Enilria - Cleveland (BKL) Soldiering On So Far

Cleveland/BKL, Burke-Lakefront, has been a target for closure for years under a Mayor who doesn't want the airport and sees it as cheap land for developers to make a killing on.

No developer of the site has been officially announced as the project is still on hold, but with most things, follow the money. Eyes will be on what developer is eventually attached to the project and what political links they have.

The money definitely does not lead to the current airport as a business. It has been losing use as current tenants postpone any investment not knowing if it will still exist, and aircraft owners get ahead of plans to relocate their planes to other airports before space could be grabbed by a sudden shutdown. The overall gloom is part of why activity at the airport is down nearly 70% since just before 9/11.

The BKL airport is losing as much as $1.7 million per year (2025), although $900,000 annually is the average. The airlines at Cleveland/CLE absorb the cost via fees and absorbed debt service.

This is not uncommon. In fact, it's not bad among similar airports. Columbus/LCK loses about $1.1 million per year despite flights on Allegiant. Columbus/CMH funds the airport. Cincinnati/LUK is not run by Cincinnati/CVG, but loses "several hundred thousand per year" and the losses for all of them are dwarfed by what used to be the main airport in Detroit.

Detroit/YIP is now controlled by Detroit/DTW and DTW's airlines fund a massive loss there. It loses a stunning $2.9 million per year. DTW bond covenants do not allow airline service at YIP, despite its convenience to booming Ann Arbor. The downtown airport in town, Detroit/DET, loses another $1 million per year, but is not tied to DTW.

Chicago closed CGX in 2003 when it was losing $300,000-400,000 per year and ended up paying a fine and over $1 million in restitution to the FAA for federally funded improvements that were destroyed.

The City says now is the time to close BKL with the Browns stadium being abandoned as the team moves to a new location adjacent to CLE. It had been planned to share a rail station, although that is now resolved with a second station planned. There are broad concerns that the loss of the stadium will wound downtown Cleveland and the development of the BKL land is being used as a carrot to downtown stakeholders.

Cleveland’s Director of Port Control, Bryant Francis, explicitly warned that the stadium's original design would "permanently and negatively impact" the navigable airspace and safety of CLE. The stadium’s planned 221-foot domed roof exceeded standard protocol height restrictions near the airport by 58 feet. Airport officials argued this would force pilots to alter landing approach altitudes and impair visibility on Runway 28. Because of these warnings, ODOT initially denied a construction permit for the stadium in August 2025. While ODOT later reversed its decision and granted a waiver in late September 2025 after an independent consultant deemed it a low hazard, the City of Cleveland officially appealed the approval to keep fighting the project.

Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne and state transportation leaders have expressed deep worry over game-day traffic bottlenecks. Because the stadium will rely heavily on the same highway corridors (like Route 237 and I-71) that travelers use to catch flights at CLE, there is anxiety that 70,000+ football fans arriving at the same time as standard airport traffic will paralyze access to the terminals.

All the noise with BKL may just be to distract everybody from the huge mess coming from the stadium deal and give the Mayor a finger to point if downtown Cleveland suffers from the export of the team from downtown, but if Cleveland were to close BKL they would owe over $7 million to the FAA. That's unless it can get Congress to vacate the funds owed. They are trying to do that, but politically that seems impossible as at least one of Ohio's own Senators doesn't support it closing or forgiving the grants owed.