CAA: GA News, "Naples, Florida airport reinstates jet ban"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, February 28, 2002

Naples airport reinstates jet ban 
By DENES HUSTY III
The South Florida News-Press


The nation's first ban on Stage 2 corporate jets goes back into effect
Friday at Naples Municipal Airport after two years of studies and legal
battles costing $1.6 million. 

The cost may continue to soar. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is threatening to pull the
plug on $1 million a year in federal money to the airport if the airport
goes through with the ban. 

Federal officials have said they believe the ban discriminates against
the owners of one type of aircraft. 

Threats won't stop officials from enforcing the ban, said Executive
Director Ted Soliday. 

"The only way they can try to stop us is to take us to court. We'd love
that. The courts have ruled in our favor," Soliday said. 

Small six- to 15-passenger jets built between 1975 and 1983 are targeted
for the ban because they are noisier than newer models, according to
airport studies. 

The planes - priced between $3 million to $18 million - are used mostly
by corporate executives. 

Up to 480 jets that have used the airport during the past few years will
be impacted, Soliday said. He said waivers were given to a dozen jets to
give them time to retrofit the aircraft or sell them and buy newer, less
noisy aircraft. 

The airstrip, billed as "The Best Little Airport in the Country," is
taking on the FAA and the aviation industry over the ban because of
noise complaints from nearby residents in this tourist and retirement
resort to the rich and famous. 

"We feel that when the ground shakes and we can't hear ourselves talk,
it's time for them to fly to Fort Myers or somewhere else," said Janet
Nebus, manager of the Rock Creek RV Resort located just south of the
airport. 

Nebus said she and resort residents are glad the ban is going into
effect. 

"It's a step in the right direction," she said. 

Some 720 residents living closest to the airport agreed with Nebus when
consultants totalled noise complaints in 1999. 

The jets accounted for less than 1 percent of the 126,000 takeoffs and
landings at the airport at that time, but generated 38 percent of the
1,887 noise complaints filed that year, the report by consultants
states. 

Armed with that information, the airport authority first put the ban
into effect Jan. 1, 2001. 

The potential loss of federal dollars caused board members to suspend
the ban a month later while they gathered more information required by
the FAA. 

New information gathered by airport consultants showed that insulating
homes nearest the airport from noise and allowing owners to replace
their old jets with new ones weren't practical alternatives to a ban. 

While this was going on, the National Business Aviation Association sued
the airport in federal court to overturn the ban, claiming it was
unconstitutional. 

A federal judge in August threw out the lawsuit. 

The airport authority then voted to put the ban back into effect by
Friday.


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