The authority’s opposition to the project comes after Los Angeles World Airports — which oversees operations at the Van Nuys Airport as well as Los Angeles International Airport, Palmdale Airport and Ontario International Airport — released its report on the phaseout project Oct. 7 for public comment.
The Van Nuys Airport will be excepting public comments until Dec. 1, airport spokeswoman Diana Sanchez said.
The airport hasn’t received the authority’s comment in opposition to the phaseout project, she said.
“We are just gathering comments right now, so we haven’t seen all the comments,” Sanchez said.
The report indicates that especially noisy aircraft would be phased out during a seven-year period.
The plan would not allow planes louder than 85 decibels to fly in or out of Van Nuys Airport in January 2009. Planes louder than 83 decibels would not be permitted at the start of 2011, and planes exceeding 77 decibels would be barred from operating at the airport beginning in 2016.
The phaseout includes retiring some aircraft, replacing older airplane engines with new ones and diverting the noisier planes to other airports, according the report.
Los Angeles World Airports’ Board of Airport Commissioners still needs to approve the plan, Sanchez said. If the plan is approved, the Los Angeles World Airports will submit its plan to the Los Angeles City Council for approval.
“It does not have to be approved by the [Federal Aviation Authority] because we are grandfathered by the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990,” she said.
But the authority argued that the FAA should also approve the plan, Gill said.
The authority is concerned that while some airplanes will be sent to Camarillo Airport, William J. Fox Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and Chino Airport, most will head over to Burbank since the city is home to so many people in show business.
“People who generally own these airplanes are in the entertainment industry,” Gill said.
The report indicates that Bob Hope Airport will be minimally affected by the phaseout, but the authority fears otherwise.
“If they are forced out of that airport, where do they go?” Gill asked.
But the authority would support Van Nuys Airport if it considered a nighttime curfew similar to the one proposed for Bob Hope Airport, Gill said.
The authority is completing a Part 161 study to the FAA that would ban noisy planes from operating at Bob Hope between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
