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"Traffic Squeezing Out Private Pilots at Scottsdale Airport"

Friday, April 23, 2004

TRAFFIC SQUEEZING OUT PRIVATE PILOTS
The Arizona Republic


Numbers released by an air traffic controller confirm what many nearby
residents suspected: Scottsdale Airport has become overrun with
corporate jets.

William O'Brien, a representative of Scottsdale Airport's National Air
Traffic Controllers Association, released the numbers this week at a
joint meeting of the city's Airport Advisory Commission and the City
Council Subcommittee on Regional Aviation Issues.

O'Brien said IFR operations (predominantly corporate jets) increased a
whopping 24 percent in February, compared with February 2003. The totals
were also elevated in January and March. Operations (takeoffs and
landings) went up by 670 in January, 812 in February and 306 in March.

"Corporate jet numbers are going through the roof and will keep going,"
O'Brien said.

The numbers released by Scottsdale's air traffic tower are significant
because nearby airport residents have complained for two years about
noise from an increasing number of jets.

Airport staff members would neither confirm nor deny the allegations,
pointing out that their stats for total operations did not break down
corporate jet traffic from general aviation (propeller) traffic.

Scottsdale Airport Director Scott Gray has maintained that total
operations at Scottsdale Airport have been in decline.

O'Brien said total operations are down because the tremendous increase
in corporate jet traffic has forced general-aviation pilots to fly
elsewhere. He said operation numbers go up significantly when student
pilots stay in the traffic pattern and do touch-and-go landings and
takeoffs.

O'Brien said the high volume of jet traffic is not conducive for
touch-and-goes and that general-aviation pilots are often told to make
full stops when the airspace becomes saturated with corporate jets.


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