My thesis is my passion and when you see how destructive we are to our own community amazes me so I decided to select an area of study that both as a student and stakeholder will solve a problem. My thesis will allow policy makers to start thinking about preserving the little places of the world that we cherish and allow us to bank what we can for our children. I also hope that our policies take into account that the longer we wait and fail to address the problem shows a lack in leadership and accountability.
At first, I thought are we so blind that we don’t see what we are doing to our planet? So maybe the words of my beautiful daughter are what drive my work.
Maybe they just don’t know.
My work has been considered controversial, by some. I have been called anti-government by aviation professionals by simply questioning things like frequency, noise, emissions, and the overall reasons for regional airport growth in areas that already have a surplus of airports within driving distance. Airport catchment is not a game communities should be that interested in when the environment and quality of life are at risk (opinion of course).
It is not the airport but the aircraft that produces noise and by the FAA not addressing the flight pattern is the basis for my work. It is also apparent from my work, that when aviation divisions have applied for FAA grants and only after receiving those grants, community officials then found the limitations that were inherited by accepting the grant. This in short, removes any local governmental right for control over the airport residing in their district. A local government can not restrict carrier service and /or discriminate. This means an airline cannot be told to adjust how many flights can land or takeoff.
A majority of smaller regional airports that went after FAA grants did not have the operational capital to refurbish and/or extend runways. This means their was a lack in budgetary control or in short, lack of understanding or having the ability to predict what the costs actually are when based on carrier frequency. I have also found that smaller airports did not tell the community about what they were giving up by lengthening their runway (or resurface) in respect to the noise and/or emissions.
Commentary
I am not against the aviation industry, but I know that airports are expensive to operate and maybe we have been blinded so we don’t recognize or we choose to ignore other forms of transportation based on overly optimistic marketing? Have we made a mistake and created areas that are burdened by the to big to fail theory?
Having worked for Boeing I am very aware of the engineering and costs associated with both building aircraft and running an airline. But, I also know that Boeing engineers can build trains. We cannot ignore sustainability and we can’t ignore that just because we have an airstrip near does not mean we need to rival one that is nearby, just so we can keep the airport itself open. We need to make sure that our competitiveness is not pressured by general aviation or businesses assuming growth needs to occur when dealing with quality of life issues and of course the environment.