A decision to keep noise-mitigation efforts at Reagan National Airport in-house, rather than outsource them to independent experts, is drawing criticism from an advisory panel.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (WMAA) announced its decision on “Fly Quiet” efforts at the Oct. 23 meeting of the Reagan National Community Working Group, which works to reduce the impacts of noise from airport operations.
Funding outside contractors to manage the program “did not make it to our budget-priorities list,” said David Mould, the authority’s vice president for communications and government affairs.
While Mould said that some other airport operators reported more success with internal efforts than outside vendors, many members of the advisory panel were critical of the move.
“An outside contractor is needed,” said Janelle Wright, a panelist from Montgomery County who heads a subcommittee that recommended one be hired. She said that the Reagan National Fly Quiet report, delivered just hours before the meeting, was “more disappointing than encouraging.”
Community members on the body believe an independent consultant would be able to deliver the statistical information necessary for the panel to engage directly with airlines on opportunities to mitigate noise.
“We need the data and we need data-driven improvement,” said Susan Shipp, another Montgomery County member of the panel.
Currently, MWAA staffs a single-person Noise Information Office covering both Reagan National and Dulles International airports. Working-group members praised staff member Mike Jeck’s efforts running the effort, but said more resources were needed.
“There’s nothing new here,” said William Noonan, another Montgomery County representative on the working group.
Richard Hinds, a DC representative on the panel, said the new report rightly touts successes of the past, but “doesn’t suggest what is the path forward.”
“Our proposal was to do more,” he said. “We’ve asked [MWAA] to take it to the next step forward.”
In late September, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors also weighed in on the issue, reiterating a desire that Board members first expressed in 2024 for an outside operator to run the Fly Quiet program at Reagan National.
While those speaking up on Oct. 23 were critical, an outside expert who vetted ongoing efforts for MWAA came away impressed. The ongoing noise-mitigation strategy “demonstrates the airport’s commitment to mitigating noise,” wrote Antonio Trani, a professor of civil engineering at Virginia Tech who has conducted research for the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA.
MWAA’s decision to keep efforts in-house will get a more robust discussion at the working group’s next meeting, slated for January.
“We’re happy to listen,” Mould said, adding that the authority leadership “appreciates everyone’s perspectives.”
Fly Quiet programs are in place at a number of major airports nationally, including in the New York and San Francisco metro areas.
Proposal to disperse aircraft on takeoff and landing wins support
Beyond discussion on ‘Fly Quiet,’ the advisory panel voted 17-0 to spread flight paths more broadly rather than concentrate them in narrow corridors.
The plan, which now heads to local governments and ultimately the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), could provide the most relief to those living in a swath of southern Fairfax County that now bears the brunt of aircraft noise in the corridor.
“I truly believe the recommendations being put forward today are the best available, based on what we had to work with,” said Jim Allerdice, speaking on behalf of the consulting firm Vianair.
Currently, departing flights with destinations to the south or west travel down the Potomac River before turning west and following a corridor across Fairfax County. An east-west stretch that county from Fort Hunt to Pohick Hills faces the most impact from the narrow corridor, according to tracks detailed at the meeting.
The proposal slated for submission to the FAA would seek to instead send about 40% of southbound departing flights on a route further south along the river before making turns. By that point, they would be at a higher altitude and flying over less populated terrain, reducing noise impacts.
In the presentation, Allerdice said moving around air corridors to accommodate 300,000 aircraft movements per year at Reagan National had to take a regional perspective. He acknowledged there are always winners and losers in making adjustments.
“It’s very difficult to please all the people. If you move a flight track, it’s going to go over someone’s house and not go over someone else’s house,” he said.
The goal of the recommendations is to spread out the departure lanes “so that one area would not have to bear the burdens of most of the traffic,” Allerdice said.
There also are recommendations in the report to reconfigure some southern approaches to the airport, to diffuse noise from arriving aircraft.
The Vianair analysis was funded by the governments of Fairfax and Prince George’s counties and the city of Alexandria. The current proposal did not study areas north of Reagan National, which were addressed earlier.
Since its 1941 opening and the introduction of jet aircraft there 25 years later, the airport’s travel corridors have been adjusted based on operational needs and resident concerns.
In 2015, the FAA implemented a “NextGen” satellite-based navigation system. The change concentrated flight paths in narrow corridors at Reagan National, with the Mount Vernon District in Fairfax County among the most impacted.
Robert Meier, an alternate member of the working group representing the Mount Vernon area, said the proposal laid out on Oct. 23 was “far better than I might have expected,” given the restrictions the airport must work with.
The proposal would deliver “a much more equitable distribution of noise,” Meier said.
It’s unclear when the document will actually end up in the FAA’s hands, given the government shutdown.
“Hopefully they’ll be back on the job shortly,” Mould said.
