Residents Brace For 10X Increase In FedEx Flights From KGSO

Plans by FedEx to step up operations at Piedmont Triad International Airport have NIMBYs up in arms, and there's no denying the company's plans could have a significant impact on their quality of life. WGHP-TV notes that FedEx currently operates nine-to-ten daily flights from the airport known locally as PTI. That could reach 126 per day, and many of those flights would be at night.

The High Point (NC) City Council, to its credit, is talking not about pointless head-butting with the FAA over jurisdiction, but rather about revising its zoning plans to prevent more incompatible land development directly under routes out of the airport. On Monday, council held a public hearing and got an earful from residents concerned not only with the noise of low-passing cargo jets, but safety, in the wake of a GA accident in which a plane departing the airport hit a home in March. The homeowner's family was not injured, but their home was set ablaze, and the two occupants of the aircraft died.

But zoning changes won't be much help to the NIMBYs already living in the noisy neighborhoods. Mary Jo Rumbaugh, who spoke at Monday night's meeting and lives in the Fraser Downs neighborhood where the March accident happened, told council, "I know that they bought some homes out closest to the airport. I want my house bought."

More meetings are planned with residents in specific neighborhoods most affected.

Unlike some NIMBY stories, it's not hard to find people happy that FedEx is expanding in the area. The Piedmont area has been booming for years, and some see the noise problem as a small price to pay for new jobs and economic growth. Resident Dick Morse told WGHP, "The more commercial traffic we have in and out of this airport, the greater the benefit to the local economy. I'm glad to see FedEx here, and I hope they prosper."

But like most other NIMBY stories, many of the people complaining in this case don't own up to the fact that they chose to buy homes near an airport. Piedmont Triad International has been in its current location since 1941. FedEx's plans to make the airport a new mid-Atlantic hub were announced in 1998. And FedEx has always done much of its flying at night.

FMI: Proposed Zoning Changes ; Piedmonth Triad International Airport