Why Burke matters

Each of the eight figures, erected in 1932, holds a different vehicle in its hands, meant to mark the progression—and protection—of modern transportation. Alas, none of the figures hold an aircraft nor an airport. That’s too bad because Cleveland’s historic lakefront airport, established in 1947 as this nation’s first downtown airport, Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport (BKL), is under attack and could use the Guardians’ protection.

This is our town

“I was raised in this town. My father was a businessman in this town,” said Joe Brown, former owner of Hartzell Propeller. “We are a Cleveland family. We brought business to Cleveland and every success we had was produced by Cleveland talent. And the connection between our factory and this airport kept our business relationships alive. As a business development tool, Burke Lakefront Airport is indispensable.”

Burke Lakefront Airport is a business-friendly airport. Even its tagline boasts, “Business takes off from here.” Only steps from Cleveland’s business center, Burke welcomes business travelers for the more than 20 Fortune 1000 companies located here including Sherwin-Williams, Progressive Insurance, and Goodyear. The airport supports the business community with airport operations ranging from 30 to 90 per day.

“There’s a perception that the airport is just for private rich people, but there are broader economic benefits,” said Josh Herrmann, general manager of the Signature Aviation FBO at Burke, which employs 18 people. “There are all sorts of different aspects that are a part of this airport rather than just the businessman flying in.”

Herrmann calls Burke an “event” airport as, because of the airport’s proximity to the city and attractions like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, stadiums, and concert venues, it’s the perfect place to fly into and enjoy Cleveland’s amenities.

“We have people who fly in to see their kids graduate. There’s flight schools, there’s helicopter tours, there’s pilots taking their wife or girlfriend on a first date. This is a vibrant place,” he said.

Saving lives

Joe Brown adds another key element to the need for Burke—his life was saved because of the airport and the people here. On a trip to Mongolia, he had a life-threatening motorcycle accident. His leg was nearly torn off. When he called from overseas to friends at Burke, one of the aviation medical transport companies said they’d come get him.

He tears up telling the story: “My choices were to get to San Francisco, which was closer, or get all the way to Burke Lakefront so that I could wind up at the Cleveland Clinic. They brought me 22 hours by air to land at this airport. I stand here today benefiting from that. The Cleveland Clinic is one of the highest-rated hospitals in the world, but so is Stanford [outside San Francisco]. I flew longer to get here because I knew when I got here, I would get Cleveland-level services.”

For more than 20 years, Aitheras Aviation Group has been providing medical transport, air ambulance services, and organ transport from Burke Lakefront Airport. Owner George Katsikas personally flew with a crew to pick up Brown in Mongolia.

“George came in a Citation Sovereign. I believe the range is not sufficient for a trip to Mongolia, so he flew with all the power back, made a bunch of stops. A team of three pilots and three medical personnel flew 24 hours to get me and 22 hours home and George flew himself, rotating left seat. I was on this tarmac and in the hospital and in surgery within a couple of hours. All George said was I got this. To me, it’s the capstone of my experience with Burke Lakefront—connecting me to critical service and to my family.”

Brown acknowledges that his personal experience is not reason enough to keep Burke Lakefront Airport open for medical flights. “But it’s reason enough for me.”

Jim Stovall is vice president of maintenance and operations at Aitheras Aviation Group, which contracts with major hospital systems throughout the country. The company is a 24-hour medical flight operation and says the Burke Lakefront Airport location is important.

“Cleveland Clinic is only three miles, 10 minutes. If we had to move our operation to one of the county airports or to Cleveland-Hopkins [CLE, the commercial airport], that would put us a much longer distance from aircraft to patient. And some organs have a low ischemia time, meaning they only have a short life for availability and viability,” said Stovall. “It’s all about saving lives; it’s all about how quickly we can get a crew and an organ to a patient who’s waiting. We could lose a patient’s life just because of time.”

On the day AOPA was at Burke Lakefront we met a team from Paragonix Technologies, a Massachusetts-based organ transplant service that was on a mission to retrieve lungs from a dying patient in Georgia and deliver them to a patient in need in North Carolina. Procurement surgeon Dr. Robert Ferrante has flown from Burke numerous times.

“Airports like Burke are important,” said Ferrante. “While it can be done, commercial flights are awful, especially for organs that are time sensitive.”

“Burke is right off the interstate and easy to get to and air traffic there is lower than CLE. For lives saved by transplant, time matters hugely. We often don’t get a lot of heads up to get to a donor, and time is critical or these transplants don’t happen,” said Candy St. Marie, Paragonix vice president of transplant services. “We serve around 100 transplant centers nationwide and have strategically placed our recovery teams at airports/FBOs that can get us anywhere nationwide in time.”

“Airports like Burke are important… While it can be done, commercial flights are awful, especially for organs that are time sensitive.” —Dr. Robert Ferrante

Enriching lives

Every Labor Day Weekend for the past 61 years, aviation enthusiasts and even regular-old private citizens know it’s time for the Cleveland National Air Show. It’s one of the oldest airshows in the United States. And it’s a classic airshow in that what happens on the ground is just as important as what happens in the air.

“It’s a very immersive experience when you come into the airshow grounds,” said Kim Dell, executive director of the Cleveland National Air Show. “You can touch and feel the airplanes and meet the pilots. We have stories upon stories of young people who visited the airshow who might not have become a pilot but might have become an aviation mechanic. One of our more recent stories is a young girl who came to the Cleveland airshow and was truly inspired; she came back as a member of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.”

The Cleveland National Air Show is based on the National Air Races, which took place from 1929 to 1949 at what is now Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport. The first show at Burke Lakefront Airport was in 1964. The show generates a $17.9 million economic impact on the city of Cleveland each year, which includes $2.3 million in tax revenue.

“We are a strong tourism driver,” Dell said. “In 2025, the people who bought tickets and came inside the gates came from 48 states and 16 countries.”

One of the city’s plans to close Burke Lakefront Airport is to turn the landfill area (which is what the airport is built upon) into a park. The mayor has tried to convince the Cleveland National Air Show to present remotely—no on-site aircraft, pilots, or vendors, and fly from another airport presenting only in the air.

“Our board does not think we could produce a financially self-sufficient airshow because of the spectator area. It’s one of the main reasons why people buy tickets and come inside the gates; we have seating areas, concessions, parking, and corporate sales,” Dell said. “If you turn this into a general park, we don’t believe people will pay money to sit in a park. Our flight line is literally on Lake Erie with downtown behind us. It is absolutely magical and we have people come to Burke Lakefront and say, ‘Oh this is so cool,’ it’s just an awesome experience.”

The first airshow at Burke Lakefront Airport was in 1964. The show generates a $17.9 million economic impact on the city of Cleveland each year, which includes $2.3 million in tax revenue.

The impact

Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? Airports are important economic drivers and inspire people to learn about, appreciate, and maybe even join aviation. AOPA and those advocates for Burke Lakefront Airport know that.

“The average citizen probably will never utilize the services that come out of this airport,” said Ned Parks, president of the Northeast Ohio Pilots Association. “But there are plenty of citizens who will start their careers here, enjoy the airshow, use the medical transport. The average citizen needs to understand they probably won’t use all of Interstate 90 or 70, yet those are economic impact corridors and assets to any community anywhere.”

“I think the airport is a true asset and one that hasn’t had a lot of tender loving care given to it over the years. I hope this situation makes everybody realize what an asset it is and then put some time and energy into this airport,” said Dell.

“This is not an asset just for the city of Cleveland. It is an asset for the entire region. All airports are assets for regions, not just for the community they sit in,” said Parks. “What we need to do is lean into developing this airport, not lean away from it; a mile of road takes you a mile, and a mile of airport takes you anywhere in the world you want to go.”

“Cleveland has a bit of an underdog spirit. We have to stick together,” said Brown. “We need the strongest growing business climate we can have. It’s how we get business here. It’s how we get revenue here, and it’s how we keep the future wide open.”

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