Nantucket's "Freeway In The Sky" Used To Be A Lot Busier

To the editor: I’m writing in response to a letter to the editor titled "We Need to Govern 'Nantucket’s Freeway in the Sky'." What is contained herein is purely factual, not based on fear and hyperbole.

Messrs. Stott and Padian claim that on July 6, 2025, Nantucket Memorial Airport recorded its busiest day ever with 572 operations. In fact, since 2003 the busiest day was recorded on July 6, 2003, when Nantucket Airport had 1,130 operations, that’s an average of 71 operations per hour, with several hours exceeding 100 operations per hour! Yes, that’s more than one per minute, almost 2 operations per minute in some instances. In July 2025 Nantucket averaged 356 operations per day with the busiest day of 551 operations; August 2025 Nantucket averaged 369 operations with the busiest day of 485 operations.

In 2003, Nantucket Airport had 161,124 total operations; in 2025, 61,759, a decrease of 100,000 operations for the year! Furthermore, in June, July and August of 2003 Nantucket had 57,998 operations, which was more than the entirety of 2023 (55,565) and 2024 (56,168).

According to the Nantucket Memorial Airport’s website, and the FAA adopted threshold of significant noise exposure (65 DNL), all exceeding levels of noise are within the airport property. In other words, unless you live inside the fence you are outside of the FAA threshold. So, Mr. Stott, who lives three-quarters of a mile from the airport, and Mr. Padian, who lives eight-tenths of a mile from the airport, are both outside of the 65 DNL contour line. In addition, by December 31, 2015, the FAA required all civil jet aircraft, regardless of weight must meet Stage 3 or Stage 4 to fly within the contiguous U.S. Why does this matter? Because a Stage 3 jet engine is 10 decibels quieter than a Stage 2 jet engine, and a Stage 4 jet engine is 17 decibels quieter than a Stage 2 jet engine. This advance in technology reduced the size of the 65 DNL contour at Nantucket by three-quarters of a mile on both the approach and departure ends of runway 6/24 since 1994.

As alluded to by Mr. Gasbarro, the airport already has a voluntary noise abatement program; what this letter failed to mention is that single-engine aircraft are exempt from these voluntary procedures. Additionally, as part of this voluntary program, aircraft may cross over the island at 1,500’ or higher. That JetBlue flight to BOS you see fly across the island – they don’t cross the shoreline until they are at 3,000’, and by the time they get to the north shore, they are at 4,500’.

I want to save the best fact for last. About 20 years ago, one of the original authors of the “Freeway in the Sky” came to my office along with his wife - she had a “great idea!” At that time, the FAA owned more than 100 acres behind the dump in Madaket. They said we can build a second airport in Madaket, land in Madaket, and depart from the current airport. Let that sink in…we’re going to land in Madaket (so we don’t overfly their home in Squam) and depart mid-island. Land here, depart there. Sadly, it took them a long time to figure out there was no way to go from one airport to the other without departing from that airport!

Nantucket is an island with an airport in the middle of it, and airplanes make noise. The people who live on Hulbert Ave hear the Steamship boat horn every morning at 0630 and every night at 2200, and people who live near the airport must hear airplane noise. No freeways, highways, or byways.

Patrick Topham
This letter represents my views only and not those of the FAA, Nantucket Memorial Airport, or the town of Nantucket.