Reagan National Airport has seen a significant decline in the loudest aircraft types over the past decade, but some advocates say it’s not enough to mitigate the impacts of increased flight operations.
Stage 3 commercial aircraft — the noisiest in current fleets — have declined from 21% of all operations in 2015 to 2% in 2025 at Reagan National, while Stage 4 and Stage 5 aircraft have increased from 79% to 98% of the total, according to Michael Jeck, the noise office manager at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).
The Federal Aviation Administration rates aircraft types by “stages.” The higher the stage number, the quieter the plane.
The only Stage 3 aircraft still operating at DCA on a regular basis are Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-200s and United Airlines Boeing 757-300s, Jeck said at the Jan. 22 meeting of the Reagan National Community Noise Working Group. He said one step MWAA could take is requesting the two airlines curtail the use of those aircraft at the airport, particularly during late-night hours.
Currently, the only aircraft that meet the most advanced Stage 5 noise criteria are Airbus A220s, which are operated by several carriers at the airport.
“This is what we want to see,” Jeck said of their use.
Some on the community panel suggested that increases in flight operations at the airport over the past decade have negated the impact of quieter planes.
“We’re seeing the noise level go in the other direction — it is getting worse, not better,” said Kathleen deLaski, who represents Fairfax County’s Dranesville District on the body.
Data presented by Jeck show that flights operate during every hour of the day at Reagan National except for 4-5 a.m.
Although only 0.3% of daily flights operate in the window from 5 -6 a.m., those early departures have drawn ire recently from some Arlington residents, including those in the Cherrydale Citizens Association.
Responding to questions put to him by the association, Jeck said that until about 2015, it was rare for flights to be scheduled prior to 5:30 a.m. With the arrival of Covid in 2020, early flights also largely were put on hold, but they started up again in 2022.
Cherrydale resident Kathleen Doherty said early-morning flights before 6 a.m. constitute an intrusion into the lives of those under the flight corridors.
“I guess the daily impact on tens of thousands of Arlington residents matters less than airline profits and flight convenience for a few hundred passengers,” she told ARLnow, suggesting the airports authority should “pay for us to put in triple-pane windows” to keep out the noise.
At the Jan. 22 meeting, working-group members voted to ask MWAA to fund consultants to better analyze noise impacts related to air traffic at National.
“You can’t improve if you don’t measure,” said Ken Buckley, a member of the panel, which was set up in 2015 to provide input to MWAA, airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration on issues related to airport operations.
At a meeting last October, the airports authority rolled out what it termed a “Fly Quiet” initiative. Similar programs are in place at a number of major urban-area airports nationally, although there is no single definition of what should be included in one.
Janelle Wright, a representative from Montgomery County on the panel who heads the subcommittee addressing the Fly Quiet proposal, said MWAA’s effort falls well short of ideal.
It “does not provide any granular data and analysis on air-carrier performance,” Wright said.
“The MWAA document that was provided focuses on the past,” she said. “We envision a more efficient and sustainable future.”
In October, MWAA officials said the authority was comfortable with its approach and did not intend to spend money on additional consulting services related to noise-mitigation efforts.
At the January meeting, the message was essentially the same, if not quite as direct. “We appreciate the perspective and opinions” of the working group, said David Mould, an MWAA vice president who is chief liaison with the panel.
Working group recommendations are advisory only. The proposals contained in the latest request will be taken up in the coming months, Mould said.
Some of the remarks of working-group members seemed to irk Tracy Montross, regional director for government affairs at American Airlines and the carrier’s representative to the group.
American is the dominant carrier at National. Montross said it was “a little unfair” to imply that it and other carriers, who also are represented on the panel, have not been responsive to noise matters raised by the community.
“We’ve invested millions to try to address these concerns,” she said.
Jeck is a one-man operation at MWAA, handling noise-related matters for both National and Dulles International airports.
His efforts have received praise from the community working group at National, but that panel says one person alone is not enough to oversee a robust monitoring and reporting system.
