Letter to Hon. Stephen Dickson, Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration - Feinstein, Colleagues to FAA: Reduce Aircraft Noise Around Burbank, Van Nuys Airports

Letter

Dear Administrator Dickson,

As Congressional representatives of Los Angeles County's San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica Mountains, we write to ask for your consideration of recommendations to reduce airplane noise in the region while improving operations at Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) and Van Nuys Airport (VNY).

Residents of the region have suffered from increased airplane noise in recent years as departing planes from both BUR and VNY have tended to fly further to the south before making turns to the east or west, which has extended the reach of the noise problem in the community. We serve as non-voting members of a regional task force that is working with community members, the airports, and the FAA to reduce these noise disturbances while maintaining safe and efficient operations at the airports.

The task force has identified several areas where stricter adherence to traffic management procedures may lead to a meaningful reduction in the noise experienced by our constituents. Consistent with the desire to protect the national airspace system and the integrity of the 1990 National Noise and Capacity Act, we ask you to consider taking the following specific steps:

Conduct a System Service Review of resource management of both Southern California Tracon and the Burbank air traffic control sector to ensure the appropriate number of controllers are on duty at all times and best practices are followed.
Initiate Traffic Management Reviews in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica Mountain areas to provide detailed analysis of the impact of Traffic Management Initiatives.
Provide additional training on minimum requirements of radar separation.
Consider the impacts that combined air traffic control sectors will have during peak traffic periods.
Provide refresher training for tower controllers on proper handoff procedures and the impacts of non-compliance; and
For VNY, review the 2017 Standard Operating Procedure that was used prior to the implementation of the final area navigation departure procedures published in May 2018 to ensure consistency.

We encourage solutions that will result in aircraft departures from Hollywood Burbank and Van Nuys airports that reduce the noise and more equitably distribute the number of low-flying planes that cause noise disturbances on the ground.

Thank you very much for your attention to this matter.