Huh? When I read this story over at Aviation Week I was kind taken aback. I’ve never heard of an airport requiring an airline to perform trials like these before, but I guess I’m still pretty wet behind the ears.
Basically, Air Canada had to bring an A319 down to Orange County, push in some newspapers to make the airplane weigh as if it was carrying passengers, and do a few takeoff runs. This is primarily due to Orange County’s strict noise abatement policy. I guess SNA has some vocal NIMBYs.
While I understand residents would want to minimize noise, I think this goes a little too far. The noise performance of the A319 is pretty well-documented, and flying a plane down from Canada and back (empty, I assume) and doing these tests can be expensive.
In an environment where airports around the country are fighting or will be fighting to mainatin air service, places like SNA shouldn’t be too picky when an airline wants to start service, in my opinion. It’s not like Air Canada wanted to bring in DC-9s at 6 AM or anything like that.
Everytime I hear about SNA, I think annoying noise abatement procedure. Reminds me of my hometown airport, where people are protesting a new hangar (replacing one from 1920) to house planes, that are already based at the field, all because of noise. I think you’re right on to say, “In an environment where airports around the country are fighting or will be fighting to mainatin air service, places like SNA shouldn’t be too picky when an airline wants to start service…”
This is absolutely ridiculous. As you said, it’s not like they were flying old DC-9s or MD-80s early in the morning or late at night. In my opinion, it’s the best way to make sure that airlines won’t want to start service at their airport… Great blog by the way!