More flights for airport?

VAN NUYS — A noise-reducing measure introduced by officials at Van Nuys Airport could shift nearly 200 flights each year to Bob Hope Airport if a plan to phase out noisier aircraft in Van Nuys is adopted.

An environmental review detailing the proposed ordinance was publicly introduced Tuesday in the Van Nuys FlyAway conference room, where scores of informational bulletin boards were displayed in the second-story room across from the airport.

If approved, the plan would ground all planes louder than 85 decibels from arriving or departing at Van Nuys Airport in the first quarter of 2009. Two years later, no planes louder than 83 decibels would be permitted, and at the start of 2016, planes that exceed 77 decibels would be barred from operating at the airport.

The noise-reducing measure, which must be approved by Los Angeles World Airport, would lead to a minimal increase in operations at five regional airports, including Bob Hope, said Peter Stumpp, vice president of the airport consultant group Simat, Helliesen & Eichner Inc.

Planes that could be affected include smaller jets like certain Gulfstream and Falcon-brand planes, he said.

Los Angeles World Airport operates Van Nuys and four other airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, which also stands to receive some flights. The other affected airports are Camarillo Airport, Chino Airport and William J. Fox Airfield near Lancaster.

Of the five affected airports, Bob Hope stands to gain the most traffic. But the shift is expected to result in no more than 192 planes landing or departing in Burbank per year, Stumpp said.

“That’s about a half an operation per day,” he said. “It’s not like the plumes will be blackening the sky.”

Officials also said the environmental impacts to Burbank would be minimal, as air pollution already sitting in the South Coast basin — of which both Van Nuys and Burbank are a part — would not increase.

Still, though new toxins might not be introduced into the basin, air pollutants that had circulated in Van Nuys could be transferred to Burbank, said Bob Stark, whose environmental planning firm Jones & Stokes wrote the environmental review.

But that amount is so low that it did not warrant further studies, said Stark, adding, “There’s an extremely low amount of danger. There is no localized effect.”