With the long awaited passage of the Federal Aviation
Administration’s (FAA) Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, H.R. 658
(FAA Reauthorization Act), on March 6, 2012, the increasing pace of
expansion of both commercial and general aviation airports, and the
FAA’s new airspace redesign initiatives to reduce delay, airport noise
and its impacts have become an increasingly hot topic.
In the old days, pre-1990, local airport operators, usually
constituted of elected local representatives, could impose “reasonable,
noise based, nondiscriminatory” regulations such as limits on the
noisiest aircraft using the airport, as well as on the hours of
operation (curfews). While many local communities currently impacted by
noise from runway realignments and changes in approach and departure
patterns still pressure their local representatives for relief, since
the passage of the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 [1] (ANCA),
the power to regulate airport noise has become, with very few
exceptions, the exclusive province of the federal government.
ANCA’s principal aim was to substitute advances in “quiet engine”
technology for restrictions on airport operations. To carry out that
aim, ANCA mandated that the noisiest, “Stage 2,” aircraft in excess of
75,000 lbs. (generally commercial aircraft)[2] would be phased entirely
out of the existing fleet by Dec. 31, 1999 [3] and no new Stage 2
aircraft above 75,000 lbs. could be added after Nov. 5, 1990 [4]
(Non-Addition Rule).[5]
In return for ensured technological advances, ANCA divests local
proprietors of the power to unilaterally regulate airport noise.
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