Due to dwindling state funding and a decline in enrollment, the University decided this year to shut down the Institute of Aviation.

However, the University still operates Willard Airport, which was granted to the University by the state in order to have a functioning aviation program.

Willard Airport hasn’t received much good news recently. Delta Air Lines closed up their Willard operation in 2010, leaving American Eagle as the lone airline at Willard. This year, the airport amassed a $440,000 operating loss for the University.

Now that the University will no longer need an instructional facility in the near future at Willard, airport consultants have recommended that the airport may be best served if the University hand the reigns over to a municipal entity.

This move appears to be the most sensible thing for the future success of Willard and for the current economic outlook for the University. Without a training program, there is no need for a school to operate an airport, especially one that is not economically self-sustaining.

It appears the University mirrors this sentiment: One administrator told Sixel Consulting Group that operating airports is not congruent to the school’s core mission. In the face of budget constraints, we applaud the University for moving to rid their expenditures of initiatives that do not benefit the education of students.

But that is not to say that the University does not use the airport for reasons other than education. Sixel Consulting Group says one-third of Willard’s passengers are University-affiliated. Owning an airport might make it easy to fly in politicians or big name donors, but that is only feasible if they first fly in from either O’Hare International or Dallas/Fort Worth International, the only two reachable destinations from Willard. If a municipal government or private entity like the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District were in charge and made Willard more economically efficient, the University might even be able to fly in donors from Silicon Valley or Washington, D.C.

Because the state granted this land, phasing the University out of an operating role would require a state law. Springfield’s inefficiency makes the situation a little more discouraging. But University president Michael Hogan has said he is an active lobbyist in the state legislator, so it is our hope that handing over Willard gets priority on his to-do list.