Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) implementation of its Expanded East Coast Plan, focusing on: (1) agencies' responsibilities for assessing the environmental impact of revising air routes and flight procedures; (2) the plan's effects on noise and air routes; (3) how FAA measured aircraft noise; (4) reasons why FAA did not perform an environmental assessment of the plan; and (5) actions FAA took in response to citizens' complaints regarding increased aircraft noise.
GAO found that FAA: (1) designed the plan to reduce air traffic delays by revising air traffic control routes and flight procedures; (2) had sole responsibility for assessing the plan's environmental impact and used a measure of day-night noise level (Ldn) to determine cumulative exposure to aircraft noise; (3) did not assess the plan's environmental impact, based on its long-standing policy to exempt routes and flight procedures carried out at over 3,000 feet from such assessment; and (4) concluded that the plan significantly reduced flight delays, but failed to link any delay reductions to specific plan components. GAO also found that: (1) the plan resulted in three new departure routes, two new arrival routes, and six realigned routes over New Jersey; (2) New Jersey residents lodged numerous complaints about increased aircraft noise after the plan's implementation; (3) a 1-day FAA study in one affected area showed aircraft noise to be within FAA guidelines; and (4) in response to citizen complaints, FAA directed air traffic controllers to, when possible, direct flights along more varied paths to spread traffic over a wider area.
