How about more night take offs? Many US airports "close" at 12AM.
Somehow I doubt that the solution to "airports cause too much noise pollution" is "let's stage more of the noisiest aircraft operations right when people are sleeping".
Why is it so hard to build an airport?
151–160 of 574 posts
Re: Why is it so hard to build an airport?
#152As the article points out, expanding the two airports in Chicago are out of the question. And because it is more or less impossible to build a new airport, they are planning to build a "new" airport. Which means that this tiny little thing [1][2], which handles a dozen or two Cessna flights per day, is intended to "grow" into a 4000 acre major international airport. When it grows to its full footprint, the western ed…
That project is a cargo airport, not passengers. At least initially.
Re: Why is it so hard to build an airport?
#153Long & interesting...but a pretty good tl;dr; is: "NIMBY's are why we can't build any major infrastructure any more".
The term NIMBY is thrown around too much. Yes, there are far too many cases where NIMBYism is taken too far. On the other hand, there are legitimate cases. I lived in a small, fly-in community for a while. I was very close to the airport, and some people had houses within a few hundred meters of the runway. There was noise, but it was managable because there were only a handful of flights per day (none at night) and…
Yeah, NIMBY gets used way too much for I want something and screw anyone who has negative externalities as a result.
Re: Why is it so hard to build an airport?
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
The aforementioned setup nearly always means the closer airport ends up getting upgraded later to meet convenience demands, leaving the newer-but-inconvenient airport out to dry. See: Haneda (HND) vs. Narita (NRT) in Tokyo, Itami (ITM) vs. Kansai (KIX) in Osaka, etc.
In Washington DC, Washington National Airport (WAS) is just across a river from downtown and connected by subway, and Dulles International Airport (IAD) was way out past the exurbs when it was constructed and only just got a subway connection several decades later. IAD gets way more traffic and has as long as I can remember. I'd guess that's because it's not possible to add many more flights to WAS.
This is wrong. Reagan National is DCA, not WAS. Also, DCA handles more passengers than IAD.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2023/02/18/nat...
Re: Why is it so hard to build an airport?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, apart from the largest US cities your average european city is larger. The US doesn't even have 10 cities which are above 1 million people.
"The US doesn't even have 10 cities which are above 1 million people. reply" I did not believe this and googled it. It is true. 1 Million would be tiny in China. Province.
That’s because Chinese cities are bigger than US counties let alone individual cities.
If you look at the list of most dense “cities proper” [1] China doesn’t even make the list because all of their cities include huge swathes of rural land. Beijing for example is over 6,000 square miles while NYC is only 300 sq mi and the city of LA is only 470 sq mi.
The US has dozens of counties with more than a million people [2] and most are much smaller than Beijing or other Chinese cities. The only city that is comparable to an American one is Hong Kong, the rest are much bigger.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_proper_by_pop...
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_populous_co...
Re: Why is it so hard to build an airport?
#156In Munich/Germany plans for a new airport (as a successor to München/Riem) started in the 60s. Construction started in 1980. The airport went into operation in 1992. Obviously the people in the Erdinger Moos didn't like the decision to build the airport there and many lawsuits ensued that lead to a stop of the construction for three years. In the end and the last lawsuit I think there was no option of another appeal…
> you can't have some individuals stop a project like this because an airport is needed in the area and it has to be built somewhere.
Environmentalist opponents of airport construction will often disagree with that premise - for example, pointing to the rise of videoconferencing and remote working.
Re: Why is it so hard to build an airport?
#157Very interesting to see how the noise of jet engines declined significantly. While reading the article I kept thinking, it feels like investing in noise reduction would really pay off, and then a few paragraphs later, there it was. I'm also intrigued by small airports, like the one in Rio, Santos Dumont. The shortest runways in the world. If you could reduce noise and control pollution, it is very nice to have an air…
I wonder if open (unducted) fans (if they catch on) like the CFM RISE will reverse this trend.
Re: Why is it so hard to build an airport?
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
> One of the interesting ideas [...] is to run high-speed rail to Moses Lake Airport in Central Washington and just expand there. While reading this article, I thought about something like that too. Build an airport quite a while away from the big city, and provide a high-speed, maybe even maglev train there. Make it free for customers. Also, make it very inconvenient for passengers and staff to approach the airport…
The aforementioned setup nearly always means the closer airport ends up getting upgraded later to meet convenience demands, leaving the newer-but-inconvenient airport out to dry. See: Haneda (HND) vs. Narita (NRT) in Tokyo, Itami (ITM) vs. Kansai (KIX) in Osaka, etc.
When DFW was built Congress passed the Wright Amendment which kneecapped Dallas Love Field (DAL) to only serve domestic and immediately adjacent state travel. Personally I prefer DAL but I can see how DFW would have potentially withered on the vine if it hadn't been passed. I'm happy its finally expired though and now DAL can offer international flights.
Although now that there's a Whataburger at DFW one big argument for me for DAL is a bit less strong. When the Silver Line finally gets built, I imagine almost all my air travel will go to DFW.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Amendment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Line_(Dallas_Area_Rapid...
Re: Why is it so hard to build an airport?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
The aforementioned setup nearly always means the closer airport ends up getting upgraded later to meet convenience demands, leaving the newer-but-inconvenient airport out to dry. See: Haneda (HND) vs. Narita (NRT) in Tokyo, Itami (ITM) vs. Kansai (KIX) in Osaka, etc.
In Washington DC, Washington National Airport (WAS) is just across a river from downtown and connected by subway, and Dulles International Airport (IAD) was way out past the exurbs when it was constructed and only just got a subway connection several decades later. IAD gets way more traffic and has as long as I can remember. I'd guess that's because it's not possible to add many more flights to WAS.
Flights to/from WAS are artificially restricted by congress: https://www.mwaa.com/protecting-dca-perimeter
Re: Why is it so hard to build an airport?
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Based on what? It got hammered in covid but is back in a big way now.
general aviation, small airports have been closing down for years. It’s not a growing hobby.
I mean, in that case the original point doesn't quite make any sense. The article is very clearly discussing the larger airports associated with commercial aviation.