John Wayne Airport (JWA) on Wednesday introduced the Fly Friendly program to advocate for noise and pollution reduction in general aviation flights.
Airport director Charlene Reynolds, fifth district supervisor Lisa Bartlett, and second district supervisor Katrina Foley introduced the program as “an aggressive campaign” to educate local pilots on the safest and quietest departure procedure to fly from.
A settlement agreement from 1985 that installed curfew and flight restrictions did not apply to general aviation, which Foley noted as the reason she and local community leaders created the voluntary pilot education program.
The program includes a software platform that tracks data about noise, use and speed of flight patterns and also scores participating pilots. Airport staff has been tracking data since January with a report to be posted next month, according to Foley.
“The goal is to start posting and publicizing these reports on the county webpage by next month,” Foley said. “Transparency, accountability and reward are the keys.”
JWA reports over 10 million passengers every year.