Canyon air tour firms in limbo

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- After 15 years of federal government foot-dragging, bureaucrats still have not set rules governing the noisy flights of tour planes over the Grand Canyon, and tour operators remain in limbo, a North Las Vegas tour company executive told a Senate panel today.

Alan Stephen told the Senate Commerce Committee that for years he has advocated air tour regulations that also protect his dwindling industry.

"It is in that context that I speak today in total frustration about how our government has long ago lost its way in developing fair air tour management rules," Stephen said in a statement. He is vice president of North Las Vegas-based Grand Canyon Airlines, which operates three 19-seat planes. He is also CEO of Twin Otter International, based on the south rim of the canyon, which leases planes to other operators.

Congress has tried to mediate the competing interests of overflight tours and maintaining a quiet experience for those on the ground, dating back to 1987 and the National Parks Overflight Act. The act launched a federal process for establishing overflight rules.

Bureaucratic delays finally resulted in Federal Aviation Administration rules that capped flights over the canyon at about 90,000 a year and hinged on a goal of having 50 percent of the park quiet at least 75 percent of the day time.

But a federal court in August sent the FAA back to write stricter rules, in part because the FAA was averaging plane noise over the calendar year, offsetting noisy summer days with quiet winter ones. The court said the FAA rules allowed excessive noise on summer days.

FAA Deputy Associate Administrator Margaret Gilligan told the panel the FAA had made setting new rules a top priority and would complete it "as quickly as we possibly can." She offered no fixed timeline, although committee member Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., prodded her to set one.

Ensign and Sen. John McCain, the committee's top Republican, said they were weary and frustrated by government inaction, too.

"Everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else," McCain said. "What I want to know is when and how we are going to reach a final resolution."

McCain also said the government needs to offer tour operators financial incentives to install quiet technologies.

Only six Grand Canyon tour operators, a few based in McCain's home state, are still flying -- less than half the number 15 years ago, Stephen said. His planes are limited to flying about 1,000 feet above the canyon rim.

Stephen testified that his company voluntarily switched to quieter engines, at a cost of about $1.2 million per plane, but his company got no reward in return in terms of his flight cap. His company is still limited to 3,165 flights a year.

"We can't grow this business," he said after the hearing. "We lost market share."

Two canyon environmental watchdog group representatives, from the National Parks Conservation Association and Grand Canyon Trust, praised Stephen for being the only operator to use quieter engines. They goaded the FAA and National Park Service to work out rules that accomplish reasonable quiet.

"Fifteen years is way too long," Grand Canyon Trust governmental affairs director Tom Robinson told the panel. "We should not have to rely on litigation to move this process forward."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., testified about the National Park Air Tour Management Act of 2000, which called for "reasonably achievable" quiet technology standards for tour operators. The FAA has not set those standards, either.

Reid said the air tour industry in Southern Nevada generated $318 million to the economy before Sept. 11, based on a UNLV survey. Since then business has dropped dramatically -- 50 to 70 percent in the quarter after Sept. 11, Reid said.