The Calgary Airport Authority has apparently heard Springbank residents’ concerns and has temporarily delayed a decision to allow jets to take off from the busy, rural airport.
A ban on jets departing from the Springbank Airport was to be lifted on July 1 but that has been pushed back at least a couple more weeks.
“At the moment, we don’t want to pull the restriction until we’ve had the chance to make everyone fully aware that this is happening,” said Larry Stock, Springbank Airport general manager with the Calgary Airport Authority. “We are now looking at sometime in mid-July.”
According to Lois Torfason, a community member of the Springbank Airport Noise Consultation Committee, there has always been a restriction on all aircraft between the hours of 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays and from 11 p.m. to 9 a.m. on weekends.
“No one was allowed to take off or land, obviously to respect the rights of the residents to sleep,” she said. “Since then, there has been a gradual erosion of that.”
Torfason said in 2011 the Springbank Airport Business and Pilots Association requested the restriction on jet arrivals be lifted, which she agreed made sense – if flights were late leaving their departure city, or if they ran into bad weather, they were forced to land in Calgary.
“That was fine, and they promised they would never ask to lift the restrictions on departures – but now they are,” she said, noting the request was presented at the group’s meeting in June. “We were told the airport would think on it and call another meeting to discuss it, but they called a meeting on short notice for June 24 and announced they were dropping the ban as of July 1.”
Community members on the committee were “quite upset,” said Torfason, especially because they felt there wasn’t enough time for input.
“We do try to work with the community, that’s why we have this committee,” Stock said . “But at the same time, we are an evolving airport and we have to accommodate our aircraft.”
According to Stock, a recent Statistics Canada report shows as of October 2014 Springbank Airport is the sixth busiest airport in Canada – behind Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montréal, and Ottawa. With 80 per cent of movements at the airport related to training, the facility is currently the busiest training airport in Canada.
“This is our role, and we are looking at being able to provide an opportunity for the tenants who have invested in this airport,” Stock said. “This is a very significant piece of aviation infrastructure in southern Alberta – it’s heavily invested in, and the authority considers it to be without a doubt the premier general aviation airport in Canada.”
Stock said corporations who fly out of Springbank have struggled with the restriction on departures because it limits when they can schedule meetings in Eastern Canada, and it has caused problems with blocked times at the U.S. border.
“We’re not talking about 737s, either,” Stock said. “These are light corporate jets, and quite frankly, they produce less of a noise signature than the aircraft on the field that have no restrictions at all.”
However, he admitted noise is “a very personal thing,” and the concerns of the community were important. Currently, the airport authority intends to implement a one-year trial period for the lifting of departure restrictions to examine the impact night-time jets may have on the community. He added the airport authority reconsidered its previous decision to make the change effective July 1.
Residents who want to learn more about the changes can attend a public meeting on July 15, at 7 p.m. at the Springbank Heritage Club.
“People who bought homes out here came out knowing these restrictions were in place, and it seems the rules of the game are being re-written to our detriment,” Torfason claimed. “We are just trying to have a voice.”
The airport started in 1969 but was officially opened in 1971, according to the YBW Springbank Airport website. In 1997, operations were transferred from the federal government to the Calgary Airport Authority.
