TIA ruffled about noise violations

Southwest Airlines pilots change landing patterns to quicker, noisier routes, which is against the airport's noise abatement policy, officials say.

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 3, 2000

TAMPA -- The 1996 arrival of Southwest Airlines, the nation's low-fare air carrier, was one of the best things to happen to Tampa International Airport. But it hasn't been such a hot deal for some of the airport's neighbors.

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For the past few years, complaints from South Tampa residents about excessive aircraft noise have been on the rise. When airport officials investigated, they found that Southwest pilots had developed a habit of deviating from TIA's noise abatement procedures, flying landing patterns that take them over homes, where they aren't supposed to be, apparently in an effort to save a few seconds of taxi time on the ground.

Southwest is doing it nearly twice as often as all the other carriers at the airport combined, they said.

"We are trying to be good neighbors, but if pilots don't comply with the noise rules, then we're not achieving what we need to achieve," said Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. "If it takes me going to Southwest Airlines and sitting down with (CEO) Herb Kelleher, I'll do that."

According to TIA's plan to limit aircraft noise, all jets landing to the north are supposed to use the runway on the airport's west side, 36-Left, where their approach is almost entirely over water. Southwest pilots often request "sidesteps" to eastern runway 36-Right, which takes their approaches over neighborhoods.

"The pilots are in command," Miller said. "The tower advises them that sidestepping to 36R will be a violation of the airport's noise abatement program, but they say they want to do it anyway, and there is no way to stop them."

Airport officials know how many complaints they get about jets deviating to runway 36R, but they don't know how many deviations go unreported. So the Aviation Authority board voted Thursday to spend more than $21,000 to study the flight patterns of every takeoff and landing at the airport.

If the study finds a serious problem, the authority could ask the Federal Aviation Administration to regulate an end to the deviations by making formal changes in the airport's landing patterns.

Last Nov. 15, Kenneth Johnson, TIA's assistant director of airport operations, wrote to Southwest's vice president for flight operations and documented nine Southwest flights that sidestepped to 36R in a nine-day period.

"They never responded," Miller said Thursday. "We never got an answer."

Southwest spokeswoman Melanie Jones said Thursday the individual to whom the letter was sent retired about the same time. Jones said the airline was investigating to determine whether there was a response to the letter or other action taken.

Complaints about aircraft noise rose from 61 in 1998 to 155 last year. Some of the increase is due to greater public awareness of the airport's noise abatement program, Miller said, but some of it is because of increased violation of the rules.

Between January and September 1999, airport officials investigated 47 noise complaints due to airline sidestepping to runway 36R and found that 29 of the violations were Southwest flights. The next highest was six by Delta Air Lines.

Southwest pilots sometimes tell controllers they are too close to the airline in front of them and must sidestep to runway 36R, Miller said. If they really are too close, he said, the only alternative to approving the sidestep is for controllers to order the airliner to execute a "missed approach" and go around to try landing again, a maneuver that could cost 10 to 15 extra minutes.

Miller said he suspects Southwest pilots are motivated to request sidesteps because the airline operates out of Airside A, a much shorter taxi from runway 36R. Saving taxi time could improve the airline's record for getting planes in and out of the airport within 20 minutes, a key to Southwest's success.

"They save 45, 50, 55 seconds, maybe a minute of taxi time. That's all," he said. "And they are bothering a lot of people."

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