July 2021 DCA Noise Meeting Summary
Meeting Highlights
MWAA Update: COVID pandemic continues to impact airport operations and airport financial situation. Takeoffs and landings at both airports are showing steady increases — at DCA, 500-520 operations daily vs pre-pandemic 800 operations
At Dulles, international travel is struggling to rebound due to the number of countries experiencing COVID issues and restricting travel. While we are optimistic, we are also cautious. This is why CDC and TSA are maintaining the mask mandates on planes and in airports.
Arlington and Montgomery County Consultant Update: Two documents were distributed to the working group: An executive summary for Recommendation #22 being presented tonight and a full report for the FAA. Recommendation #22 would provide noise mitigation for communities along the entire south flow approach corridor while enabling the use of a new RNAV GPS approach procedure that offers benefits to air traffic controllers and the airlines.
Ken Hartmen, chair of the North of the Airport Committee: This recommendation is complex with many moving pieces, based on a set of criteria which was created out of the public process. Often difficult because communities are spread out and solutions can be both simple and quite complex. Thank you to every member of the committee who assisted, including the great team at ABCx2 for their work. Much work has gone into arrivals, but the county’s renewed agreement will now allow us to look at departures and how we handle noise in the broader airspace. We will keep working on this going forward. i. Draft North of the Airport committee recommendations document executive summary: Provides noise mitigation to the entire south flow arrival corridor. Implement this in its entirety. Recommending that FAA and Potomac TRACON expand the “terminal arrival area concept” (TAA).
After Jim Allerdice of ABCx2 finished his presentation on Recommendation 22, the working group voted to approve #22 and put it forward for the FAA's consideration.
