Delco snubbed: FAA pushes ahead with airspace redesign
We residents of Delaware County are coming to the realization that it’s going to be an uphill slog to resist the FAA’s plans to redirect flight paths from Philadelphia International Airport right over our heads.
Today, the FAA officially identified its preference for the so-called “Integrated Airspace Alternative.” Yes, Delco sports fans, that’s the one where planes taking off from PHL can turn turn directly over our heads, instead of having to stay over the Delaware River until they’ve achieved sufficient altitude.
If you peruse the documents pertaining to the airspace plans on the FAA site, you quickly realize why we’re hosed. Although County Councilman Andrew Reilly (R) and other politicians have cast this as a highly local issue about the Philadelphia Airport, the FAA has tied the traffic issues of the Philadelphia Airport with those of Newark, JFK, and LaGuardia. When you calculate the untold billions of dollars of commercial interest invested in these gigantic airports, you realize that a half million residents of a suburban county are an afterthought.
The FAA will hold one open meeting in Pennsylvania to allow for public comment. (Aren’t we so lucky?) Of course, they’re holding it in a hotel down at the airport. I’d love to see them come out to one of the affected areas, like Media or Ridley Park, because they ought to see the area and the residents that they’re really impacting.And you know they’d get an earful.
County Council is threatening to sue, although from what I’ve heard from others who know more, it’s difficult to find legal grounds to stop the FAA. They apparently have pretty broad latitude to do whatever they want. Andy Reilly (R) and Co. haven’t advanced a legal theory by which they might be able to withstand the FAA, but I suspect that his tough talk is as much about the posture as it as about results. He’s still plotting the next step in his political career, after all.
Our best hope now is to get some relief from Congress; some recognition from the Aviation committee that the FAA might need more oversight and restrictions to its ability to claim eminent domain to the air above your head.
This strikes me as an undeveloped market. Like in other matters of pollution, maybe a cap-and-trade system is needed. If Delaware County could sell direct flight-path routes to the airlines, we could at least be compensated for the real costs to us of the extra noise and pollution. Then perhaps, the airlines and air travellers who most wanted shorter delays and more direct routes could buy and trade their “tokens” to go over Delco instead of the Delaware River. The cost-conscious consumer could take the flight that takes a little longer, while the premium airline passenger could spend the extra money for a flight that takes less time and has a lower likelihood of delay. In the meantime, we’d retain our privileges to balance the compensation against the various inconveniences. If we can be paid fairly for our troubles, the market should reach equilibrium over time.
Unfortunately, this is a case where we seemingly have no standing in the marketplace. At least we know that it’ll be years before actual changes to flight paths will be permitted to take place. There is a little time for some mitigation to this initial plan. Here’s hoping that Joe Sestak can find some leverage over the FAA in the form of support from his colleagues in the House.
For more of the political reaction to the FAA’s decision, see today’s Delco Times and Inquirer takes on the news.
(Image courtesy of flickr user TalkingTree.com, provided under a Creative Commons license.)
Filed under Environment, Congress, FAA, Delaware County, Issues, Joe Sestak, Politics | RSS
This “solution” will do next to nothing to reduce delays in Philadelphia or anywhere in the Northeast US. The real culprit is that airlines, with the blessing of the FAA, overbook popular flight times on popular routes in an attempt to maximize profit. The delays are destined to happen, mix bad weather into this overburdened set of runways and flyways and you end up with a mess.
Allowing flights to turn right at very low speeds and at very low altitudes over densely populated Delaware County will allow the control tower to clear the next flight for take off a minute or so faster than it can now. Will the flight arrive a minute earlier on the other end? Frankly, it depends on the scheduling and the weather.
The added danger of fully-fueled, fully-throttled jets swinging a few hundred feet above dense suburbia is not worth the tiny benefit that the airline industry hopes it will realize.
Yes, but what to do?
Well, I have to say that I am of two minds on this one. I travel a good bit and I am sick of late, overbooked flights. But I grew up in Southern Delaware County, in the area most likely to be impacted by this decision.
I think that 6 minutes a flight is a lot, especially as you look forward and see how many more flights are expected here in the coming years.
This is a fait a compli. County COuncil can sue, but it’s going to happen.
The only thing we can all do, and no legal BS to get in the way: BOYCOTT THE AIRPORT.
What percentage of the airport passengers live in Delaware county?
Population of Delco was about 550,000 from 2000 census.
This is roughly 1/3 of Philadelphia’s 1.5 million.
Seems to me that a Delco boycott would have an impact.
This is one of those examples where the constituents of the county never got a real voice in the debate. I already have FedEx planes buzzing overhead every 10-minutes. I think the affected areas should get some monetary relief from the airport and airlines. (Funny thing about the airport - the majority of it lies in Delco, but the revenue is split with Philadelphia.
Any idea how we find out if anyone on Council was lobbied by the industry?
There may be a way to mount a legal challenge to the FAA plan if we liken it to an unwarranted form of eminent domain: big government uses taxpayer money to diminish property values in order to serve the business interests of big business.
Instead of government condemning the private property of an individual to better serve the larger public interest, because it should, what we have here is big government trampling on the rights of an entire county of taxpaying, property owning families, because it can.
The FAA is being aggressively lobbied by the airline industry and airport management groups (which really are private, for-profit corporate entities) to solve a business problem for them.
Every variation of the new flight plan being considered by the FAA will bring profound negative effects to our lives. They offer no real choice. We, as taxpayers, will be paying for the sound pollution we will constantly hear, the nano-particulate pollution we will breathe, the low- vibration that will increase stress levels and damage structures. And the FAA wants us to like it.
Can we do anything?
Perhaps there can be a class-action lawsuit to compel the FAA to offer a buyout to every property holder in Delaware County. Similar suits could be filed against the airport and the airlines themselves, either collectively or individually. We could then follow up with a series of legal challenges addressing the litany of problems that will surely flow from this plan, and demanded studies on each health concern.
Could this work? We may have to settle for pitting the government against the corporations and the corporations against each other. If this was done skillfully, it could tie the whole project up in court for years. Even a few years would buy time for a more concerted opposition.
As it is, our time to act is very short. Any lawyers out there?