More changes made to departure routes from Sky Harbor airport
May 24, 2018, 8:30 PM
In this Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018, photo a monitor shows post 2014 Airspace Change Departure Tracks of airplane flight paths from the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport during one of several area workshops organized by the FAA to reach out to residents held at the Maryvale High School cafeteria in Phoenix. More than three years after waking up to find window-rattling flights rerouted over their homes in an airborne highway, residents of Phoenix's historic downtown districts said they finally felt the FAA was listening to them. (AP Photo/Anita Snow)
(AP Photo/Anita Snow)
PHOENIX — The departure routes out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport will be undergoing more changes.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday that it implemented changes in order to complete the first step of a two-step plan to approximate westerly departure routes.
The changes were for planes departing westward and then turning south.
The administration made changes in March for aircraft taking off to the west and then either continuing westward or turning north.
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The changes were made under an agreement to provide aircraft noise relief to residents of historic neighborhoods.
It came nearly four years after the administration first changed flight paths in 2014, prompting a series of complaints and lawsuits.
A 2017 court order resulted in a plan to largely revert to the old routes.
The ruling said the FAA was “arbitrary and capricious” in making the 2014 changes as part of an air traffic modernization plan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
