- Boeing Field is a General Aviation (GA) Airport, owned and managed by King County. It
leases property to tenants, such as Boeing, UPS, Airborne Express, corporate jets, private
aircraft, etc., who conduct flight operations. Because it is a general aviation airport, other
aircraft (transient operators, such as Alaska Airlines) can land and take off provided they meet
the airports' regulations, which are currently minimal. There are no noise restrictions or time of
operation restrictions.
- In the first 7 months of 1996 Boeing Field has received 700 noise complaints from residents
in 27 zip Codes; nearly 60% were from night flights (10 p.m. to 7 a.m.).
- On November 20 1995, the King County Council passed a motion (9-749) that included
plans to develop regulations to limit Stage 2 aircraft (e.g. very noisy Alaska Airlines 737-200)
operations at night, and to pursue further goals of restricting all hushkitted Stage 3 aircraft at
night . King County funded half a million dollars to do this work, however the formal process
to achieve these goals may take several years.
- According to the National Business Aircraft Association (NOAA), approximately 622
airports in the U.S. have some sort of noise restriction ranging from no takeoffs at night to a
caution note which requests pilots to avoid overflight of a school two miles south of the
runway. For example, San Diego International shuts down departures completely at night, and
Washington National Airport in D.C. has a nighttime noise restriction limit of 72 dBA for take-
offs and 85 dBA for approaches (nearly all large jets and some corporate jets would be unable
to meet these limits.)
- According to preliminary information from TRA-BV, consultants preparing the Master Plan
for Boeing Field, the Boeing Company contributed $900 million to the King County economy
in 1994, and were the source of 9 of the 700 noise complaints in the first half of 1996, whereas
the remaining operators at Boeing Field brought in $200 million to King County's economy in
1994. and were the source of 488 noise complaints in the that half of 1996 (203 of the 700 were
of unknown source).
Prepared by Citizens Fed-up with Aviation Noise, 2017 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121
Phone: 723-9822
7/15/96