Silver Airways Begins Macon Service April 1 | News

Silver Airways says its Macon-Atlanta-Orlando service will start up April 1 -- with or without a Macon control tower.

That's according to Steve Bennett, spokesman for the Florida-based airline.

The FAA announced Friday that Macon's control tower, and 148 nationwide, will close this spring due to spending cuts.

But Bennett says the lack of a control tower "is a non-issue" for the airlline.

He says they already operate in other airports without towers.
He says airports that have "automated weather reporting via voice capability" can communicate with the planes even if there's no tower.

Bennett says the U.S. Department of Transportation picked Silver to run flights between Macon and Atlanta.  The agency will pay Silver an annual subsidy of $1,998,696 a year for the next two years, because it classifies the flights as "essential air service."

Under its proposal, Silver will provide one round-trip flight to Atlanta each weekday and one weekend flight -- a total of six a week.

The airline will also provide six round-trip flights a week to Orlando.