Plane Problem

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Clay Lacy, who runs a charter fleet of about 40 airplanes out of Van Nuys Airport, is worried.


His company, Clay Lacy Aviation Inc., operates one of the country’s largest fleets of so-called Stage 2 aircraft, but concerns over the noise made by that class of planes largely older business charters has led Congress to consider a ban.


A budget reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration includes a provision that would phase out the aircraft one of the biggest sources of airport noise complaints over the next five years.


Such an action would ground a quarter of Lacy’s fleet, costing him an estimated $15 million of his $80 million in annual revenue. He figures replacing the 10 planes would be too costly, while selling them abroad would bring in little.


“Stage 2 airplanes are still very viable airplanes,” said Lacy, the company’s president and founder. “There’s no doubt that they’re somewhat noisier but they’re not that noisy. It’s not a real issue.”


Lacy’s far from the only aircraft operator concerned, both locally and across the country.


More than 1,000 Stage 2 aircraft, such as the popular 1960s business jet Gulfstream II, frequent the skies over general aviation airports across the country, but a renewed push to phase out the loud planes is looking to cause certain turbulence among operators and the businesses that support them.


Use of the aircraft has declined markedly in recent years, but Van Nuys Airport the largest general aviation airport in the country is one of the primary facilities that still hosts the planes, with 32 based there and others landing and taking off.


Robert Rodine, principal consultant for the Polaris Group, which has studied industry issues for Van Nuys Airport, has found that the local economic impact would be between $10 million and $13 million annually for each plane grounded.


That loss includes ticket revenue, fuel sales and other ancillary expenditures such as maintenance and passenger parking fees. The total impact could top $400 million.


“It is an outrageously large number for a community to suffer. And it’s not just loss of business; it’s a loss of jobs,” he said.



Congressional action

Politicians, prodded by community groups, have sought to ban the aircraft for years, as technological advances have made newer planes quieter and more fuel efficient. The stage designation, which takes into account a variety of factors including plane weight and engine displacement, is assigned by the government based on a series of complex calculations.


Nearly all of the ear-splittingly loud Stage 1 planes, like the original Learjet models, have been put out of commission, while quieter Stage 3 planes dominate the skies. Stage 3 planes are most of those that were manufactured after 1977, which include Boeing Co.’s 767. Meanwhile, the government recently approved a Stage 4 classification for even quieter newly manufactured aircraft.


Previous efforts to ban Stage 2 planes were partly successful, with all planes greater than 75,000 pounds grounded in 2000. But noise is still an issue for some residents.


In 2006, Van Nuys received 169 noise complaints from the surrounding community, said Diana Sanchez, the airport’s director of community relations. But the complaints were highly concentrated: They came from a total of eight households, with one issuing more than 130.


And the correlation between those complaints and the use of Stage 2 aircraft is unclear. Rodine said his studies have found no link between Stage 2 planes and the noise complaints.


Still, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., a longtime supporter of grounding Stage 2 planes who has authored the latest proposed ban, said the aircraft burn more fuel and present a significant noise disturbance to communities across the country.


“For many years, I have called on the aviation industry to phase out these older planes that pollute our neighborhoods with noise,” Lautenberg said in a prepared statement. “As we face more and more air traffic, it’s time to finally phase out these planes in order to maintain our quality of life.”


A vote on the proposed ban within the FAA reauthorization bill is not yet scheduled but is expected in the next couple of months.


Brendan Huffman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a San Fernando Valley business group, said that in lieu of a mandatory phase-out, government and industry should come up with an acceptable compromise.


“There are a lot of jobs and businesses associated with those jets in Van Nuys, and banning the jets is not a balanced solution,” said Huffman. “I’m sure the city could think of a creative way to speed up the phase out of these jets through some incentives, probably working with state and federal regulators.”


Mark Sullivan, president of Skytrails Aviation, a Van Nuys fuel and hangar provider, is hoping that some plane owners will opt for another solution: buying retrofit kits that bring Stage 2 planes to acceptable Stage 3 standards.


But at a cost of roughly $1 million, it might not be a palatable solution to every operator. If they don’t retrofit, Sullivan estimates he will lose up to $10,000 a day in revenue for each Stage 2 plane that he would have serviced that is put out of commission.


And with his company generating about $25 million annually, it’s the kind of loss that is significant to the bottom line.


“It could be a lot of money,” he said.

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