A new plan may change the way airplanes and other air traffic arrives at the San Diego International Airport.
As part of a proposal to improve the flow of air traffic into Southern Californian airports, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking to change air traffic procedures to a satellite-based system.
In lieu of this change, the U.S. Department of Transportation and FAA will be holding a meeting in San Diego about the Draft Environmental Assessment for the Southern California Metroplex project.
“Public engagement and participation in the Southern California Metroplex process is critical,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “We take public input very seriously, and we strongly encourage people, agencies and officials to learn about, and weigh in on, this proposal.”
The Metroplex proposal, which encompases several Southern California airports, is meant to increase the efficiency of the way planes come in to those airports primarily by switching them over to the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System, NextGen.
“Many of the current air traffic procedures in Southern California are decades old,” the release said.
The procedures in place are safe, but rely on ground-based navigation aids instead of satellite-based procedures. Those aids limit the possible flight paths coming into the airport.
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Satellite-based procedures, on the other hand, let planes take a more direct route, altitude and spped coming in. The project will also expand how many entry and exit points planes have when coming in and out of the plane, creating more on- and off-ramps in the sky.
The San Diego meeting will be held on June 22 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Logan Heights Library, located at 567 S. 28th Street in San Diego. In advance of the process, residents can leave comments here.
