FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has opposed Cleveland’s plan to close Burke Lakefront Airport, joining U.S. Sens. Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted in arguing that the downtown airfield should remain open or face any change through the normal federal process. The comments, made on Friday, came as Cleveland continues to explore redevelopment of the 450-acre lakefront site and weighs the future of the airport that serves business aviation traffic in Northeast Ohio.
Bedford tied his remarks to a visit in Oberlin, Ohio, and cast closure as the wrong direction for a system that still needs capacity. Moreno called shutting Burke a non-starter, while Husted backed the view that any change should proceed through the traditional FAA review path. The FAA has not received a formal closure request, and industry groups warn that the city’s redevelopment plans are complicated by federal grant obligations and long-term leases on the field.
Cleveland officials have described Burke as an underused public asset and have long argued that the site could support a major waterfront redevelopment. Aviation stakeholders counter that the airport remains a useful component of the region’s air access and broader national system, making federal resistance a major obstacle to any shutdown plan.