Tampa, Fla., Airport Uses Persuasion to Promote Noise Abatement

Posted on Thu, Mar. 04, 2004 
 
Tampa, Fla., Airport Uses Persuasion to Promote Noise
Abatement
Miami Herald, FL


Mar. 4--TAMPA, Fla. - Tampa International Airport's
noise officer bagged a prominent violator of the
informal community noise abatement program last month
when a blue- and white-trimmed Boeing 747 landed on
runway 36R near International Plaza.

Reed's tongue-in-cheek report on the Feb. 15 landing
of Air Force One with President Bush aboard stated in
part: "No noise complaints were received. The aircraft
departed on the following day, without incident."

"I got a lot of ribbing from the staff about how I
should have handled that," Reed said.

He said security issues might have played a role in
the pilot and air traffic controller's decision to
land on 36R, which the airport wants landing jets to
avoid if safely possible.

In recent months, Reed has persuaded most pilots of
jets who customarily use Tampa International to land
on a parallel runway to the west of the terminal on
approaches from the south so noise falls mostly over
water rather than residential areas.

In 2003, 696 corporate jet landings from the south, or
28.6 percent, used 36R -- the eastern parallel runway
-- compared with 979 landings, or 40 percent, in 2002.

Passenger jet arrivals increased on the noisier
approach path to 2,279 landings, or 7.9 percent of all
landings, in 2003. That compares with 683, 2.3 percent
of all landings on 36R in 2002. Those figures were
skewed, however, by two months of construction on the
western parallel runway that shunted about 1,900
landings to runway 36R.

Fifty-eight callers filed 261 noise complaints with
the airport in 2003, compared with 41 callers who
filed 251 complaints in 2003. Five people filed 172 of
the complaints last year.

Reed attributed the increase in complaints to better
educating and encouraging the public to comment on
aircraft noise.

 

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