Congressmen pressure FAA for Burbank airport curfew

Residents near Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport may sleep a bit more soundly soon. Two Congressmen are putting pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration to grant the airport a long-requested mandatory curfew on night time flights. KPCC’s Washington Correspondent Kitty Felde reports.

Activists have been trying to cut down on the noise ever since the first jet planes arrived at the Burbank airport 40 years ago. Commercial airlines have agreed to a voluntary curfew. They don’t fly between 10 at night and 7 in the morning. Now the targets are cargo planes and noisy small aircraft.

On Capitol Hill, Congressmen Adam Schiff and Howard Berman asked the Federal Aviation Administration to give “fair consideration” to residents who live with “airport noise day and night.” To press the point, the Burbank Democrats voiced concerns about the FAA’s curfew application process on the House floor and to the chairman of the subcommittee that funds the FAA.

The application argues that the curfew will cost less than soundproofing homes near the airport. There are similar nighttime curfews at John Wayne, Long Beach, Santa Monica, and Van Nuys airports.