Compliance With Stage 3 Noise Levels Mandated by 2015

The long-term FAA bill signed into law by President Obama last week requires operators of aircraft which meet FAA Stage 2 noise levels to modify their aircraft to meet Stage 3 noise limits by the end of 2015. Section 506 prohibits, after December 31, 2015, the operation within the 48 contiguous states of jets weighing 75,000 pounds or less not already complying with Stage 3 noise levels, with some exceptions for temporary operations related to moving aircraft for modification or sale.

The exemption for Stage 2 noise levels was passed by Congress over 20 years ago, and a coalition of airport managers and neighbors at some of the nation’s busiest corporate airports where the older aircraft accounted for an inordinate number of noise complaints has been working to eliminate the exemption since 2004.

“Managers of airports located in congested metropolitan areas across the country wanted Congress to help us respond to the concerns of our neighbors,” said Bob Bogan, Deputy Executive Director at Morristown Municipal Airport, a founding airport member of Sound Initiative: A Coalition for Quieter Skies. Morristown is among the New York metropolitan region’s busiest corporate airports.

“When Congress passed the ‘Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990’ requiring airlines to phase out noisier Stage 2 aircraft, it provided some relief to airport neighbors. It also limited the financial burden on private/corporate aircraft owners and operators by exempting aircraft weighing less than 75,000 pounds,” Bogan continued. “Although the number of these aircraft operating in U.S. airspace diminished over the next two decades, evidence at some airports suggested the remaining aircraft accounted for a high percentage of total complaints. We asked Congress to finish what it began in 1990.”

Airports accepting government funding for airport improvement projects are bound by regulations requiring that they be open and accessible to all aircraft that can safely operate to and from the facility, regardless of whether they meet new, modern noise standards. This law gives aircraft operators of what FAA registration records indicate are over 850 Stage 2 aircraft until the end of 2015 to modify their aircraft to meet the new standards or discontinue use of the aircraft in U.S. airspace. The result should be fewer noise-related complaints at some of the nation’s busiest non-commercial airports.

Sound Initiative was organized by airport operators on the front line of the aircraft noise debate on a daily basis. The effort to phase out remaining Stage 2 aircraft was viewed as an effort where airports and their neighbors could work with elected officials toward a common goal.

“Since we began, coalition members worked with their own congressional delegations and we made our case before the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate with responsibility over aviation issues,” Bogan noted. “While we hoped for relief sooner, unfortunately our issue became entangled with all the other issues of a major funding bill. But a core group of founding members stuck with it and we’re grateful to the current leadership, as well as those members of Congress with whom we’ve worked over the past several years, that helped us help our neighbors.”                                                  

Key members of the coalition included airports run by MASSPORT (Hanscom Field) and the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey (Teterboro).

FMI: www.soundinitiative.org