New technology for guiding takeoffs from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport will send more air traffic over freeways, a river basin and some neighborhoods, creating winners and losers in the fight over plane noise.
Supporters and skeptics use metaphors like "highway in the sky" to describe the new system, expected to launch planes on more precise and narrow departures.
The Federal Aviation Administration touts the technology as improving safety. Airlines like the fuel savings. The Metropolitan Airports Commission this month will consider endorsing the system and setting the stage for its debut next spring.
But some local officials complain that they don't have enough information on how it would distribute noise over the neighborhoods around the airport.
"There will be some winners and some losers," said Sandy Colvin Roy, a Minneapolis City Council member who represents neighborhoods recently frustrated by airport noise. The city doesn't yet know "whether the winners will get a big gain or just a little gain, or if the losers will get a big loss."
Fueling that uncertainty is concern that the FAA, the aviation industry and its supporters in Congress have fast-tracked approval by potentially exempting the new system from rigorous environmental review.
Still, one local supporter says the system should provide a fairer distribution of air traffic and noise.
"We actually may expose more people to some overflights, but I think the overall noise is going to be less impactive on communities," said Jeff Hamiel, executive director of the airports commission.