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says, “As the voice of the air charter industry, NATA strongly
opposes this bill.” It was prepared without any dialogue with
the aviation industry to explore the noise issue and solutions
that would be acceptable to all concerned.
Freye believes there is a national trend of escalating
noise complaints from communities near airports as
legislators respond to their constituents’ complaints. Neguse
and all of the representatives co-sponsoring the noise bill
are members of the Quiet Skies Caucus, which has 44
Democrats and one Republican as members.
The National Quiet Skies Coalition was formed to support
communities that have been adversely impacted by the
FAA’s NextGen air traffic modernization effort. The FAA
redesigned hundreds of arrival, approach and departure
flight paths at major airports. The perceived noise impact
of these new procedures on residents near airports have
prompted many lawsuits. The Quiet Skies coalition has
about 50 affiliated groups, located in various communities
from New York to California and as far west as Hawaii.
“It is very common at airports with a significant increase
in noise complaints that the majority of those complaints
came from a minority of individuals who were repeatedly
reporting,” says Freye. “We believe that most localities
understand that activity at the airport translates directly into
local investment, jobs and tax revenues.”
Santa Monica Airport fight not over
Aviation groups are battling to keep
Santa Monica Airport in California
open and are hoping that a change in
rules for electing the city council will
aid their cause.
In 2017 the city government
obtained a consent decree from
the FAA, ending its lawsuit against
the federal agency. The agreement
does not allow the airport to be
closed until January 1, 2029. The city
government says it has not taken any
action or officially decided to close
the airport, which it can now do on
its own. The city entered the consent
decree because it wants to mitigate
noise and other adverse impacts on
communities near the airport and to
settle pending litigation. All but one
lawsuit contesting the validity of the
agreement have been unsuccessful.
Opponents are convinced that the
city intends to close the airport. “The
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
will never give up on Santa Monica,”
said Jim Coon, AOPA’s senior vice
president of government affairs.
“The residents of Santa Monica need
to wake up and replace the current
misguided city council, which has
clearly folded to land developers,”
he says.
Ed Story, a pilot and member
of the board of directors of the
pro-airport Santa Monica Airport
Association believes there are only
about 200 people who live near the
airport who want to shut it down. One
neighborhood successfully sued the
city to change how the city council is
elected, so that districts farther from
the airport are represented. Noise
complaints focus on business jets,
but the city has torn up 1,500ft of the
5,000ft runway. Now the largest jet
that can operate there is a Gulfstream
G280 instead of the previous
Gulfstream IV size.
Alex Gersten, the National Business
Aviation Association’s director of
airports and ground infrastructure,
says that other neighborhoods not
being represented now may appreciate
the potential future value of the
airport. He says urban air mobility
developers, such as Uber and Amazon,
are interested in using the airport for
air taxis.
Other Santa Monica Airport
supporters say that electric aircraft
will reduce noise at the airport this
decade. They also question the city’s
motivations for its closure, pointing
to the value of the 227 acres of land at
the site and that if there is no airport,
height restrictions can be lifted on
buildings near the airport.
Santa Monica Airport is used by the
rich and famous. Jeff Bezos recently
bought a US$165 million home in
Beverly Hills around seven miles
from the airport. His partner Lauren
Sanchez is a helicopter pilot who lives
nearby and her business Black Ops
Aviation is based at Santa Monica
Airport. She flies helicopters with
cameras to make movies. Harrison
Ford also flies from the airport.