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Allegheny County Airport will close to all but helicopter traffic for the last three weeks in September, officials said Monday. One tenant said its lost fuel sales could prompt it to lay off workers in a challenging economic climate.

The general aviation facility in West Mifflin is expected to close for maintenance from Sept. 14 through Oct. 1, said JoAnn Jenny, spokeswoman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority. The authority runs the airport — which is home to corporate aircraft and private planes owned by hobbyists — and the commercial Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay.

STAT MedEvac helicopters will continue to use the county airport's landing pad during the safety repairs to taxiways.

Jenny said one of the airport's two runways will be closed throughout that time. The other will close for one week only, but is too small to accommodate corporate jets. The airport and its distinctive art deco terminal opened in 1931.

"Work will be done 24 hours a day, seven days a week to make sure that we're not going to be inconveniencing them out there," Jenny said. The authority will waive landing fees for private aircraft owners who use Pittsburgh International's general aviation facilities during that time, she said.

But Mike Vargo, sales and marketing director for the largest tenant at the county airport, said such a closure could be devastating.

"It will cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost fuel sales alone," said Vargo of Corporate Air, which sells fuel to pilots and manages 20 private planes for corporate clients at the airport. "That, coupled with various other losses in revenue, will force us to lay off a significant portion of our work force. It will also result in a complete closure of our flight school."

Vargo said he hopes to meet with airport authority officials in a week or so to discuss whether the runways could be open part of the time.

Voyager Jet Center, which like Corporate Air sells fuel and manages eight private aircraft at the county airport, is less alarmed by the plan.

"In the immediate term, you lose (a few) weeks of revenue in a very challenging year. But in the long term we hope it will help business," said Dean Genge, Voyager Jet's head of marketing. "Maintenance is needed ... not only to keep us highly competitive but in first-class shape."

Jenny said the authority hasn't awarded contracts for the repairs, which include $2.6 million in taxiway reconstruction and concrete-slab replacement, and $750,000 in taxiway lighting upgrades.

Officials at Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, which trains maintenance workers at the airport, said they anticipated no change in operations.

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