By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The Federal Aviation Administration is postponing updating flight paths for Valley airports after receiving a large volume of public comments on the plan.
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The delay echoes a conflict that began more than a decade ago. In 2014, the FAA changed flight paths in and out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport without warning and without seeking public input. That move triggered a federal lawsuit.
Brent Kleinman, who lives in the Encanto-Palmcroft Historic District, led his neighborhood association at the time and helped win that lawsuit against the FAA.
“The rattling that happened as planes were flying overhead scared me, my wife, the dogs,” Kleinman said. “We were dedicated, and we believed there was a cause to fight for.”
The FAA’s current proposal would update flight paths to use satellite-based navigation, which the agency says would produce safer and more efficient flights.
“From a pilot perspective and a user, I see this as being very little change in the way we are doing things now,” said Cary Grant, a pilot and professor of aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle University.
The FAA said the volume of public feedback is the reason the agency needs more time to complete its environmental review.
Grant said he was a little bit surprised by the delay but thinks it’s a reasonable step.
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“I think it’s good for the FAA to say, ‘OK, let’s slow down. Let’s take a look at this and address the residents’ concerns that they have out there,’” Grant said.
Kleinman submitted comments this time around and said he helped 35 of his neighbors write in as well. The City of Phoenix Aviation Department also weighed in, filing an citing noise impacts and called supporting documents “unnecessarily confusing and, in some cases, misleading.”
“I think 2014 Brent is screaming in the back of my ear, ‘Don’t trust them,’” Kleinman said. “When the FAA came out and said, ‘Well, of course we’re going to do this.’ You can’t take that and a dollar and buy anything.”
Kleinman said he wants the FAA to be specific about what the changes would mean for neighborhoods like his.
“It’s a fight for specificity, in all honesty,” he said.
The FAA said it hopes to roll out the new flight paths by June 2027, although they didn’t not respond to Arizona’s Family when asked how many comments were received through the process or what the contents of those comments were.
For more on the Draft Environmental Assessment, click/tap here.
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