Calgary airport noise complaints being addressed, says spokesperson

Noise complaints have increased dramatically from about 233 individual calls to roughly 1,500 since a new runway opened at the Calgary airport last June.

"What we're seeing with some of our calls that are coming in now, are people who are calling multiple times," Calgary Airport Authority spokesperson Jody Moseley told the Calgary Eyeopener's David Gray on Thursday.

"[About] 51 per cent of our stats are from repeat callers. We did have an individual that made several calls over a few months — 300 to 400 calls a month from one individual."

Moseley said the new runway has brought new flight paths and aircraft to different areas of the airport, and increased noise complaints with it.

She noted the airport authority has been working with several groups, including community associations surrounding the airport, to address concerns.

Moseley said Nav Canada will oversee a change to the flight paths of YYC aircraft starting in April. Nav Canada must first publish the change in its documentation for everyone who uses the airport traffic system.

"What we're trying to do is get aircraft to go a little bit higher and a little bit straighter, and that really keeps them as close to industrial paths as possible," she said.

The safety requirement currently for YYC aircraft is to divert 15 degrees from each other to ensure aircraft don't collide. The change will reduce that requirement to 10 degrees.