Alexandria, VA, November 3, 2009 - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced in a letter to the Executive Director of the Glendale-Burbank-Pasadena Airport Authority that it has denied the Authority's Part 161 application to institute a nighttime curfew on air traffic at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, CA. The National Air Transportation Association is pleased that the FAA has recognized that the Authority's application failed to meet even the most basic requirements for instituting access restrictions under the Airport Noise and Capacity Act.
"The FAA's decision is important for the future of airport access across the United States" said NATA President James K. Coyne. "This decision will help ensure that in the future airport sponsors fully evaluate the feasibility of non-restrictive solutions to noise issues before proposing to limit user's access to federally obligated airports."
The Airport Noise and Capacity Act, along with other federal law, requires that any application to restrict access to federally obligated airports based on noise issues meet six statutory conditions. The FAA, in its decision, found that the Authorities application failed to meet four of the six conditions. NATA, in its comments to the FAA, expressed particular concern that the Authority had chosen the most restrictive solution to its noise problem possible, while ignoring other more cost-efficient and less restrictive solutions.
NATA hopes that the Airport Authority will re-evaluate its direction, in light of the FAA's decision, and work towards finding solutions to the noise problems around Bob Hope Airport that do not involve harsh restrictions on access to airport users.
