Proposed flight path changes at Fort Lauderdale’s airport could clear the skies over many neighborhoods currently bombarded with noise from overhead planes.
The Federal Aviation Administration is overhauling the flight paths at major airports in South and Central Florida, hoping to reduce flight times, save fuel and optimize routes as it shifts from a system based on ground radar to a more advanced one using satellite-based technology.
The new routes at the busy Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport are expected to remain similar to those already in place for arriving and departing flights. However, the new technology will make the routes more precise, concentrating the flights into much narrower pathways.
The FAA held public workshops this week for residents to see the potential impact of the changes, which could take effect in two years.
Among those likely to benefit are people living in neighborhoods south and southeast of downtown Fort Lauderdale.
“I think it looks better than it is today,” said Bill Cole, who lives in the city’s Harbour Inlet neighborhood near the 17th Street Causeway. He was attending an FAA workshop at the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood.
Cole says he currently sees many planes flying over his home that are heading west before turning east to land at the airport. The new directions would send the planes further north — away from his home — before having them head west.