Burke Lakefront Airport isn’t just an airport. It is a vital piece of Cleveland’s healthcare infrastructure, supporting the movement of lifesaving organs, critically ill patients, medical teams and time-sensitive healthcare resources every day.
For more than two decades, my company, Aitheras Aviation Group, has operated from Burke, transporting organs and critically ill patients to and from some of the nation’s leading healthcare institutions, including the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Metro Health System. Today, our operation supports medical transport missions across 26 states and U.S. territories throughout the Caribbean. From our headquarters in Downtown Cleveland, we help connect patients to world-class care when every minute matters.
Cleveland has earned its reputation as a global healthcare destination. Patients travel from around the world seeking care at institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth. What many people don’t see is the infrastructure required behind the scenes to support that ecosystem. Burke is an essential part of that infrastructure.
In organ transplantation, time is measured differently. A heart remains viable for only about four hours from procurement to transplant, including all transportation time. Lungs, livers and kidneys have only a few more hours. Even with advances in preservation technology, the clock never stops. Every additional mile between an airport and a transplant center matters. In many cases, minutes can mean the difference between life and death.
That is why geography matters.
Burke sits just minutes from Cleveland’s major medical centers. Its proximity allows transplant teams, organs, and critically ill patients to move efficiently through one of the most complex healthcare logistics networks in the country. Relocating those operations to an airport farther away would introduce delays into a process that leaves little room for error.
Furthermore, Burke’s value extends beyond its proximity to Cleveland’s hospitals. Its location within a dense network of major transplant centers throughout the Midwest and Northeast makes Cleveland a natural hub for time-sensitive organ transportation and critical care missions.
Some have suggested helicopters could replace fixed-wing operations if Burke were closed. While helicopters certainly play an important role in emergency medicine, they are not a practical or scalable substitute for long-range fixed-wing aircraft operating year-round in Northeast Ohio. Cleveland’s weather conditions, operational limitations, and infrastructure requirements make fixed-wing aviation the safest and most reliable option for many of the missions we perform.
Burke’s value also extends well beyond healthcare.
The airport supports high-skilled jobs, aviation maintenance, fuel services, corporate aviation, emergency operations, and a network of businesses that contribute to Cleveland’s economy. At Aitheras alone, nearly half of our workforce operates from Burke. These are pilots, maintenance technicians, dispatchers, safety professionals, finance specialists, and operational leaders who have built careers here and who call Northeast Ohio home.
The airport’s long-term potential remains largely unrealized because uncertainty about its future has discouraged investment. Companies are reluctant to commit capital, expand facilities or create new jobs when they cannot confidently plan beyond the next lease cycle. That uncertainty impacts not only existing tenants but also the broader economic opportunities that could be developed on the site.
The question before Cleveland should not be whether Burke Lakefront Airport occupies valuable land. Of course it does. The better question is whether we fully understand the value of the infrastructure already there.
Cleveland can and should have a vibrant lakefront. But we should not have to choose between a vision for tomorrow and infrastructure that saves lives today.
Burke is more than a runway on the shoreline. It is a gateway for critically ill patients, life-saving organs, medical professionals, and economic opportunity. It supports one of the world’s leading healthcare ecosystems and helps connect Cleveland to the people who depend on it.
Before we dismantle an asset that cannot easily be replaced, we should ask simple questions: What problem are we solving? What indispensable resource might we lose in the process?
Some facilities can be rebuilt. Some cannot.
For thousands of patients, families and healthcare professionals, Burke is not an airport. It is part of the pathway to care.
George Katsikas is founder and CEO of Cleveland-based Aitheras Aviation Group.
https://www.crainscleveland.com/opinion/commentary/ccl-burke-valuable-as-an-airport-20260720