Officials at a Polk county airport are on edge, as they anxiously await the fate of their air traffic control tower.

Planes are still coming and going at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport, all under the watchful eye of air traffic controllers funded by the FAA.  But the tower could soon sit empty, because of federal spending cuts.

The airport director's trying to keep that from happening.

"We're making our case and continue to do the push," said airport director Gene Conrad.

He said the FAA asked his airport, among nearly 200 other airports on the chopping block, to give their reasons for keeping their towers staffed for the sake of national interest.

Lakeland Linder officials sent an 8-page letter to the FAA saying if their tower were shut down, it would have negative safety and economic impacts. That includes the potential of shutting the tower down two days before Sun n' Fun - an aviation event pulling in pilots from all over the world. Airport officials say a last-minute change could be a safety concern.

Lakeland Linder's also still trying to replace Direct Air - the airline that went bankrupt and pulled out last year. Conrad said not having a control tower makes it even harder to bring in another airline.

"We can still operate without the air traffic control tower.  Our predicament is we have a unique mix of aircraft. We have everything from light sport aircraft to tactical fighter jets using this facility, and everything in between.  Will it keep them from coming? Well, to be quite honest, it doesn't help," he said.

City leaders are also concerned.

"We feel this is a major economic driver.  It's a major economic inch in our community - not only at the airfield, but those surrounding businesses that have an economic impact on the community," said Lakeland city spokesperson Kevin Cook.

Convincing the FAA may not be easy - the city's got some competition.  FAA officials say they were so swamped with letters from airports across the country, they pushed back their decisions to Friday, March 22nd.

Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg is also looking at the potential loss of their air traffic control tower.