On Monday I talked about trains, so I thought it only fitting to talk about the impact of planes on where you live as well this week. I did a post on the noise footprint of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last fall, but there are also six smaller, 'reliever' airports in the Twin Cities metro area.
While they don't have the same flight volume as MSP, which in 2008 was the 12th busiest airfield in the United States, more than half of all registered aircraft in Minnesota are based at reliever airports. When you combine the volume of all six of them they had about 424,000 landings and takeoffs last year compared to about 500,000 at MSP.
Approximate annual landings and takeoffs at Minneapolis-St. Paul airports:
- MSP – 500,000
- Flying Cloud, Eden Prairie – 120,000
- St. Paul Downtown – 111,000
- Anoka County Blaine – 69,000
- Crystal – 49,000
- Airlake, Prior Lake – 39,000
- Lake Elmo – 37,000
If overhead noise is a concern for you, be sure to take the proximity of any nearby airports into account. I have had clients who felt the noise impact of smaller airports was as bad or worse as that of MSP for different reasons…
- Smaller planes have a higher noise frequency, which can be more annoying to some people
- Private and corporate flights don't follow a regular schedule like commercial flights
- Smaller airports are used for flight training, which can mean lots of takeoffs and landings and lower flight patterns
- Recreational flights more often take place on weekends and evenings, when people are more likely to be at home and outside
To help determine its impact on you…contact the airports directly for more information…walk the neighborhood at different times of day to assess how the aiport affects you…talk to people living in the neighborhood.
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results - Email – HomesMSP.com
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