City Hall Roundup: Love Field Citizens Action Committee Sets Priorities for Noise Reduction Messaging

Residents who live near Dallas Love Field are putting together a unified message and priority lineup to take to City Council members and state and federal lawmakers — and you can bet that noise reduction will be at the top of the list. 

Residents of Shorecrest, Briarwood, Bluffview, Elm Thicket, Bordeaux Village Condos, and parts of Highland Park formed a Citizens Action Committee last year, chaired by Steve Klein, that met July 28 by conference call. The neighbors maintain that noise and activity has multiplied since they purchased their homes and airlines are not adhering to a voluntary curfew.

Dallas Love Field Aviation Director Patrick Carreno has said that the Federal Aviation Administration governs operations and the city-owned airport must put safety first when determining departures and arrivals at the Lemmon Avenue and Denton Drive runways. 

Dallas City Council Responds to Pleas From Love Field Neighbors For Aircraft Noise Reduction 

Stakeholder Recommendations

The neighbors outlined more than a dozen recommendations for noise mitigation in an Oct. 11 Environmental Commission presentation. More information on those initiatives is provided in a Citizens Action Committee background document.

Klein said he’s communicated recently with Love Field administrators and  Kathryn Bazan, chair of the Dallas Environmental Commission, to ensure it is known that the Love Field neighbors aren’t going away. 

“I do believe still, maybe a little naively, that there is a balance to be had with regard to not destroying the commerce at the airport but also to continue to try to make community issues a top-of-mind [priority] in the operating culture at Dallas Love Field,” Kleiin said. 

Activity at Dallas Love Field 

To put things in perspective for those who still chant the mantra that “it’s just our tough luck for living near an airport,” consider that in 2014 passenger enplanements at Love Field stood at 4.7 million, Klein said in an email to CandysDirt.com. One year later after non-stop restrictions were lifted enplanements exploded to 7.2 million. 

The numbers dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic but bounced back to 8 million enplanements in 2022 and 8.8 million enplanements last year, Klein said. 

“They are attempting to modify the design capacity of the airport to address those enplanements,” he said. “We’re very concerned as stakeholders that we already have a voluntary noise curfew that was signed off on by, among other people, Southwest Airlines, that is pretty consistently being violated every night to the tune of between of five and 10 scheduled flights. These are not flights that are arriving late because of weather delays.” 

Klein said he believes Southwest, as the dominant operator, has no intention of abiding by the voluntary curfew of 11 p.m. 

The action committee discussed empowering neighborhood leaders to call their city council members and state representatives. 

“We need to get some of the spark plugs in the surrounding communities to get out the word on this,” Klein said. 

Priority Action Items 

At press time, the Citizens Action Committee was still preparing its “one-pager” to take to government officials, but Klein shared with CandysDirt.com what he believes are the “big-ticket items.”

• Data produced by outside consultants Ricondo & Associates for the ongoing Love Field Terminal Area Master Plan update process forecasts passenger enplanements to increase from this year’s projected 10.1 million to a plateau of around 11.9 million by 2035-2040. Since Dallas Love Field is capped at 20 gates the options for accommodating this increased traffic are 1) bigger aircraft capacity, 2) more flights, and/or 3) expanded operating hours (in other words, potentially modifying the voluntary curfew). More flights and longer hours are obviously what concern us the most. 

• Southwest is rolling out  “redeye” flights at five airports. And while Dallas Love Field is not one of the initial groups, it’s still creating more than a little unease about the future for those of us in Love Field noise-affected neighborhoods.

• Activist investor group Elliot Management (which now owns a $1.9 billion stake in Southwest Airlines) is seeking profound management and operational changes at Southwest Airlines with the stated goal of increasing shareholder value. Given the history of many activist investor groups to maximize profits at the expense of virtually all else, this is yet another question mark concerning Southwest’s future willingness to abide by the voluntary commitments they’ve made to Love Field noise-affected communities.

• The current Love Field Gate Use and Lease Agreements renew in September 2028 and the City of Dallas is working with a specialty law firm to draft the new lease agreements. Currently the voluntary 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew is codified in the lease agreement and it’s our goal to ensure it remains so in the new lease agreement.

Klen said key players in the local effort include Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and council members Jesse Moreno, Omar Narvaez, Gay Donnell Willis, and Paul Ridley. 

“I feel like we need to finalize our unified messaging so we can start knocking on doors at City Hall,” Klein said. “[We want to] ask them to please do their due diligence in terms of how much growth the City of Dallas intends to allow at Dallas Love Field.”