Reagan National Airport Noise Meeting Scheduled For Monday

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington County will hold a virtual community meeting on a joint airport noise mitigation study for communities north of Reagan National Airport on Monday.

The meeting, held jointly with Montgomery County, Maryland, will include a status update on the overall study, present draft recommendations for departure procedures, and take questions and comments from community members.

The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 13 and runs until 8 p.m. Visit the Arlington County Facebook page for the live meeting on Monday.

In May 2019, Arlington signed a contract with Montgomery County to jointly fund a study that will identify, evaluate, and propose mitigations to reduce aviation noise impacts on Arlington residents, Montgomery County residents, and other communities north of Reagan National Airport.

The study aims to provide elected officials, staff and representatives of the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority’s DCA Community Working Group with technical resources on airspace management and possible alternatives, and assist with coordination among the surrounding jurisdictions.

The Arlington and Montgomery County governments have been taking the lead in dealing with the Federal Aviation Administration to address noise at Reagan National Airport, which has been in operation since 1941 and has allowed jet traffic since 1966.

Residents of Arlington have been waging a decades-long campaign to reduce the noise from the airport. In more recent years, the flight patterns of helicopters ferrying high-ranking members of the military to and from the Pentagon have created similar levels of complaints.

For Reagan National Airport, most of the complaints are from residents who live near the Potomac River, which is the general flight path of most jets arriving and departing the airport.