The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will hold a virtual public information meeting on its proposal to modify the airspace over Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF)in Kentucky. The agency will discuss operations, challenges, constraints, and proposed changes in and around the SDF airspace. FAA Regional Administrator Michael O’Harra, FAA Air Traffic Control experts and Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport representatives will gather on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, 3-5 p.m. EST and Thursday November 16, 2023, 6 to 8 p.m. EST. The FAA will make a brief presentation followed by a question-and-answer session.
Join us on Zoom or watch the livestream on the FAA’s YouTube Channel.
Pre-registration is required for Zoom participation.
- Register for the November 14 Zoom meeting here
- Register for the November 16 Zoom meeting here
- Our nation’s airspace is the busiest and most complex in the world, and the FAA mission is to ensure that every flight moves safely and efficiently throughout our airspace. Louisville is certainly an important part of our aviation network.
- As part of a nationwide program, the FAA is proposing modifications to existing performance-based navigation (PBN) procedures and additional arrival and departure procedures to enhance safety and efficiency. This project is in line with FAA’s nationwide strategy to modernize the entire national airspace system with satellite-based flight procedures and it will better connect SDF with other airports.
- Safety: There is a safety benefit when departures and arrivals are procedurally separated. This helps keep planes at a safe distance from each other and it reduces the need for pilot/controller interaction.
- Departures: New departure routes will climb aircraft out of the airport to destinations nationwide and they will fly more concentrated paths than what they do today, while maintaining the airport’s voluntary noise abatement measures. There are noise mitigation benefits when departures can climb to higher altitudes more quickly.
- Arrivals: Optimized Profile Descents (OPDs) enable aircraft to descend to the surface without leveling off, allowing near-idle power approaches while keeping aircraft higher in the air as long as possible. OPD benefits include reduced noise and carbon emissions.
The FAA will accept comments on the proposal until December 22, 2023.
Comments on the plan should be sent to:
9-ajo-csa-public-workshop-comments@faa.gov
For written comments, please use the mailing address below:
Federal Aviation Administration
Operations Support Group, AJV-C2
ATTN: NAS Analytics Team, 4N313
10101 Hillwood Parkway
Fort Worth, TX 76177-1524
