Sunday, February 9, 2025

The sound of silence: Military flight noise complaints tanked at ILM following FAA and DOD memo

A U.S. Navy aircraft flies over Thalian Hall in downtown Wilmington March 15, 2021. (Port City Daily/File)

WILMINGTON — The sound of freedom is more neighborly these days.

Noise complaints at Wilmington International Airport have come in at one-sixth the rate they used to in the wake of an agreement to quiet military traffic entering the airfield.

READ MORE: ‘IT’S THE SOUND OF FREEDOM’: Here’s why military aircraft love Wilmington airspace

The airport started receiving complaints en masse in March 2021 because Marine Corps jets were refueling at fixed-base operator Modern Aviation before conducting training flights in the area; FBOs are private companies that provide aircraft maintenance services.

Modern got the go-ahead to perform “hot” refuels for military aircrafts in the summer of 2020. The specialty method for military aircraft allows them to land, fuel up without cutting their engines and within a few minutes take off again.

The airport started tracking complaints in early 2021. ILM spokesperson Erin McNally said between March and December 2021, the airport received 133 noise complaints due to the jets, but for the entirety of 2022 it only received 25.

Military jets normally would be allowed to come in at a lower altitude than commercial planes, with their engines producing decibels capable of destroying hearing during training flights.

Residents within the flight paths of the airport grumbled about the noise being so loud it shook their homes; military flights do not have to follow federal air traffic noise and approach regulations.

The number of protests has fallen off since an agreement between the Federal Aviation Commission and the Department of Defense was put in place Jan. 7, 2022. Jets now have to remain and approach landing at a higher altitude, starting at 2,500 feet. Before, they were exempt from altitude restrictions.

The jets also must now kill afterburners — an increase in thrust — when they get close to the ground.

State Sen. Deb Butler (D-18) faced backlash from some members of the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners for pushing politicians and Marines personnel to mint the agreement in response to complaints. It appears the efforts worked (Butler could not immediately be reached for comment).

Military traffic at the airport overall has declined from its high point in 2021 of 14,245 flights to 10,856 in 2022. This is more similar to previous years. Data ILM shared with Port City Daily shows the airport accommodated 11,430 military flights in 2019 and 11,547 in 2020.

The Marine Corps did not respond by press to PCD’s question about why traffic declined from 2021 to 2022.

The airport stayed busy in 2022 regardless. It drew a comparison between 2022 and 2019, the last comparable year pre-pandemic, in its annual summary showing record passengers in 2022.

Despite the lower military traffic, the airport’s revenue has not suffered. McNally said the military traffic has “minimal” impact on the bottom line, though the change could affect Modern’s revenue, the party that sells the military fuel.

In 2021 the airport set its budget at $8.6 million. In 2022 that figure increased to $11.7 million.

The airport is exceeding its revenue projections as well. During the authority’s meeting last week, the monthly finance report revealed a 27.1% increase in December revenue than anticipated — $1.3 million vs. $1.08 million; it also spent 6.4% less than expected.

On the civilian side, the airport added two low-cost carriers last year in Avelo and Sun Country, as well as expanded its continuous routes with nonstop summer service to Boston and year-round trips to New York City’s LaGuardia, both offered by Delta. It is expecting passengership to continue to climb with expanding flight offerings in 2023.

The airport has thousands more seats available this year through June. The largest differences are in March, when the airport expects 129,000 seats compared to 96,000 in 2019, and June, when it has 146,000 planned compared to 117,000 in 2019.


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