Airplane noise: economic interests come first

Me Louis Beauregard and Citizens for a Quality of Life have worked hard and well towards the class action against the Montreal Airport Authority. Me Beauregard is absolutely right in that economic interests carry the most weight, and boards of trade and airport managers have enormous influence over politicians and Transports Canada.

I was involved in the class action file at its beginning (and even before that) and gathered a ton of information on the damages to health caused by airplane noise, but also on the environmental impact of aviation activities, but ADM, commercial airlines and cargo transporters (such as UPS, Purolator, etc.) do not care much about the health of airport neighbours. How inane is Mrs. Jacqueline Richard's statement that "early departures have to leave at that time because they are needed at other destinations". I can no longer believe anything that is said by ADM people.

Although noise at take-off is much more intense than at landing, noise at landing lasts longer and is also very bothersome in the middle of the night, and there are many arrivals throughout the night.

One sensible thing mentioned by Mrs. Richard deals with the fact that the weight of planes (the famous 45 000 kilos) may not be the best criteria to choose to restrict some carriers during nighttime. Orcas communicating at sea may seem less noisy than a robin outside the window.

If worlwide aviation gets its wish, the number of passengers would double by 2020. When we see that the tendency is either towards absolutely huge airplanes or smaller and smaller ones (and now Bombardier is about to build a bunch of turbo-props, seemingly because they cost less in fuel - will they be quieter than jets?), it is scary to think of the large numbers of airplanes which will cross our skies.

And we haven't even started talking about the air pollution factor, climate change, and other factors which are noxious to the health of airport neighbours and all citizens.

- Josette Lincourt, Saint-Laurent