The Federal Aviation Administration has released a record of decision for a project that seeks to replace traditional air traffic control methods with satellite-based procedures.
FAA said Friday the finding of no significant impact decision on the Southern California Metroplex project comes after the agency conducted 90 public meetings and responded to at least 4,000 public comments.
The Metroplex project is part of FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System and covers a total of 99 satellite-based air traffic control procedures for departures, arrivals and approach operations.
The project covers 15 satellite airports and six major airports and seeks to increase the number of entry and exit points that go through the airspace of Southern California.
FAA said satellite-based air traffic control methods aim to facilitate use of fixed aircraft routes, speeds and altitudes as well as reduce pilot-controller communications and vectoring operations.
An environmental noise analysis at over 330,000 locations showed that the implementation of the satellite-based procedures as part of the Metroplex project would not lead to significant noise increases under the National Environmental Policy Act.
FAA said it plans to implement the use of the satellite-based methods in November through April 2017 and will hold public outreach efforts to notify people of the project prior to the procedures’ publication.
