TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

That's Not Santa's Sleigh

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARK HOLAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 19, 2007

Updated: 12/17/2007 06:35 pm

WEST SHORE - Residents can expect to hear more flights over their rooftops during the next few months, with most of the noise coming from commercial planes landing on Tampa International Airport's east runway.

There are several reasons for the increased activity, TIA officials say, including holiday and winter travel arrivals through March. Prevailing north winds at this time of year require planes to land from the south, over West Shore.

Nighttime crane operations for an airport interchange project already are generating more east runway landings, and extra military operations at MacDill Air Force Base are causing more TIA arrivals to make their turns over the Interbay Peninsula.

The road project has made "remarkable progress" this year, but "we can expect to see more unusual flight patterns" as the work continues through 2010, TIA director Louis Miller wrote in the current issue of the Community Noise Consortium newsletter.

The consortium is a panel of resident volunteers and airport officials.

Last week, airport noise officer Herman Lawrence Jr. reminded Dallas-based Southwest Airlines that "residential communities that are located south of the airport are very annoyed" by east runway arrivals.

Twenty-three of Southwest's 70 landings on the east runway from Aug. 1 through Oct. 31 could have been on the west runway and therefore are considered a violation of TIA's voluntary runway-use program, Lawrence wrote to the airline.

The informal runway program was created 50 years ago to reduce jet noise over neighborhoods surrounding the airport, not just West Shore.

Some airports have binding noise-reduction agreements with airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Southwest is TIA's largest carrier and has gates on the terminal's east side. The violations, which do not carry a penalty, represent less than 1 percent of the carrier's 7,421 arrivals in the third quarter.

The airline's 47 other arrivals on the east runway, all from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., were due to the interchange construction cranes, which prevent landings on the west runway. Such arrivals are not considered violations because of the safety factor.

Most noise problems at TIA are similarly unavoidable, Miller wrote in the newsletter.

"The noise office will continue to work with the airlines and the corporate pilots to remind them to fly friendly at TIA and adhere to our voluntary noise program," he wrote.

Reporter Mark Holan can be reached at (813) 835-2102 or mholan@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT