The Airport Communities Podcast
On May 22, 2026 the Sustainable Airport Master Plan DEIS was released and a sixty day public comment period began.
In Ep #34, we said that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Since the current process is a do-over from 2018, you have lots of great resources. But one thing we hope you will not obsess over are all the comments on ‘operations’. Many people argue over annual and daily forecasts.
We want you to try something different: focus on the one aspect of FAA code that we can do something about: Flights between 10pm – 7am. Sleepy Time.
Although there are many gaps in the research concerning public health and noise, the one thing everyone agrees on — including the FAA — is that night time flights are the worst. That is the basis behind the ‘DNL65’. Though a flawed and gamed system, it recognizes that not all flights are created equally.
Talking about daily or annual averages blurs that distinction. Regardless of how many flights there may be at 10am or 3pm your health deserves exactly zero flights between 10pm and 7am.
Although the airport does not control flights, it coordinates scheduling with the airlines. The airport chooses to build (or not) the projects airlines are willing to pay for in order to accommodate their long term scheduling goals.
At bottom, the SAMP is a set of construction permits. Isn’t it interesting that we almost never about those specific projects? We only hear about ‘gates’ as if they were all general purpose. They are not. Each is designed to perform a specific job. Many of them are intended to help airlines schedule to Asia, as is the International Arrivals Facility. Billions of dollars of prime Sleepy Time construction projects.
Whether you comment on overall operations, your comments must focus on public health. Noise is public health. Night time flights are the worst. The Port of Seattle is spending billions of dollars to enable projects designed to make night time flights more frequent.
Today’s “Dos” Why was the International Arrivals Facility excluded from the SAMP in 2015 given its role in additional nighttime flights? Why are you spending billions on other projects designed to increase flights during 10pm – 7am. What are you doing to prevent sleep disruption and why haven’t you provided any mitigation opportunities to address it?
Topics
- 2015 Letter Of Understanding Port of Seattle, City of SeaTac IAF/SAMP
- DNL65 For Dummies
- 2023 – Dr. Kris Johnson presentation to Burien City Council
- 2018 Federal Way Quiet and Healthy Skies Task Force
- 2026 – SAMP/SEPA Draft EIS
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