City And Affected Neighborhoods Will Present Arguments To The Court

The U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments March 17 in a case brought by the City of Phoenix and residents of several of the city's neighborhoods who say new flight paths to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport has deteriorated their quality of life.

The Arizona Republic reports that the complaints about noise from airliners began to come in immediately after the FAA changed flight paths into Sky Harbor in September 2014 as part of its NextGen implementation program. The city filed a lawsuit against the FAA in June of 2015, and several neighborhood associations filed a separate suit a few months later.

The cases will be heard together. Both ask the court to find that the FAA did not follow proper procedures when it made the decision to change the flight paths.

The case is being closely watched by other cities where changes in approach and departure corridors occurred as the FAA has implemented out NextGen.

The new flight paths in Phoenix and other cities are being used to better manage air traffic, and increase fuel efficiency of aircraft. The FAA reportedly did not expect significant impacts when the changes were made in Phoenix, and did not conduct the intensive environmental studies that would have been required otherwise.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/afs/afs400/afs470/pbn/