Interested in how proposed changes to the flight paths of aircraft using Vancouver International Airport will affect areas of the Sunshine Coast? You can sign up to attend an online information and input session on Jan. 25 on the Nav Canada website.
Nav Canada is the not-for-profit corporation that oversees the nation’s air traffic management system and is in charge of the consultation process on the Vancouver Airspace Modernization Project (VAMP). Eight in-person consultation meetings (all off-Coast) have been scheduled as well as six virtual sessions. There is also an online survey where the public can provide input and a recording of a general information session on the proposed adjustments is also available on the website.
In the general information session, Nav Canada’s manager of stakeholder and community engagement Christopher Csatlos stated that the VAMP flight path adjustments will result in aircraft noise reduction for many of residents living in areas affected by Vancouver International Airport (YVR) operations. Sunshine Coast residents are included in that group. The proposed changes would shift flight paths to the north of local community centres and to an area further off the Salish Sea coastline.
In its noise footprint mapping, Nav Canada shows that with the proposed changes, no sections of the southern Sunshine Coast peninsula land mass are predicted to be exposed to aircraft noise levels above 55 decibels from aircraft accessing YVR. Portions of Keats and Bowen Islands are anticipated to be exposed at times to 55-decibel noise level, which is the lowest noise level range that Nav Canada shows on its mapping. The World Health Organization’s Guidelines for Community Noise rate 55 decibels as “a daytime noise level that people normally do not find disturbing or annoying.”
According to a Nav Canada general presentation, the goal of the initiative is to redesign how YVR uses airspace to meet current and future demands while seeking to reduce environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions and noise. It noted that the last significant change to YVR airspace and operations happened in 2007.
Under VAMP, Navigation Performance Authorization Required (RNP AR) will be introduced at YVR to leverage satellite-based positioning and aircraft flight management. That will change the procedures used by aircraft so that they will fly shorter distances and use continuous descent procedures, resulting in fuel savings and quieter approaches to the airport.
