Calgary Airport Authority to roll out quieter flight take-offs and landings

Fine-tuned flight paths meant to lower the decibels of incoming airliners over Calgary are being rolled out to Calgarians.

Following thousands of noise complaints since the opening of a new runway in June 2014, the Calgary Airport Authority is hoping a GPS-based approach to arrivals will ground those concerns, said spokeswoman Jody Moseley.

“GPS is very precise. (The plane) glides in instead of using engines to thrust,” she said of the process called Required Navigation Performance (RNP). “It means aircraft come in quieter and arrive quicker.”

The authority and Nav Canada will explain RNP at a series of information and feedback sessions in December and January in Calgary and Airdrie.

During the new runway’s first eight months of operation, the airport received about 1,500 noise complaints, calls which are still being made, said Moseley.

But while the authority takes the concerns seriously, she said 85% of the calls come from 25 people.

“One called well over 3,000 times, another 2,000 times,” she said.

The airport’s goal is to have 25% of incoming flights use RNP, an approach already used by Calgary-based WestJet, said Moseley.

It could shave 18 to 20 km and three to four minutes off a flight and reduce greenhouse gas emissions annually by 6,000 tonnes.

Given the airport’s importance, fine-tuning aircraft landings is crucial to the city, said Moseley.

Anyone interested can find out more and provide feedback at yyc.com 

Source:  http://www.calgarysun.com