Aviation Industry Sends Letter in Opposition of Aircraft Noise Reduction Act
In late December, several aviation industry groups* sent a letter to U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio and Ranking Member Sam Graves, as well as Subcommittee on Aviation Chairman Rick Larsen and Ranking Member Garret Graves, to state their opposition of H.R. 5423, the Aircraft Noise Reduction Act (ANRA), “that aims to severely restrict access to general aviation airports.”
The letter states that by imposing restrictions at the local level, undercuts the “utility and safety of thousands of airports across our nation and reversing course on the need to regulate aviation matters at the federal level.”
Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association, one of the aviation groups that signed the letter, explained the importance of federal oversight of aviation, saying: “For close to 100 years, Congress has recognized that aviation must be regulated at the federal level. The national system of airports would be undermined if restrictions are made at the local level, as the Aircraft Noise Reduction Act is attempting to allow.”
H.R. 5423 would allow general aviation airport operators to impose restrictions on aircraft used for compensation or hire. Not only would these restrictions unnecessarily impede airline and business aviation transportation operations, but critical services – such as air ambulance, organ transport and disaster relief – could be impacted as well.
“H.R. 5423 would undermine the long-standing and intentional role of general aviation airports – acting as relievers to allow certain operations to be conducted away from major airports,” added Bolen. “This legislation could drive general aviation traffic to air carrier airports, creating more congestion and potentially negatively impacting safety.”
H.R. 5423 was introduced Dec. 12, 2019, and sent to the Subcommittee on Aviation the following day. No other action had been reported at press time.
*The following aviation industry groups signed the opposition letter:
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Airlines for America, Cargo Airline Association, Experimental Aircraft Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, Helicopter Association International, National Air Transportation Association, National Business Aviation Association and Regional Airline Association.
NOTAMs: Changes Starting this Month
as part of Modernization Effort
Per the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Key Milestones of the NOTAM Modernization Effort will affect pilots this month in regard to changes to the Federal NOTAM System (FNS):
Jan. 24, 2020, Pilot Web NOTAM System and pilots will use NOTAM search to access all NOTAMS.
In June 2020, all other feeds to NOTAM manager will be turned off creating a single technology gateway for entering, processing and retrieving all NOTAM data.
January 2021, domestic NOTAMS will be in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) format. They’ll also be sortable by “Q” codes, improving filterability in NOTAM Search.
In 2022, update of NOTAM Order 7930.2S to align it with ICAO requirements will be complete. All NOTAMs in the system will be published in ICAO format, including regulatory/Flight Data Center (FDC) NOTAMs. We will have a single NOTAM repository, with searching/sorting/archiving/filtering capabilities, and with single machine-readable and human-readable formats.