The 4th-district councilmember acknowledged that, while eventually the city council will be considering a request by JetBlue Airways to build a federal customs inspection facility at the local municipal airport, that’s not why he decided to post the preliminary figures for the noise violations for July and August. Building a customs facility is a necessary step in order for the airport to offer international flights.
“I deal with complaints on airport noise on a daily basis, independent of where the international terminal stands,” Supernaw said. “And so what we found is putting these numbers out there actually gives my residents a feeling that we’re keeping an eye on it, and they don’t have to call or complain because they know that we’re tracking it.”
Last week, Supernaw reported in his weekly email newsletter that JetBlue was “fined $54,000 for August noise violations.”
The councilmember put the figures in context and also explained that an incident involving a military plane caused numerous delays in flights.
“To put August’s one-month fine in perspective, it’s within $2,600 of the entire second quarter (April/May/June) fine total of $56,400,” Supernaw wrote in his newsletter. “A breakdown shows a total of 42 operations between 10pm and 7am for the month of August. Due to the Air Force T-38 trainer incident on Aug. 19, there were 11 operations that were conducted after 10pm.”
JetBlue has a special consent decree with the City of Long Beach. Under this agreement, the airline has agreed to pay a particular rate for their noise violations. Stephanie Montuya-Morisky, who serves as the acting public-affairs officer for the Long Beach Airport, stated that the July and August reports are only preliminary. They are subject to review by the Airport Advisory Commission, which has not yet met, before they are official.
Montuya-Morisky noted that JetBlue is the only airline with a consent decree, and the other airlines that serve the airport are subject to fines that begin at $100. The fourth and subsequent violations will incur fines of $300. However, there is little tolerance for repeat offenses.
The airport spokesman explained the repercussions.
“[In] the event of numerous repeat violations,” Montuya-Morisky said in an email, “they will be evaluated in consultation with the city prosecutor’s office for potential criminal prosecution in accordance with LBMC 16.43.100. In other words, an operator cannot repeatedly violate the ordinance with a $300 fine.”
She noted that military aircraft are exempt from this policy.
JetBlue Airways was contacted to comment about the violations of the noise ordinance. In an email statement, Morgan Johnston, who serves as a manager of corporate communications for JetBlue, was asked if there was any ability for JetBlue to reduce the number of incidents that would cause a noise violation.
“JetBlue’s goal is to fly its fully published flight schedule so that each of our customers who have purchased travel can get where they wish to go,” Johnston said in his email. “Unfortunately, when weather, the cause of most FAA-imposed air traffic control delays, slows things down, flights do occasionally operate late, and we do all we can to minimize these delays.” He further added that the additional flight slots that were awarded to JetBlue earlier this year have not affected his airline’s ability to schedule flights. He explained that JetBlue has “added the mix of temporary one-year slots to its slot portfolio and spread the operations evenly throughout the day to our dozen destinations.”
Supernaw said that the repeated violations of the noise ordinance happen often. In July, he noted that the noise violations averaged at least once about every day.
“And for folks who live under the flight path, this is no surprise,” Supernaw said, “but people who don’t live under the flight path were really shocked by the numbers and had no idea that the noise ordinance is being violated on a daily basis.”
