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Contract Tower Service Award

CINCINNATI - Lunken Airport is the recipient of the 2019 Willie F. Card Contract Tower Service Award. 

Lunken’s tower is operated by Midwest Air Traffic Control Service.

Fred Anderton, the City’s Airport Manager, accepted the award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on May 15, 2019.

The award is presented annually by the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) to the contract tower that most closely mirrors Card’s  vision of what the contract tower program exemplifies.  His vision embodied providing excellent air traffic control services, both from a safety and customer service perspective, to all stakeholders in the local aviation community, with a professional and courteous attitude.

Award recipients are chosen based on the following criteria:

  1. Contract tower must be nominated in a letter jointly signed by the local airport director and the respective ATC contractor.
  2. The contract tower must have demonstrated customer service excellence to aviation users and dedicated outreach to the local community.
  3. The contract tower must have a documented system in place to measure safety and customer service performance of the contract tower to the local aviation users.
  4. The nomination packet may include letters of support from local airlines, general aviation, business aviation and local community leaders. 

In particular, the awards committee said of Lunken:

  • On multiple occasions, the Lunken ATC manager and staff have initiated procedures to improve and enhance the safety of airport operations, one of which was instituted nationally by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
  • The tower staff developed a protocol to alleviate pilot confusion caused by approach ends of two intersecting runways.
  • The tower implemented a practice to instruct all aircraft to hold short at the first runway hold line until further instructed to cross that runway for departure on the other runway. This practice not only eliminated the confusion and two of the six hot spots, but also was commended by FAA and within two years instituted under FAA Orders 7110.65 and 7210.3.
  • Tower personnel regularly work with the local FSDO on accident prevention by presenting at pilot training seminars four to six times per year and facilitating tower visits by student pilots in need of an aerial view to better understand runway configurations.
  • The tower team works with airport administration to improve communication with field maintenance crews during grass cutting and snow removal operations and daily airfield inspections. Safety zones were identified, mapped and established by this coordination.