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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Updated: Airport Curfew Study Going to the FAA

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority approved 9-0 submitting its application for a mandatory nighttime curfew of arrivals and departures at Bob Hope Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration now reviews the application and supporting documentation for the curfew. If the agency determines the application is complete it then reviews the merits of the curfew itself. The FAA should give a response by August. A consultants study on the proposed curfew concluded that the $67 million in benefits outweighs the $48 million in costs to airlines, passengers, cargo carriers and general aviation by restricting airline activity between 10 p.m. and 6:59 a.m., save for some exceptions, including emergencies and medical flight aircraft. Noise generated by aircraft using the airfield has long been controversial, particularly for the authority and the city of Burbank. The authority began the study in 2000 to meet requirements set out by the Federal Aviation Authority to show that a curfew is reasonable and nonarbitrary; does not create an undue burden on interstate commerce or the national aviation system; does not conflict with federal law; makes efficient use of navigable airspace; and allowed for adequate opportunity for public comment. “We have given our absolute best effort over the last eight years in order to honor the commitment of this airport to the surrounding community to do all it possibly can to achieve nighttime noise relief,” Authority President Bill Wiggins said in a statement. “No other airport in the country has gotten this far since the Part 161 process took effect in 1990.” From interviews with general aviation companies based at Bob Hope, the study concluded that approximately 24 aircraft would leave the airport if the curfew was approved. The planes would relocate primarily to Van Nuys Airport, with some going to Whiteman Airport in the east Valley, and Camarillo Airport. Los Angeles World Airports, the owner and operator of Van Nuys, is looking at its own ban on certain jet aircraft at the Valley airfield to reduce the noise impacts on surrounding residential neighborhoods. In a letter to LAWA, the authority opposed an outright ban and suggested instead that the agency pursue of mandatory nighttime ban as it had done at Bob Hope.

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