What Would You Want?

Paine Field in Seattle suburb Everett, Washington, is definitely a unique airport. It's home to many GA aircraft and historical planes...to include an extremely rare Me-262. It's also the production and test facility for many of Boeing's big jets (the 787 just made news by flying there.)

It has a 3 runways (one big enough for the 747 and 777,) a control tower and sees 144,000 operations (takeoffs and landings) a year. It seems only natural that a couple of airlines would start running a few flights out of there every day, right?

Natural or not, over 400 locals vocalized their severe disapproval of airline operations from Paine Field at a recent FAA hearing.

The Seattle Times reports that at this hearing, the FAA presented an environmental study and other justification for allowing Horizon to turn four flights to Portland and two bound for Spokane each day and for Allegiant to make two Vegas runs a week. All in all, this would add 8,000 operations a year. The local citizens complained that the noise would bother them and that wildlife would be impacted.

I certainly understand how people would be concerned about big jets operating out of a hometown field. I'd definitely be a bit leery about student pilots in the pattern when big jets are around. The thing is, this field already has some big jet traffic. Boeing flies their heaviest iron from this field. Allegiant flies DC-9/MD-80 era jets that can't have as much impact as a 747. Horizon flies Q400s and CRJ700s. From the comments of the crowd you'd think that Allegiant planned to make it's Vegas runs with an A380. It seems like the pilots at this field are probably already used to operating around large aircraft and the community has heard far worse than what these airlines might bring.

So, what would you do (or have you done) in this situation? Would you be opposed to some increased air traffic if it meant more travel options for you and more revenue for your community? Do these types of aircraft have enough noise and environmental impact to pass on the opportunity? What would you tell the FAA if you were at this a meeting like this in your home town? Leave a comment and let us know!