Republic Airport: 5-year study says operations up but noise not worse

Republic Airport has released a study that says aircraft noise isn't negatively impacting nearby residents, despite increased operations and a significant spike in complaints in a five-year period.

Some neighborhood residents, however, remain skeptical.

The five-year study analyzed data the East Farmingdale airport, which the New York State Department of Transportation owns, regularly collects on aircraft operations, noise and noise complaints.

On Aug. 22, airport officials publicized the study, compiled by the airport's management company, at an airport commission meeting.

Data released at the meeting says operations, the number of takeoffs and landings, increased at the airport from 161,000 in 2018 to 191,000 in 2022.

Single-engine piston planes made up 80% of annual landings at the airport — the largest share. The second-highest landing percentage was jets at 8.6%. Of total landings at the airport during the time period, 96% took place during the day, the study says.

The airport uses the Federal Aviation Administration's noise metric, known as the day-night average sound level (DNL), with 65 decibels set as the threshold of “significant noise exposure.”

The metric measures the average level of noise over 24 hours, according to the study. It says the noise then is evaluated over a square-mile “contour area."

The five-year analysis said the 65-decibel level didn't encroach on any residential areas, extending only about a square half-mile around the airport.

Airport manager John Lauth attributed the limited encroachment finding in part to abatement efforts, saying airport officials talk to pilots and advise them about procedures that encourage avoiding residential areas. 

On its website, the airport advises pilots on noise reduction, including a suggestion that all aircraft “refrain from all nighttime activity” between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. But adherence is voluntary and air traffic control instructions can take precedence.

The airport study says there were 270 noise complaints in 2018 before the number more than quadrupled to 1,142 complaints in 2021. In 2022, complaints fell to 428. 

The study attributed the initial rise to increased use of one runway due to construction and the closure of another runway when more people were home during the pandemic with “spring weather allowing for the opening of windows."

The majority of complaints for each year came from neighborhoods northwest of the airport.

Nancy Cypser, a trustee of East Farmingdale’s Woodland Civic Association, questioned the study's findings at the recent meeting.

"Because we’re not living directly next to the runway, in our neighborhood we don’t have any noise issue?” she said.

Lauth replied that the study showed "we’re keeping that noise closer in at the airport than what some people might think we’re doing.”

But Cypser told Lauth the airport's data on noise complaints is skewed.

“I can hear 20 planes go overhead and be irritated by all 20 and then the 21st one is really terrible so I’ll call on that one,” she said. “It doesn’t mean I didn’t have a problem all day long … To say that because we’re outside 65 decibels, it’s OK? It isn’t OK.”

The study concluded the airport "can serve as a center for business aviation for many years into the future."

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.