Option F Analysis

Option 6 - Dual, Parallel Runways

Noise Mitigation and Controlling Departure Problems is about 10th on the list of Airport Priorities

At the current time its obvious that the principal objective of the Airport is to accomodate the increasing demands made on Lindbergh Field.  We are the busiest single runway airport in the nation, and probably the world.  We currently service over 227,000 takeoffs and landings each year (that's over 600 per day).  If you devide that by the total time the airport is open (6:30am  - 11:30 pm) it works out to an average of a takeoff or landing every other minute - all day long. 

The second highest priority is to find a new site to relocate the airport.  They have easily proven that there is not enough land to make a second runway and that the current facility will begin having severe traffic problems at 260,000 takeoffs and landings.  In fact, at our current growth rate of 6.3% we will hit over 260,000 by the end of 2008.  The consultants have shown that the upper limit for all traffic through Lindbergh will be 300,000 which should happen sometime by the end of 2010 at this rate.  Obviously this is a big problem, but it doesn't relieve the Airport of its responsibilities to its neighbors.

There are 3 primary contributors to the noise problem that could (and shall) be addressed:

1. The Curfew Violations (takeoffs after 11:30 pm and before 6:30 am) have doubled to 29 penalized in the last year.  The Airport Authority has refused to increase penalties or impose other restrictions on these flights even though it was approved by the FAA in 2001.  It must be a higher priority.

2. The Off-Course Departures have caused flights to fly south of 275 degrees and north of 290 degrees - resulting in noisy and unsafe conditions over people homes not on the legal flight path.  Through the efforts of SANNoise we will (hopefully) see this change.  It's become obvious that neither the FAA nor Airport Authority want to address this long standing problem and have only begun some changes when forced by the public.

3. The Missed Approach flights throughout the day result in flights over homes on both east and west sides of the airport.  Often these are also off-course to keep the unplanned aircraft out of the way for other departing or landing aircraft.  While necessary for safety, its becomming much more common as we try to fit more flights into this 'postage stamp' airport.  With each Missed Approach flight we incur added risk and noise.  It is especially troublesome when it occurs during the Curfew hours.  The Curfew bans departures but arrivals can and do occur throughout the night.  When a Missed Approach happens at 2 am, that is the same noise (or worse) than a takeoff.  Add to this problem is that the majority of these late night arrivals are older, noisier cargo planes.

All this is well known by the Airport Authority.  They also know that nothing will improve as the airport nears its capacity - it can only get worse - MUCH WORSE.