Most charter and corporate users will not even consider using an airport if it is not equipped with an ILS, he noted. Sam Aboumerhi, who flies a traffic reporter out of Burke, said the lower minimums can make a big difference especially in the summer, when fog can develop unexpectedly over the lake. He said the new ILS is bringing more corporate traffic. You can definitely tell the difference. Burke had about 89,000 flight operations in 1998 a number expected to increase to more than 120,000 by 2015.
Weekdays see primarily corporate traffic, while weekends are mostly recreational.
But the airport s future wasn t always so rosy. Slavin said that Michael Barth, the airport s commissioner, was the person most responsible for the airport s turnaround. A plan to add another runway at Cleveland-Hopkins could displace the FBOs and corporate hangars there, Slavin said. What we have at Burke is an opportunity to be a true reliever airport. I think that the future of Hopkins is going to be commercial and the future of Burke is going to be corporate, air freight, and recreational flying.