City of Tempe, AZ

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Flight Procedures

The City of Tempe has an agreement with the Cityof Phoenix on flight procedures to mitigate noise over Tempe from larger aircraft departing the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration periodically make updates the flight procedures and has been implementing satellite-based flight procedures at several US airports including Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Information regarding status of flight procedure work is posted on the administration's Community Engagement- Phoenix (PHX) web page.

Aircraft Noise Complaints

The City of Tempe strongly encourages community members to file noise complaints directly with the City of Phoenix Aviation Department. To check individual flights and file a complaint to the airport about specific flights, log into https://flighttracker.casper.aero/phx/.

To let the City of Tempe know about aircraft noise within the City of Tempe, visit Tempe 311.

The City of Tempe can only respond to concerns about aircraft noise for residents who use Tempe 311 and leave contact information as an account holder.

Aircraft Noise Mitigation

Aircraft Noise Mitigation over the City of Tempe

The City of Tempe keeps record of concerns raised in complaints to the city about aircraft noise, and report back to the Tempe Aviation Commission about concerns residents have.

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The City of Phoenix is responsible for supervising how the departure traffic complies with the noise mitigation procedures that are in place for the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) under the Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Tempe and the City of Phoenix.

1. The 4-DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) Departure Procedure

Jet aircraft use the 4-DME Standard Instrument Departure (riverbed SID) procedure, when taking off towards the east over North Tempe. The City of Phoenix uses an imaginary, vertical gate to filter out non-complaint departures. Its purpose is to keep departures from dispersing at relatively low altitudes over the populated areas on both sides of the Rio Salado riverbed before reaching the SR202/101 intersection.

Tempe Aircraft Noise Abatement Area 2. Departure Equalization

The noise mitigation flight procedures also include an air traffic measure to equalize day and nighttime departures east and west to the extent possible. The FAA considers the appropriate period for defining equalization to be over a twelve- month period.

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3. Arrival Operations

Arrival operations are not monitored in the reports because there are no noise mitigation procedures in place for arrival operations to PHX.

4. Noise Monitoring Sites

PHX is equipped with a stationary noise monitoring system. Various noise metrics can be used to show noise exposure levels in areas of North Tempe where eight of the twenty fixed noise monitoring sites are located.

Quarterly East Compliance Reports: Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q3 2024

Annual Reports: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020.

Historic 4-DME annual compliance reports used a Tempe Corridor concept based on traditional classic Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) used at PHX before the south runway was added to PHX operations.

Tempe-Phoenix IGA

The Intergovernmental Agreement on Noise Mitigation Flight Procedures

The City of Tempe and City of Phoenix came to an agreement in 1994 about noise mitigation flight procedures for all jets and large turboprop aircraft that depart Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport over Tempe. The agreement also included a noise mitigation procedure for aircraft on arrival over Tempe to a proposed third runway. The City of Phoenix also agreed to install an airport Noise and Flight Track Monitoring System. The system was installed for the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in the late 1990's and made it possible for the airport to monitor how well airlines managed to avoid departing over noise sensitive areas in Tempe on both sides of the Salt River riverbed just east of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

With the agreement, the City of Tempe received a binding commitment from the City of Phoenix and assurances from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to uphold and include new flight procedures that would contain jet and large turbo propeller aircraft to the airspace over the Salt River riverbed in Tempe.

The 1994 Intergovernmental Agreement.

The FAA's Record of Decision Amendment.

The noise mitigation flight procedures over the City of Tempe agreed upon in 1994:

1. The 4-DME procedure:

When jets and large turboprop aircraft depart to the east, they are directed to follow specific outbound headings over the Salt River for a distance of 4 nautical miles east of a navigational aid, before continuing on the designated departure route. The previous 1-DME procedure was in place until the aid was relocated because of the Red Mountain Freeway, Loop 202, construction.

Orig. 4-DME

2. The side-step procedure:
When jets and large turboprop aircraft bound for the south runway are approaching from the east, they are to be on a stabilized approach path to the center runway and have clearance from the air traffic controller to change over to the south runway approach when over the Sun Devil Stadium close to Mill Avenue. The "side-step" is a maneuver to change approach course and line the aircraft up with the center line of an adjacent parallel runway.

Side-step Rwy 25L

3. Equalization:
To the extent possible, to disperse the noise impact from departing eastbound and westbound jets and large turbo propeller aircraft evenly between Phoenix and Tempe during day and nighttime hours.

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Implementation:

a. The 4-DME departure procedure was not implemented for the slower, large turboprop aircraft.

b. The Enviromental Impact Statement for projects that included the new runway did not anticipate the new runway would be heavily used, only when one of the existing two runways were closed for maintenance. A few months after opening, the runway was in full use. The FAA implemented an informal side-step procedure to the new south runway, but the practice and the attempt to formalize the procedure were suspended by the FAA on March 27, 2002, for flight safety reasons.

c. The FAA also made a statement in the Record of Decision Amendment that equalization could only be defined as an annual objective. Hourly or daily equalization was not a reasonable goal.

d. The City of Phoenix is according to the agreement responsible for giving a written notifications to the owner or operator of an aircraft that did not comply with the agreed upon departure procedure within 24 business hours. It turned out to be impractical for the City of Phoenix to notify airlines within the time frame for each non-compliant departure. The flights that failed to comply with the 4-DME noise mitigation departure procedure, were added on a notification list sent electronically to the airlines covering days of operations.

Tempe-Phoenix Sky Harbor History

Aviation Noise Surveys

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The members of the Tempe Aviation Commission have conducted noise perception surveys to stay informed about what concerns Tempe residents have about aircraft operations over their homes. Surveys was conducted by the late Dr. Bruce Merrill with the Arizona State University in 1999, a year before the operation of the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport third runway started and in 2000, after operations changed with three runways in use at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

The surveys showed that concerns about aircraft noise had expanded from mainly being a problem for residents in North Tempe to become a problem for residents living in other areas of the City of Tempe. Also, more residents were able to distinguish the airport's arrival operations from its departure operations over Tempe.

1999 Noise Perception Survey

2000 Noise Perception Survey

The Tempe Aviation Commission conducted an on-line survey to get updated information about residents' perceptions of the aircraft noise in Tempe in 2012. A report was developed that accounts for responses received by residents who logged on the city web site during the months of December 2012 to March 2013 to complete the survey questionnaire. The 2012 survey indicated that the noise from arrival operations caused more problems for residents in North Tempe than the noise from departures going east from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

2012 Noise Perception Survey

The latest survey was conducted in June 2019. Residents were asked to complete a questionnaire and ask questions about topics to be addressed at a June 19th, 2019, public meeting hosted by the Tempe Aviation Commission.

2019 Public Meeting Noise Perception Survey on the Tempe Forum

2019 Public Meeting F.A.Q. with received answers.

Home Sound Attenuation

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The City of Phoenix have had sound insulation programs for eligible single-family homes and public buildings close to the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The owner of a home eligible to participate needed to sign a document that protected the airport from future lawsuits about airport noise.

The last round of projects that included homes in Tempe inside the eligible neighborhoods were closed out by City of Phoenix Aviation Department in 2009.

To inform residents the Tempe Aviation Commission developed a guide for making upgrades to homes situated under the main flight paths for the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

TAVCO's Noise Attenuation Guide