Nav Canada has developed a new method for guiding incoming planes to the Calgary International Airport that is expected to shorten flight times and save fuel but the proposed plan may create noise over neighbourhoods.
On Wednesday evening, Nav Canada hosted a public meeting at Ambrose University in the community of Springbank Hill. Despite the fact the southwest neighbourhood is nearly 25 kilometres from the airport terminal, its residents have filed numerous complaints about increased noise since the airport opened a new runway in June of 2014.
Nav Canada’s ‘Required Navigation Performance’ (RPN) procedure has some residents on Calgary’s westside fearing it will coincide with a bump in noise pollution levels as a video produced for Nav Canada shows additional routes overtop of the western city limits. RPN allows pilots the ability to directly guide their aircraft to the airport using a satellite system.
Ward 6 councillor Richard Pootmans says the likely solution to the flight path issue will involve a compromise that will fail to satisfy everyone’s concerns.
“The new runway has occasioned these new flight paths, so if we can get Nav-Can to vary them occasionally so that the same well-worn paths are not over the same neighbourhoods all the time, I think that's a reasonable position to take,” said Pootmans. “We enjoy the benefits of air travel so we have to accept that comes with some cost, some inconvenience.”
“Is it fair to have the same neighbourhoods, the same areas, burdened day after day?”
Wednesday’s public meeting was the first of eight meetings Nav Canada has scheduled for the Calgary area. For a list of times and location, or for additional information of the flight paths, visit the Calgary International Airport – Required Navigation Performance.
With files from CTV's Kevin Green
