra travel time to RDU. Contrary to your editorial" an Orange County airport is not ""a long-term necessity"" because AHEC can provide all its benefits out of RDU" and can do so at much lower expense.
An interesting investigative report would identify who will actually benefit from an Orange County airport. T&B;'s numbers show only one-seventh of the benefits would accrue to AHEC. Perhaps this airport is a giveaway to private interests who are hoping to reap public subsidies.
Dr. Laurence Kirsch
Chapel Hill