Newps wrote in message news:uQS5b.358784$uu5.69969@sccrnsc04...


snip
Some airports wanted their airport
to have a tower but they don't qualify for an FAA tower. In this case
sometimes the FAA agrees to add it to its contract program and sometimes
the FAA says no, which means the airport has to pay for it all by
itself.

If the airport pays all by itself (including the contract to staff
the tower), that's an NFCT.

Bozeman, MT went this route. They wanted a tower. The FAA
told them if they built the tower the FAA would add it to the contract
program.

That's what is referred to as a Federal Contract Tower. My local
airport, Chandler,AZ (KCHD), went this route in the mid-90s. The
number of ops was not high enough for the FAA to fund the tower, but
they told the city if they built the facility, the FAA would contract
the staffing. Ops are way up since then. Enough so that the FAA
recently added DBRITE radar displays in the tower without even batting
an eye.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)